Sharing Referenced Files in a Team-Based Environment

BP-VA lets you add file references to model elements and diagrams. If you are working in a team-based environment with Teamwork Server, you do not need to copy any referenced files for other team members to open. Instead, you could commit your model along with the referenced files to the server. Teammates can then get the referenced files from server and open them in their environment. The file revision will follow the model, i.e. whenever you open a particular revision of work from server, the file of that revision will be obtained and thus there is always a consistency between the file and the design.

In BP-VA, a file being shared among the team through the teamwork support is called a "teamwork file." In this tutorial, we will demonstrate how to add a teamwork file to BP-VA, how to add file reference and how file sharing works in a team-based environment.

Note: This tutorial requires a solid understanding of BP-VA's teamwork support with Teamwork Server.

The following Teamwork Project and users will be used throughout this tutorial.

1. Project: Sample Project
2. Users:
   1. Peter (Permissions: Read & Commit)
   2. Linda (Permissions: Read & Commit)

Adding Teamwork Files

1. Start BP-VA.
2. Login to Teamwork Server with account Peter.
3. Checkout the project Sample Project from server.
4. Create a business process diagram (BPD) via the toolbar.
   
5. Draw a simple BPD like this:
   
6. Download the file sample-invoice.pdf at the bottom of this tutorial, under the Resources section. Open it and take a look. It is a sample invoice which users expect to see. We can attach the file to the task Generate Invoice so that those who read this diagram would know what users are looking for.
7. Open the Teamwork Files pane at the bottom left.
   
8. Drag sample-invoice.pdf from file manager to the Teamwork Files pane in BP-VA.
   
9. Click OK when you are asked to confirm putting the file to workspace. You must click OK here. If not, the file won't be added as a teamwork file nor committed to server.
   

Adding File References

When adding a file reference, you will be prompted the file chooser to select which file to add. You may manually navigate through the folders to locate the teamwork file to add. Or to speed things up, BP-VA lets you create a shortcut that brings you to the folder where the teamwork files are stored. In this section, we will first define a user path of project files to create a corresponding shortcut in file chooser. After that, we will add a file reference.

1. Select Tools > Options... from the main menu to open the Options window.
2. In the Options window, select User Path on the left hand side.
   
3. On the right hand side, click Add... and select Project Files Path from the popup menu.
   
4. Click OK at the bottom of the Options window to close it.
5. Now, go back to the BPD. Move the mouse pointer over the task Generate Invoice to show the resource icons.
   
6. Click on the References resource icon at the bottom left of the task shape and select Add File... from the popup menu.
   
7. In the Task Specification window, click on the button ... next to the Path field.
8. Click on the shortcut Project Files Folder. Note that if you have not completed step 1 to 4, you will not see this shortcut.
   
9. Select the file sample-invoice.pdf and click Open at the bottom right to choose it.
   
10. Click OK in Task Specification to return to the diagram.
11. Commit the changes to server. Click the Team button in the toolbar and select Commit... from the drop-down menu.
    
    Note that the commit action will bring along the teamwork file(s) to server. You may check it in the Commit window. In other words, the file sample-invoice.pdf inside the workspace will be committed.

Opening a File Reference in Another Client

In this section, we are going to open the teamwork project with another user Linda. It is recommended to perform the steps on another machine to make sure that the environment is clean and the file sample-invoice.pdf is not existing prior to checking out the project from server. If you are unable to continue on another machine, please delete the previous workspace folder and continue.

1. Start BP-VA.
2. Login to Teamwork Server with account Linda.
3. Checkout the project Sample Project from server.
4. Open the BPD.
5. Move the mouse pointer over the task Generate Invoice. Click on the References resource icon and select sample-invoice.pdf from the popup menu.
   
   This should open the PDF file. As you can see, you do not need to copy the file manually. BP-VA has done it for you during the commit process.

Resources

1. sample-invoice.pdf (A sample invoice file)