Install POWERSHEET into an Existing Project

This article contains step-by-step guidance for how to install Nextedy Powersheet into an existing project.

By following the steps below, you'll have a configuration sample for both the Powersheet Model and Sheet Configuration in your working project that you can later adjust accordingly to your project structure.
We explain the configuration of these files in the following articles:

• Getting Started: Sheet Configurations
• Getting Started: Data Model configuration

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Step-by-Step Setup
  • 1. Enable the Powersheet Topic in Navigation
  • 2. Create new Data Model
  • 3. Create new Sheet Configuration 
  • 4. Create nextedySheetConfig Custom Field for Documents
  • 5. Create a Powersheet initial 'template' document for a specific Sheet Configuration
  • 6. Open and edit a Powersheet document from the Powersheet Drive
• Setup Results

Step-by-Step Setup

1. Enable the Powersheet Topic in Navigation

Without this step, Powersheet will not be accessible even via direct links.

1. Go to Administration → Portal → Topics
   

2. Add the following to each view where Powersheet should be available (typically admin, team, docspec):
   

<topic id="powersheet"/>

This topic controls the visibility of the Powersheet Drive, which aggregates available configured documents.

2. Create new Data Model

For any Powersheet document, there shall be a defined Data Model.
It defines all possible entities and relations that later on can be selected in the sheet configurations.
 
In order to create a new Data Model:

1. Navigate to Administration → Powersheet → Data Model
   

2. Click “New” (either on the project or global level)
   

3. Select “System Default” as the base
   

4. Give your model a name (e.g., rtm)
   

5. Save and open the model
   

6. Start adjusting the Model configuration according to your project structure, or overwrite the contents by copy-pasting the existing model
   
   

3. Create new Sheet Configuration 

Having a defined Sheet configuration is as important as having a Data Model.
Sheet configuration defines what data is displayed in the Powersheet and refers to the Data Model entities and relations.
This way, having both files is mandatory when working with Powersheet.

In order to create a new Sheet Configuration:

1. Navigate to Administration → Powersheet → Sheet Configurations

2. Click New (either on the project or global level)

3. Select System Default as the base

4. Give your sheet configuration a name

5. Save and open the sheet configuration

6. Start adjusting the sheet configuration according to your project structure, or overwrite the contents by copy-pasting the existing sheet config

7. Connect the sheet config with a specific Model under the Sources section

4. Create nextedySheetConfig Custom Field for Documents

The process of assigning a configuration to a document is done via a dedicated document custom field.

The nextedySheetConfig custom field determines which Powersheet configuration document shall be used. 
In this setup:

• ID: nextedySheetConfig (see below how to define a custom ID)

• Name: Nextedy Sheet Config 

• Type: Enum: Nextedy - Sheet Config

• Add a field reference to the Configuration Properties (optional, in case a custom ID is used)

The field ID and name may be defined differently from the suggested ones.

In that case, the alternative ID needs to be specified in the Polarion Administration - Configuration Properties:

com.nextedy.powersheet.sheetConfigFieldId=fieldID

5. Create a Powersheet initial 'template' document for a specific Sheet Configuration

Once you have configured the nextedySheetConfig field, you may create a LiveDoc that may serve you as an initial template for other documents for the selected sheet config.

Optionally: Navigate to the LiveDoc via the Polarion sidebar and add a “Open with Nextedy POWERSHEET” link into wiki block by adding this code to the Wiki content block:

$openPowersheetButton.renderOpenPowersheetButton($document)

This will allow you to jump easily from the LiveDoc to the Powersheet view of that document.

6. Open and edit a Powersheet document from the Powersheet Drive

After all these steps above, you can access all the Powersheet documents from the Powersheet Drive topic.

Work with existing:
From there, you can work with existing documents by filling them with content, as well as modify the sheet and model configuration.

Create new:
Apart from it, you can also create new Sheets from any other already existing Powersheet document via the "New" button.

Setup Results

• Users will see Powersheet in the sidebar (if the topic is enabled)
  

• Powersheet documents will appear (if they reference a valid nextedySheetConfig)
  

• Users can create new structured content via the editable table view, without needing to know the underlying Polarion model

For any assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out by submitting a ticket here.