With this feature, users are able to provide feedback directly while navigating through the process. The feedback is created as a Jira or PTC-ILM item and can be triaged, planned, and tracked within the system. Every generated item contains a link back to the original process element where the feedback was created, so full traceability of process change requests is assured.

Changes in the Stages config.xml, metamodel and language properties are required. In general, this configuration looks like the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<stages-config>
 
  <!-- Insert this block to your stages config.xml file -->
 
  <feedback-system name="jira|rtc|redmine|ptcilm">
      <host url="https://some.example.com/feedback-system">
 
      <property name="propertyKey" value="propertyValue" />
 
      <attributes>
        <attribute ident="description" type="text" target="MyDescriptionField" targetType="MyFieldType" />
      </attributes>
 
      <system-attribute-mappings>
        <attribute source="elementUrl" target="MyField" targetType="MyField" targetType="MyFieldType" />
      </system-attribute-mappings>
 
      <custom-attribute-mappings>
        <attribute value="Stages" target="MySourceSystemField" targetType="MyFieldType" />
      </custom-attribute-mappings>
 
    </host>
  </feedback-system>
</stages-config>

The changes in config.xml are system specific. Please refer the right manual page:

• Jira
• PTC-ILM
• Redmine
• Rational Team Concert / IBM Engineering Workflow Management

<property name="propertyKey" value="propertyValue" />

Properties are configuration parameters for the feedback system. Every feedback system defines its own parameter, which are Username and password for authentication or project name etc. Properties are configured as key:value pairs.

Attributes define the values, which are visible to the feedback-creator. Each attribute will be shown in form of a text-box in the feedback widget and will be sent to the feedback system once the user clicks on “save” in the Stages Application.

<attribute ident="description" type="text" target="MyDescriptionField" targetType="MyFieldType" />

• ident: Stages translation property
• type: Type of text field in Stags:
  • string: Text Field (single line)
  • text: Text Field (multi line)
• target and targetType: Defines feedback system specific configuration

System attribute mappings are similar to the attributes but are NOT visible in the Stages Application. The values for these attributes come directly from Stages.

<attribute source="elementUrl" target="MyField" targetType="MyField" targetType="MyFieldType" />

• source: Which information from Stages should be taken
  • elementUrl: Url to element
  • elementStableUrl: Url to element with specific version (Since Stages 7.5.1.3)
  • originElementUrl: Url to editable element if current element is imported by module import (Since Stages 7.5.1.3)
  • originElementStableUrl: Url to editable element with specific version if current element is imported by module import (Since Stages 7.5.1.3)
  • elementIdentity: e.g. _wUV9sBbNHr-aicWx33VsQA (Since Stages 7.5.1.3)
  • processVersionName: e.g. V1 (Since Stages 7.5.1.3)
  • workspaceName: e.g. Software Engineering
  • workspacePath: e.g. Company > Software
  • workspaceFullPath: e.g. Company > Software > Software Engineering (Since Stages 7.5.1.3)
  • originWorkspaceName: e.g. Software Engineering (Since Stages 7.5.2.2)
  • originWorkspacePath: e.g. Company > Software (Since Stages 7.5.2.2)
  • originWorkspaceFullPath: e.g. Company > Software > Software Engineering (Since Stages 7.5.2.2)
  • creatorFullname: e.g. John Doe
  • creatorUsername: e.g. jdoe
  • creatorEmail: e.g. jdoe@example.com (Since Stages 7.5.2.2)
• target and targetType: Defines feedback system specific configuration

(Since Stages 7.5.1.3)

Custom attribute mappings are similar to the attributes but are NOT visible in the Stages Application. The values for these attributes come directly from config.xml. You can map static values to fields in the feedback system.

<attribute value="Stages" target="MySourceSystemField" targetType="MyFieldType" />

• value: The value that should be mapped
• target and targetType: Defines feedback system specific configuration

The feedback widget must be added to your Stages metamodel. The XML-Element is:

<widget:feedback/>

For adding the widget to the social section, you can adopt it like this:

<widget:definition id="social">
    <layout:tabbed-card id="info">
        <layout:tab id="feedback" translate="process.feedback">
            <widget:feedback/>
        </layout:tab>
        <layout:tab id="comments" translate="process.comments">
            <widget:comments/>
        </layout:tab>
        <layout:tab id="history" translate="process.history">
            <widget:activity-stream translateNone="none" />
        </layout:tab>
    </layout:tabbed-card>
</widget:definition>

As last step you have to provide translations for the introduced custom fields. The translation property consists of the prefix process.feedback.mapping. and the ident you defined in the config.xml file. For the example the translations are:

process.feedback.mapping.summary = Summary
process.feedback.mapping.description = Description
process.feedback.mapping.annual_savings = Estimated annual savings
process.feedback.mapping.priority = Priority

After all, don't forget to execute update.bat / update.sh and restart your Stages.