Controlling Item Revision Visibility and Applicability

Parent page: Managing Lifecycles for Items

When configuring each individual state for a lifecycle definition, you have the ability to define additional state attributes that control the visibility and applicability of an Item revision that uses that lifecycle definition and which enters that state. In terms of applicability, a project compiler violation can also be configured to detect and flag any server items being used in a design whose revisions are in non-applicable states - catching and averting issues prior to release.

Controlling Visibility and Applicability

Controls for determining whether an Item Revision in a particular state is visible and/or applicable are available in the State Properties dialog. From within the Edit Lifecycle Definitions dialog access this dialog for the required state either by double-clicking on the state's entry within the parent lifecycle definition, or by selecting its entry and clicking the edit icon that appears ().

Use attributes defined at the state level to control the visibility and/or applicability of an Item Revision entering that state.

The two options are:

• Visible in Vault panels - with this option enabled, a revision of an Item using the parent lifecycle definition will be displayed in the Explorer panel when it is set to be in this lifecycle state. When this option is disabled, the revision will be hidden. A hidden revision can be displayed (overriding this option) within the Explorer panel by enabling the Show Hidden Revisions control (see Showing Hidden Revisions).
• Allowed to be used in designs - with this option enabled, an Item Revision in this state is permitted to be used in a design. It is deemed to be Applicable. If this option is disabled, an Item Revision in this state cannot be validly used and is deemed Inapplicable (or non-applicable). It will be flagged as such in the Properties panel and the Item Manager dialog (see Flagging Inapplicable Revisions). The project compiler can also be configured to catch such occurences (see Detecting Inapplicable Revision States on Compilation).

Showing Hidden Revisions

For an Item Revision entering a lifecycle state that has its Visible in Vault panels attribute disabled, that revision will, by default, not be displayed in the Explorer panel. And if it is the latest revision of the Item, then the entire entry for that Item will effectively be hidden from view. This visibility state - defined at the state level - can be overridden globally for all Items when browsing in the Explorer panel. To display all Item Revisions that are currently not visible, click the  control at the top-right of the Items region of the panel, then enable the Show Hidden Revisions option on the associated menu.

Displaying hidden Item Revisions while browsing content in the Explorer panel. Hover over the image to see the result.

Flagging Inapplicable Revisions

Typically, a lifecycle state that is set to be hidden (Visible in Vault panels option disabled) will also be made inapplicable (Allowed to be used in designs option also disabled). For example, a revision of a component that is currently Depracated or Obsolete should have no place on the latest design spin! Hiding revisions of Items that have entered such states is one thing - if you can't see a component for example, you can't place it. But you may already be using instances of such Item Revisions in a design, or inadvertently placed an inapplicable revision of a component by virtue of having shown hidden revisions whilst browsing!

Not to worry. Aside from catching Component Item Revisions that are in inapplicable states upon compilation (see next section), you can manually interrogate the applicability of Item Revisions (components and managed sheets) directly in your design software. This is achieved through the Properties panel, when browsing the item's properties, or through use of the Item Manager.

• Properties panel - when using this panel to browse the properties of a placed instance of a revision of a Component Item or Managed Schematic Sheet Item, indication is presented to the right of the revision status entry. If the revision is in an inapplicable state (not allowed for use in designs) the entry will display Not applicable. If the revision is in an applicable state (allowed for use in designs) the entry will either reflect that the revision is the latest (Up to date) or not (Out of date).

Reflecting inapplicability at the properties level for a placed instance of a revision of a Component Item, and Managed Schematic Sheet Item.

• Item Manager - in the Item Manager dialog (Tools » Item Manager), indication is presented in the Revision Status field. If the revision is in an inapplicable state (not allowed for use in designs) the entry will display Not applicable. If the revision is in an applicable state (allowed for use in designs) the entry will either reflect that the revision is the latest (Up to date) or not (Out of date).

Reflecting inapplicability through the Item Manager dialog for a placed instance of a revision of a Component Item, and Managed Schematic Sheet Item.

Detecting Inapplicable Revision States on Project Validation

For placed instances of Component Item Revisions, the applicability of the states of those revisions can be checked as part of project validation. At the heart of this checking is the Component revision has inapplicable state violation type, part of the category: Violations Associated with Components. Configure the reporting mode for this check on the Error Reporting tab of the Project Options dialog.

The default Report Mode for this violation type is . Modify to suit your design requirements.

Project validation includes a check for violations concerning components in inapplicable revision states. A violation will occur if the lifecycle state of a placed Component Item Revision has been specified as not being allowed for design purposes.

If compiler errors and warnings are enabled for display on the schematic (enabled on the Schematic - Compiler page of the Preferences dialog) an offending object will display a colored squiggle beneath it. A notification is also displayed in the Messages panel in the following format:

Component <Designator> <Comment>: Component revision has inapplicable state,

where:

• Designator is the component instance's Designator.
• Comment is the component instance's Comment.

Example violation (set to Fatal Error for impact).

Things to be aware of:

1. If a placed managed component loses connection with the managed content server from which it was placed - for example that server is disconnected or you are signed out from your server - it will violate the Component revision has inapplicable state check. This will be reflected in the Messages panel, with an entry in the form: Component <Designator> <Comment>: Can't perform revision status validation: Failed to connect to server.
2. You can also catch components that are being invalidly used within a design during the design release process. Simply add and configure Component State Checking to your overall release validation regemin. For more information, see Validating Component Status.