The newest release of CaseComplete is now available. This time around, we tackled a few of the larger features that customers have been asking about: sharing dictionary entries, multiple test scenarios, and sharing built-in field values across projects. Here’s a quick video overview:

Here are the highlights of what’s new:

Shared Dictionaries

We now treat dictionary entries just like any other element, so you can move them from package to package. This means you can create packages that will act as shared dictionaries. You can reuse these dictionaries in other projects, while keeping them separate from any project-specific terms.

Multiple Test Scenarios

We've always let you specify test procedures and expected results for your use cases and requirements. Now you can specify an entire suite of tests that validate different use case scenarios.

Built-in Field Values

We now save field-value customizations along with the project, so once you change them, your teammates will see your changes. If you want to save your field settings as the default for new projects, we have a checkbox to let you do that as well.

Headless Deployment

We now support fully scripted deployments with all of the options needed to handle a silent installation and activation.

As always, you can try it free for 30-days.

We added two new keywords to CaseComplete 2011 that help you filter headings and other content from your report output: $ShowOnce and $When.

Show Once

“How do I create a report section that lists requirements with a heading that only displays if there are any requirements to show?” Our tech support team heard that request a lot, and the only solution was to use a table. With our newest version, it’s now easy to do.

The report syntax now includes a new keyword that you can use inside a repeat loop. Anything inside the $ShowOnce and $endShowOnce keywords will display the first time – and only the first time - through the repeat loop.

Learn more and see an example.

Advanced Conditional Logic

We’ve added a new keyword to Word and Excel reports that lets you include and exclude sections of a report based on what your project contains. This builds on the conditional $if keyword that lets you include or exclude sections based on attributes of specific elements.

Use the $when keyword when you want to include a report section only when the project includes specific elements. For example:

$whenUseCases where ImplStatus = ‘Started’
…
$endWhenUseCases

See an example report template.

If you’ve never customized a report in CaseComplete, you’re missing out. The ability to customize report templates (and create new ones) to show just the right information is one of the tool’s power features. Like any power feature, you need to learn the basics to become proficient.

In this hour-long webinar we’ll show you how to get started. We’ll cover the essentials of the report template language and how to modify existing reports. You’ll learn how to filter what information appears and how to change the overall look and appearance. We’ll spend some time answering whatever reporting questions you might have.

CaseComplete 202: Custom Reports
Thursday, August 18th at 11am Central Time

In the latest update to CaseComplete 2011, we included a few subtle improvements that you might not have noticed. First, there is a change to the way we save package files. Now, when you add a package to your project, it will be saved in its own file by default and you’ll be presented with this:

You could always do this, but the default behavior was to store the package in the same file as its parent. You had to take an extra step to save it in its own file.

We did this since most of our users are now using shared projects as they collaborate with their teammates. The benefit of having each package in its own file is that it can be checked-out independently, allowing team members to work on different parts of the project without getting in each other’s way.

Activity Diagram File Names

The ability to generate activity diagrams automatically from use cases is a popular feature. When you saved the project, however, you were prompted for a diagram file name. That felt a little cumbersome so we tried to improve the usability by generating the file name for you. The file name will start with the name of use case that owns the activity diagram followed by ActivityDiagram. For example, if you were to generate an activity diagram for a use case named Place Local Call, file name would be PlaceLocalCallActivityDiagram.ndx.

Choose Your Actor Shape

When dragging and dropping actors from the Project Browser onto a diagram, you’ll now see a menu of available actor shapes like this:

We’ve had this feature tucked away for awhile, but it wasn’t easy to discover. If you’d rather not see the menu, you can tweak the way this works under the File / Options / Diagrams menu.

Sometimes when you are creating reports, you may not know all the values needed for that report until you generate the report. We’ve added report parameters for Word and Excel reports to handle just that situation.

When you include parameters with your report, you’ll be prompted to enter the values for those parameters when you generate the report. This makes it easy to include things like customer names and other information that changes each time a report is run. This also makes it easy to build flexible, reusable report templates that you don’t have to change all the time.

Here are some report parameters to help get you started.