Helpers are custom programs that you attach to IBM® Rational® Rhapsody® to
extend its functionality.
Procedure
- Open a IBM Rational Rhapsody project
and choose Tools > Customize to open the Helpers window.
- Click the New icon
to add a blank line for
a new menu item in the Menu content box.
- In the blank field, type the name of the
new menu item (for example, My New Command1).
- To specify a submenu structure, use a backward
slash ( \ ) to separate the submenu levels. For example, enter External\My
New Command1, External\My New Command2,
and External\My New Command3 to produce the following
submenu structure:
You can further extend the submenu
structure; for example, you can enter External\My New Command1\File1 and External\My
New Command1\File2 to produce the following submenu structure:
- To make a shortcut key, add an ampersand character
before a letter in the name. For example, &My makes
the letter M a menu shortcut. You can press Alt+M to
open this particular helper application once it has been created.
Be sure to not use a letter that is already used as a shortcut key
on the Tools menu or the pop‑up menu for the
associated model element.
- Specify the applicable helper parameters:
- In the Command box, enter the command that
the menu item must start, such as E:\mks\mksnt\cp.exe or
click its Ellipsis button
to browse to the location
of the application.
- In the Arguments box,
enter any arguments for the command.
- In the Initial Directory box,
enter an initial default directory for the program.
- In the Applicable To list, specify
which model elements to associate with the new command.
If you do not specify a value for this field, the menu command for
this helper application can be added to the Tools menu
depending on what you do in Step 6.
- In the Project Type list, select a project
profile.
- If leave this box blank, it uses as the default
the profile of the current project you have opened.
- In the Helper Trigger list, select the actions
that triggers the new command.
- Specify the helper type:
- Select the External program radio button
if the new command is an external program, such as Microsoft Notepad.
Select the Wait for completion check box if you want the external
program to complete running before you can continue to work in Rational Rhapsody.
- Select the Visual Basic for Applications macro radio
button if the new command is a Visual Basic for Applications macro
and is defined in the <Project>.Visual
Basic for Applications file.
- Depending on what you decided for the Applicable
To list:
- If you did not specify an applicable element for
the command, verify that the Show in Tools menu check box is
selected. This means the new menu command for your link to a helper
application displays on the Tools menu. If
you clear this check box, there is no menu command for it on the Tools menu,
though the link to the helper application still works once the trigger
for this command is started.
- If you specified an applicable element for the
command, verify that the Show in pop-up menu check box is selected,
indicating that the new command displays in the menu for the specified
model element. If you clear this check box, there is no menu command
for it on the pop‑up menu for the specified model element, though
the link to the helper application still works once this command is
started.
- Click OK to apply
your changes and close the window. (You can click the Apply button
if you want to save your changes but keep the window open to continue
working with it.)
Once you save and close
the Helpers window, the link to the helper application you just created
is immediately available if the current project is within the parameters
that you set for the link. For example, if the Rational Rhapsody project
you currently have open uses the FunctionalC profile and you created
the My New Command helper application for this profile,
then this link to the helper application is immediately available.
However, if you specified the DoDAF profile (as selected in the Project
Type list) for the My New Command link, it does
nott function in your current project.