Interchange
ReqIF import and export: what goes across and what does not
OpenV exports any project or baseline as ReqIF 1.x and imports a ReqIF file as a new project, keeping the hierarchy, the links, status and custom attributes, with list attributes as ReqIF enumerations. A project exported from OpenV imports back intact, and that round trip is what the tests prove; files from other tools are read on a best-effort basis, and an exchange with DOORS or Polarion has not been tested yet.
Updated by Desktop Machine Shop, the makers of OpenV.
What an export carries
- every artifact as a SPEC-OBJECT with its identifier, title, text, status and version, and its own last-change time
- the body as XHTML, so line breaks and paragraphs survive
- custom attributes, with list-typed ones written as enumerations from the project’s attribute definitions
- the document hierarchy as a SPEC-HIERARCHY, and links as SPEC-RELATIONs
- the live project or any baseline, narrowed by section, type or owner like any other download
What an import does
Importing a ReqIF file creates a new project: fresh identifiers, every artifact at version 1, with the hierarchy, links, statuses and attributes rebuilt from the file. A value outside an enumeration’s list is refused with a message naming it, rather than imported as something else. Use Import Project on the projects page, or the import API.
Moving from another tool
Export a ReqIF file from the tool you are leaving, import it into a new OpenV project, then compare the two before you rely on the copy: artifact counts per type, a sample of bodies, the links on a few artifacts you know well, and every enumeration. If something is missing, open an issue with the file (or a cut-down one) and what you expected; that is how support for another tool’s dialect gets built.
What OpenV does not do
- Interoperability with DOORS, DOORS Next, Polarion or Jama has not been tested yet; the tests cover OpenV-to-OpenV round trips. Treat a first exchange with another tool as a pilot and check the result.
- Attachments and embedded objects are not carried in either direction.
- An import always makes a new project: there is no merge of a ReqIF file into an existing one.
- Besides ReqIF, OpenV imports only its own JSON export. There is no Excel or CSV import.