Process Engineer Toolkit > User's Guide > Working with Project Webs > Basic Setup

Purpose

This Toolkit page describes the basic steps to perform when setting up your project Web. The example organization Webs provided by Rational Unified Process (RUP) were created following the process described on this page.

Overview

  1. Copy an Example Web
  2. Set Up the Frames Page
  3. Determine the Logical and Physical Structures
  4. Modify the Cascading Style Sheets
  5. Add Project Logo
  6. Create the Home Page
  7. Add Search
  8. Add Content
  9. Include a Discussion Forum
  10. Enable user feedback

1. Copy an Example Web To top of page

The RUP product is composed of  two Web sites, each in its own directory. The directories are:

You may also wish to introduce an organization-wide process Web site, which tailors the RUP to meet the needs of your organization.  An example of this approach can be viewed by following this link.

To create your own process, you can copy the example Web sites and tailor them to meet your needs.  The files in the Template Project Web are all placeholders, so you can easily fit your project's information into the structure.

On the various pages and placeholders throughout your project Web, comments are provided in a different style. They are supposed to be removed from the page when you have modified it. [This is an example of a comment.]

The template project Web site is installed when you install the RUP. In the file system it is stored on the same level as the RUP:

RationalProjectWebExample Contains the project Web template.
RationalUnifiedProcess Contains the RUP Web site.

Make a copy of 'RationalProjectWebExample' to build your own project Web. For example:

Project1Web Contains "Project1"'s Web.
Project2Web Contains "Project2"'s Web.
RationalProjectWebExample Contains the project Web template.
RationalUnifiedProcess Contains the RUP Web site.

You may also wish to introduce an organization-level process Web site. A good starting point for creating such a web is to copy the organization-wide web example for Wylie College provided as an example in RUP.

MyCompanyProcessWeb Contains the process configuration Web for "MyCompany"

These folders must be placed at the same directory level as the RUP. The reason for this is that there are hyperlinks between the Web sites.

To start any of these webs open the file "index.htm" in the associated folder.

2. Set Up the Frames Page To top of page

In file RationalProjectWebExample/index.htm you find the frameset definition. The project Web is designed similarly to the RUP. The index page is a frames divided page with three frames:

  • A small frame for a logo or the name of your project in the upper left corner, called project_name.
  • A left frame for a table of contents, called contents.
  • A main frame for displaying information, called main. At start, the main frame displays a home page.

The filenames are:

Main RationalProjectWebExample/main/home_page.htm
Contents RationalProjectWebExample/applet/project_tree.htm
or RationalProjectWebExample/main/contents_js.htm
or RationalProjectWebExample/main/contents_html.htm
Project_name RationalProjectWebExample/main/banner.htm
  1. Edit index.htm if you prefer a different frames set-up.
  2. Change the title of the page to the name of your Project.

Add hyperlinks from pages in the 'RationalProjectWebExample' to pages in the RUP. See Toolkit: Adding External Links to the Rational Unified Process. Notice that you can set the hyperlink's target frame property to 'ory_doc'. Clicking on that hyperlink will display the page in the main frame of the RUP.

3. Determine the Logical and Physical Structures To top of page

The logical structure refers to the structure of the Web site as perceived by the user, and which should be reflected in the Table of Contents. The physical structure is the directory structure, which may or may not differ from the logical structure.

The directory structure of the RUP and Project Web Template webs is described in Toolkit: Directory Structure.

Add, remove, rename, and move folders in your project Web to match your desired directory structure.

Note: the links in the treebrowser table of contents will not be updated automatically.  See below for details. 

If you wish, you can use the html-pages for artifacts and guidelines, but it is also possible to browse them as files and folders directly. Choosing the latter will simplify maintaining the Web, but your users may be better off with the html-files.

Table of Contents To top of page

You can modify the contents tree to create the best logical structure for your project. Various icons that are used in the RUP are also included in each Web (../applet/images). If you want to create your own icons for the tree, make them 16x16 pixels large (or rather, small).

Edit 'tree.dat' (in the RationalProjectWebExample/applet/tree.zip) to match your logical structure. See Toolkit: Modifying the Treebrowser for information on how to do this.

Alternative Table of Contents To top of page

If you do not want to use the treebrowser, there are two alternatives provided in the example webs:

  • A JavaScript based solution, see main/contents_js.htm.
  • A simple HTML solution, see main/contents_html.htm.

To use either of these, edit the file index.htm to reference either of these files instead of the applet/index.htm.

4. Modify the Cascading Style Sheets To top of page

The RUP Web uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for layout control, and a very similar css-file has been provided for your project Web template. The colors have been changed to show which pages are part of the project Web and which are part of the RUP. Feel free to modify yourself. The css-file is found in css/project.css.

If you do not want to use the css-file, you can delete it or rename it. By renaming it, you "hide" it from the pages that reference it, but no error message will result from a missing css-file. It simply won't be used.
(If you choose to rename it, do so in the Windows file manager rather than the Web site creation software, since the latter is likely to update all the links and your pages will still refer to the css-file.)

For more information on Cascading Style Sheets, see http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1-961217.html. 

See also Toolkit: Rational Unified Process Style Guide

Edit the css/project.css file to change the colors in project.css. Here are some hints:

  • To change the banner colors for H1 and H2, look for h1.banner and h2.banner. Change background and color attributes.
  • To change link colors, look for a:link, a:active, and a:visited.

5. Add Project Logo To top of page

A small frame in the upper left corner is intended for a project logo or name, so that people can identify the site.

Edit the file main/banner.htm, by putting in a logo-picture or enter the name of your project.


6. Create the Home Page To top of page

On the home page you have the opportunity to provide a "community home page". This is the first page displayed in the main window. On the placeholder page you will find a number of suggestions. The file's name is main/home_page.htm.

  1. Change the heading banner to the name of your project.
  2. Change the page title to the name of your project.

7. Add Search To top of page

A search function for your Web could be useful. You can either place it on a separate page, in a separate frame, or on the home page itself. Link from the table of contents.

8. Add Content To top of page

Now you can concentrate on putting content into your Web.  This includes adding artifacts, project library items, etc.

See Toolkit: Authoring Process Web Pages.

9. Include a Discussion Forum To top of page

Hoping that your project Web will develop into a frequently visited, vibrant project community, we suggest you put up one or several discussion forums. A placeholder page is found in your project Web template. Microsoft FrontPage® can help you create a Web with discussion groups, but it needs to be created as a new Web using the Discussion Web Wizard. Please refer to FrontPage's help section Using FrontPage/Creating and Configuring Forms/Discussion Groups for more information.

  1. Create a discussion group Web for your forums.
  2. Link from the placeholder page or directly from the table of contents to the discussion Web.

Please refer to FrontPage's help section Using FrontPage/Creating and Configuring Forms/Discussion Groups for more information.

10. Enable user feedback To top of page

When people start using your project Web, the need for having a mechanism to provide feedback to the Web site authors will arise. The RUP Web site has a feedback button that invokes your e-mail client when you click the button. This creates a new e-mail message with "rup_feedback@rational.com" as the recipient and the full path of the currently opened page in the Subject field.

To add a similar mechanism to your project Web, inspect the "buttons.htm" file in the "Applet" folder of the RUP Web site to learn about the Javascript that provides this feature. If you copied an example Web containing this feedback button, you simply have to redirect the feedback by editing the recipient mail address. Look up the "sendmail" Javascript in the mentioned "Applet/buttons.htm" file, and change the destination mail address. You may also want to change the Subject to include the name of your process and the version number. This makes it easier to track defect reports or enhancement request to a certain build. The below example code illustrates a change to the feedback destination, and a change to the name and version number in the Subject field:

Before the change :

function sendmail()
{
var link=parent.ory_doc.location;
location.replace('mailto:rup_feedback@Rational.Com?subject=Feedback: RUP2001A.04.00 - '+link);
}

After the change

location.replace('mailto:myprocess_feedback@mycompany.Com?subject=Feedback: OurProcess 1.0 - '+link);

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Display Rational Unified Process using frames

Rational Unified Process