Make comments mandatory during check in or status change

By default in IXIA CCMS, users can check in or change the status of an object without comments. You can require users to enter at least one comment during check in or status change of an object.

About this task

Comments that users add when checking in an object or changing the status of an object are recorded in the Revision History for the object, providing more detail about the changes that were made. This helps make the Revision History more complete and useful, and is especially helpful when trying to identify a particular revision to revert to.

Whether comments are mandatory or optional, users can enter an original comment, select a previously-entered comment (CCMS Desktop only) select a pre-configured comment (CCMS Desktop only), or any combination.

Important: Make configuration changes in a test environment and confirm they work before copying them to a production environment.

Procedure

  1. In the TEXTML Administration perspective, connect to your server.
  2. Locate the comments.xml file in the repository's /system/conf collection.
  3. Check out the file and open it for editing.
  4. To make comments mandatory when checking in, find the <<requiredComments>> element and change the @onRelease attribute to true.
    For example:
    <requiredComments onRelease="true" onStatusChange="false"/>
  5. Optional: To make comments mandatory when changing status, change the @@onStatusChange attribute to true.
    For example:
    <requiredComments onRelease="true" onStatusChange="true"/>
    Note: While MadCap recommends making check in comments mandatory, status change comments are not as helpful. If your workflow statuses are clearly defined, a move from one status to another is usually self-explanatory.
  6. Save, close, and check in the file.
  7. Inform users of the changes.
    The changes are automatically applied once users close and then reopen their IXIA CCMS Desktop. Users can also apply the changes without restarting their CCMS Desktop by clicking IXIA CCMS > Synchronize Configuration.