Filtering needs¶
The filtering of needs and need parts is supported consistently across numerous directives and roles, either by using filter options or by using a filter string.
Filter options¶
The following filter options are supported by directives:
Related to the used directive and its representation, the filter options create a list of needs, which match the filters for status, tags, types and filter.
For :status:, :tags: and :types: values are separated by “;”. :filter: gets evaluated.
The logic, if a need belongs to the final result list, is as followed:
status = (open OR in_progress) AND tags = (user OR login) AND types = (req OR spec) AND eval(filter) is True
status¶
Use the status option to filter needs by their status.
You can easily filter for multiple statuses by separating them by “;”. Example: open; in progress; reopen.
Show example
Example 1
.. needlist::
:status: open
:show_status:
types¶
For :types: the type itself or the human-readable type-title can be used as filter value.
Show example
Example 3
.. needtable::
:types: test
ID |
Title |
Status |
Outgoing |
---|---|---|---|
test of specification and requirement |
|||
test of current_need value |
|||
Test of requirements |
|||
Recalculate hash and compare |
|||
Level 4 |
|||
Test 1 |
|||
Test for XY |
implemented |
||
Sub-Need on level 3 |
|||
test a requirement |
|||
Test Arch |
|||
A test case |
spec_flow_002; spec_flow_001.subspec_1; spec_flow_001.subspec_2 |
sort_by¶
Sorts the result list. Allowed values are status
or any alphanumerical property.
Show example
Example 4
.. needtable::
:sort_by: id
:status: open
ID |
Title |
Status |
Outgoing |
---|---|---|---|
copy-example |
open |
||
copy-example implementation |
open |
||
my test requirement |
open |
||
CLEAN layout |
open |
||
CLEAN_L layout |
open |
||
CLEAN_LP layout |
open |
||
CLEAN_R layout |
open |
||
CLEAN_RP layout |
open |
||
COMPLETE layout |
open |
||
DEBUG layout |
open |
||
FOCUS layout |
open |
||
FOCUS_F layout |
open |
||
FOCUS_L layout |
open |
||
FOCUS_R layout |
open |
||
A normal requirement |
open |
||
A more complex and highlighted requirement |
open |
||
A focused requirement |
open |
||
A custom requirement with picture |
open |
||
A requirement with a permalink |
open |
||
Not implemented spec |
open |
||
needextend Example 3 |
open |
||
needextend Example 4 |
open |
||
needextend Example 5 |
open |
||
needextend Example 6 |
open |
||
User needs to login |
open |
||
My test spec |
open |
||
Nested Spec Need |
open |
||
First Spec Need |
open |
||
Car must be awesome |
open |
||
→ A top speed of 300 km/h |
open |
||
→ An acceleration of 200 m/s² or much much more |
open |
||
→ a turbo button |
open |
||
Requirement A |
open |
||
My first requirement |
open |
||
Sliced Bread |
open |
||
Specification B |
open |
||
Sub-Need on level 2 with status option set |
open |
||
Interfaces |
open |
||
My automatically styled requirement |
open |
||
Unit test 3 |
open |
||
Unit test 4 |
open |
||
My specification |
open |
||
My requirement with custom options |
open |
filter¶
The filter option allows the definition of a complex query string, which gets evaluated via eval() in Python. Please see Filter string for more details.
Filter string¶
The usage of a filter string is supported/required by:
The filter string must be a valid Python expression:
Example 5
:need_count:`type=='spec' and status != 'open'`
31
A filter string gets evaluated on needs and need_parts! A need_part inherits all options from its parent need, if the need_part has no own content for this option. E.g. the need_part content is kept, but the status attribute is taken from its parent need.
Note
The following attributes are kept inside a need_part: id, title, links_back
This allows to perform searches for need_parts, where search options are based on parent attributes.
The following filter will find all need_parts, which are part of a need, which has a tag called important.
Example 6
:need_count:`is_part and 'car' in tags`
3
Inside a filter string all the fields of NeedsInfoType
can be used, including.
Additional variables for need_part / np:
id_parent as Python string, which contains the id of the parent need. (compare like
id_parent == "ABC_01"
)id_complete as Python string. Contains the concatenated ids of parent need and need_part. (compare like
id_complete != 'ABC_01.03'
)
Note
If extra options were specified using needs_extra_options then those will be available for use in filter expressions as well.
Finally, the following are available:
search, as Python function for performing searches with a regular expression
needs as
NeedsAndPartsListView
object, which contains all needs and need_parts.
If your expression is valid and it’s True, the related need is added to the filter result list. If it is invalid or returns False, the related need is not taken into account for the current filter.
Show example
Example 7: filter
option
needs:
.. req:: Requirement A
:tags: A; filter_example
:status: open
:hide:
.. req:: Requirement B
:tags: B; filter_example
:status: closed
:hide:
.. spec:: Specification A
:tags: A; filter_example
:status: closed
:hide:
.. spec:: Specification B
:tags: B; filter_example
:status: open
:hide:
.. test:: Test 1
:tags: filter_example
:hide:
.. needlist::
:filter: "filter_example" in tags and (("B" in tags or ("spec" == type and "closed" == status)) or "test" == type)
needs:
Filtering for needs on the current page¶
Added in version 5.0.0.
Additionally, to common Filter string variables,
the c.this_doc()
function is for most directives,
to filter for needs only in the same document as the directive.
Example 8
.. needtable::
:filter: c.this_doc()
:style: datatables
ID |
Title |
Status |
Outgoing |
---|---|---|---|
Implementation for specification |
|||
Specification of a requirement |
|||
Set admin e-mail to admin@mycompany.com |
|||
Requirement B |
closed |
||
Requirement A |
open |
||
My first requirement |
open |
||
Specification B |
open |
||
Specification A |
closed |
||
Test 1 |
|||
Test for XY |
implemented |
search¶
search(pattern, variable) is based on Pythons re.search() function
The first parameter must be a regular expression pattern. The second parameter should be one of the above variables(status, id, content, ..)
Show example
This example uses a regular expressions to find all needs with an e-mail address in title.
Example 9
.. req:: Set admin e-mail to admin@mycompany.com
.. needlist::
:filter: search("([a-zA-Z0-9_.+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9-]+\.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+$)", title)
Filter string performance¶
Added in version 4.0.0.
The filter string is evaluated by default for each need and need part and, therefore, can be become a performance bottleneck for projects with large numbers of needs.
To improve performance, certain common patterns are identified and optimized by the filter engine, and so using such patterns is recommended:
is_external
/is_external == True
/is_external == False
id == 'value'
/id == "value"
/'value' == id
/"value" == id
id in ['value1', 'value2', ...]
/id in ("value1", "value2", ...)
type == 'value'
/type == "value"
/'value' == type
/"value" == type
type in ['value1', 'value2', ...]
/type in ("value1", "value2", ...)
status == 'value'
/status == "value"
/'value' == status
/"value" == status
status in ['value1', 'value2', ...]
/status in ("value1", "value2", ...)
'value' in tags
/"value" in tags
Also filters containing and
will be split into multiple filters and evaluated separately for the above patterns.
For example, type == 'spec' and other == 'value'
will first be filtered performantly by type == 'spec'
and then the remaining needs will be filtered by other == 'value'
.
To guard against long running filters, the needs_filter_max_time configuration option can be used to set a maximum time limit for filter evaluation.
Also see needs_uml_process_max_time, to guard against long running needuml
/ needarch
processes containing filters.
To debug which filters are being used across your project and their run times, you can enable the needs_debug_filters configuration option.
Deprecated since version 4.0.0: The directive option export_id
was previously used to export filter information in the needs.json
file.
This is deprecated and will be removed in a future version.
Instead use the above needs_debug_filters configuration option.
Filter code¶
Added in version 0.5.3.
The content of a needlist, needtable or needflow can be used to define own filters with the help of Python.
The used code must define a variable results
, which must be a list and contains the filtered needs.
The code also has access to a variable called needs
, which is a NeedsAndPartsListView
instance.
Example 10
.. needtable::
:columns: id, title, type, links, links_back
:style: table
# Collect all requirements and specs,
# which are linked to each other.
results = []
for need in needs.filter_types(["req"]):
for links_id in need['links']:
linked_need = needs.get_need(links_id)
if linked_need and linked_need['type'] == 'spec':
results.append(need)
results.append(linked_need)
ID |
Title |
Type |
Links |
Links Back |
---|---|---|---|---|
Result 4 |
req |
|||
Result 3 |
req |
|||
Do this |
spec |
|||
Do too much |
spec |
This mechanism can also be a good alternative for complex filter strings to save performance. For example if a filter string is using list comprehensions to get access to linked needs.
If filter code
is used, all other filter related options (like status
or filters
) are ignored.
Warning
This feature executes every given Python code. So be sure to trust the input/writers.
Filter function¶
Added in version 0.7.3.
Nearly same behavior as Filter code, but the code gets read from an external python file and a function must be referenced.
- option name:
filter-func
- default:
None
Usage inside a rst file:
.. needtable:: Filter function example
:filter-func: filter_file.own_filter_code
The code of the referenced file filter_file.py
with function own_filter_code
:
def own_filter_code(needs, results, **kwargs):
for need in needs:
if need["type"] == "test":
results.append(need)
The function gets executed by Sphinx-Needs and it must provide two keyword arguments: needs
and results
.
Also the given package/module must be importable by the used Python environment.
So it must be part of the Python Path variable. To update this, add
sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath("folder/to/filter_files"))
to your conf.py file.
Arguments¶
Added in version 0.7.6.
Filter function are supporting arguments: filter_file.own_filter_code(value_1,value_2)
.
Please note, that the part between (...)
is just a comma separated list and each element will be given as string
to the function.
The functions get the values as part of **kwargs
with the name is arg<pos>
, starting from 1
.
Example:
.. needtable:: Filter function example
:filter-func: filter_file.own_filter_code(1,2.5,open)
def own_filter_code(needs, results, **kwargs):
for need in needs:
if int(need["price"]) > int(kwargs["arg1"]) or need["status"] == kwargs["arg3"]:
results.append(need)
The function developer is responsible to perform any needed typecast.
Needpie¶
needpie also supports filter-code. But instead of needs, a list of resulting numbers must be returned.
Example:
.. needpie:: Filter code func pie
:labels: new,done
:filter-func: filter_code_func.my_pie_filter_code_args(new,done)
def my_pie_filter_code_args(needs, results, **kwargs):
cnt_x = 0
cnt_y = 0
for need in needs:
if need["status"] == kwargs['arg1']:
cnt_x += 1
if need["status"] == kwargs['arg2']:
cnt_y += 1
results.append(cnt_x)
results.append(cnt_y)
Filter matches nothing¶
Depending on the directive used a filter that matches no needs may add text to inform that no needs are found.
The default text “No needs passed the filter”.
If this is not intended, add the option
filter_warning¶
Add specific text with this option or add no text to display nothing. The default text will not be shown.
The specified output could be styled with the css class needs_filter_warning
More Examples¶
Setup
Example 11
.. req:: My first requirement
:status: open
:tags: requirement; test; awesome
This is my **first** requirement!!
.. note:: You can use any rst code inside it :)
.. spec:: Specification of a requirement
:id: OWN_ID_123
:links: R_F4722
Outgoing links of this spec: :need_outgoing:`OWN_ID_123`.
.. impl:: Implementation for specification
:id: IMPL_01
:links: OWN_ID_123
Incoming links of this spec: :need_incoming:`IMPL_01`.
.. test:: Test for XY
:status: implemented
:tags: test; user_interface; python27
:links: OWN_ID_123; IMPL_01
This test checks :need:`IMPL_01` for :need:`OWN_ID_123` inside a
Python 2.7 environment.
This is my first requirement!! Note You can use any rst code inside it :) |
Outgoing links of this spec: R_F4722. |
This test checks Implementation for specific... (IMPL_01) for Specification of a requirement (OWN_ID_123) inside a Python 2.7 environment. |
Example 12: Filter result as table
.. needtable::
:tags: test
:status: implemented; open
ID |
Title |
Status |
Outgoing |
---|---|---|---|
my test requirement |
open |
||
My first requirement |
open |
||
Test for XY |
implemented |
Example 13: Filter result as diagram
.. needflow::
:filter: "More Examples" == section_name