Advanced Configuration Settings

The preferences editor displays several categories of commonly-used user preferences. Most people will find those settings adequate for their needs.

However, the dashboard supports many other configurable parameters. The list below describes a small set of those parameters that some people may find useful.

If you want to configure one of the settings below, open the preferences editor and select the "Advanced" section. Click the Add button to add a parameter, then enter the name setting and the value you wish to configure. Then save the changes. In most cases, you will need to restart the dashboard for your changes to take effect.

• browser.command
  Command used to bring up a web browser. The dashboard will normally launch your default web browser, so this command is generally not required. However, if no web browser appears when you make a selection from the reports/scripts button, setting a value for this parameter might help.
  

  Format:	a command line.
  Default:	Use the system default web browser.
  Examples:	browser.command = /usr/local/bin/opera



• datasetMode
  Flag indicating whether this is a team or personal dataset. Personal datasets display the user inteface with a thin toolbar and allow the logging of time, size, defects, and other metrics. Team datasets show a larger user inteface allowing the creation of team projects, which calculate roll-ups of data from multiple individuals.
  

  Format:	team or personal
  Example:	datasetMode = team



• dateFormat
  Display format for date fields.
  

  Format:	A list of recognized date formats, separated by the | character. The first format in the list will be used when displaying dates. For valid format syntax, see the documentation for java.text.SimpleDateFormat in the Sun Java Developer Kit.
  Default:	MM/dd/yyyy
  Example:	dateFormat = dd/MM/yyyy



• dateTimeFormat
  Display format for date and time fields.
  

  Format:	A list of recognized date formats, separated by the | character. The first format in the list will be used when displaying date-times. For valid format syntax, see the documentation for java.text.SimpleDateFormat in the Sun Java Developer Kit.
  Default:	MMM dd, yyyy hh:mm:ss aaa
  Example:	dateFormat = MMM dd, yyyy hh:mm



• defectDialog.autostart
  Controls whether to start the defect timer when opening a new defect dialog.
  If this property is set to "true", clicking the defect button on the main dashboard window will cause the defect dialog box to come up with the timer already running. Any other value for this property means the user must manually press the "Start Timing" button to begin the timer for fixing the defect.
  

  Format:	true or false.
  Default:	true
  Example:	defectDialog.autostart = false



• userPref.defectDialog.alwaysOnTop
  Controls whether defect windows should be displayed on top of all other windows, including windows of other applications.
  

  Format:	true or false.
  Default:	true
  Example:	userPref.defectDialog.alwaysOnTop = false



• userPref.defectDialog.useChildWindows
  Controls whether defect windows should be children of the Process Dashboard toolbar. When they are child windows, they will be hidden automatically when the toolbar is minimized. Otherwise, they can be shown, hidden, and minimized independently of the main toolbar window.
  

  Format:	true or false.
  Default:	false
  Example:	userPref.defectDialog.useChildWindows = true



• defectDialog.phaseMap
  Describes common defect injection/removal patterns. Each pair is interpreted to mean "Often defects are injected in phase A, and removed in phase B." When you remove a defect during phase B of a process, it will then use phase A as the default injection phase.
  

  Format:	It should be a list of phase pairs; the pairs should be separated from each other by "|" characters. Each pair should be of the form "phase A=>phase B".
  Default:	HLD=>Design|Design=>Test
  Example:	defectDialog.phaseMap = HLD=>Design|Code=>Test



• defectDialog.restrictSequence
  If this property is set to true, the defect dialog will check injection and removal phases to ensure that defects are NOT removed before they are injected. (You might want to disable this feature if you make use of iterative processes where the real-life task sequence does not strictly follow the order the of nodes in the hierarchy.)
  

  Format:	true or false
  Default:	true
  Example:	defectDialog.restrictSequence = false



• ev.dependencies.compareDates
  Which calculated date should be used when displaying/comparing projected dates for dependent tasks?
  

  Format:	plan, replan, or forecast
  Default:	replan
  Example:	ev.dependencies.compareDates = forecast



• ev.sortCompletedTasks
  As you complete tasks in an earned value schedule, the dashboard will use that information to improve the quality of the planned completion dates for the remaining tasks. It does this by internally reordering the list of tasks so completed tasks appear at the beginning of the task list, in the order they were actually completed. To disable this behavior, and calculate planned completion dates based on explicit task order alone, set this to false.
  

  Format:	true or false
  Default:	true
  Example:	ev.sortCompletedTasks = false



• excel.exportMethod
  The method to use for exporting data into Excel. If this is set to "mime", data will be exported to Excel using mime types; in practical terms, this means that the data you see in Excel will be a snapshot. If this is set to "iqy", tables will be exported using a Microsoft Internet Web Query (.IQY) file; in practical terms, this means that Excel can dynamically requery the dashboard to get updated data.
  

  Format:	mime or iqy
  Default:	iqy if your browser is Internet Explorer, and mime otherwise. (This is because other browsers don't correctly handle .IQY files.)
  Example:	excel.exportMethod = iqy



• forms.useHoursMinutes
  Controls the display of time values of dashboard forms. By default, times are displayed in hours:minutes (for example, "1:30" for one hour and thirty minutes). This is a change from earlier versions of the dashboard, which displayed times as a number of minutes (for example, "90"). This setting makes it possible to revert back to the prior formatting.
  

  Format:	true or false
  Default:	true
  Example:	forms.useHoursMinutes = false



• http.allowRemote
  Controls remote access to the dashboard's built-in webserver.
  If true, the dashboard will allow connections from other machines.
  If false, the dashboard will reject all HTTP connections unless they come from "localhost".
  Note that password settings (such as those set on shared/published earned value schedules) establish exceptions that override this setting. Thus, if you have set this to true, setting a password will deny connection attempts that do not correctly identify the password. Conversely, you can leave this set to false, and setting a password will allow connection attempts that correctly supply the password.
  If you never want other people to be able to connect to your dashboard (whether they know a password or not), set this parameter to "never". This will make it impossible for other computers to see your dashboard.
  

  Format:	true, false, or never.
  Default:	never
  Example:	http.allowRemote = true



• http.hostname
  Most of the time, you interact with the dashboard web server by viewing a web page that begins with "http://localhost". This works fine when the dashboard and the web browser are both running on the same computer. Sometimes, though, it is desirable to construct a URL for other people to use (for example, when publishing or sharing an earned value schedule). The dashboard will ascertain the name of your computer and use that to construct the URL; this process should work 99% of the time. If, however, the dashboard deduces an incorrect name for your computer, you can use this setting to override the built-in name deduction logic.
  

  Format:	hostname
  Default:	none
  Example:	http.hostname = mycompany.com



• http.port
  The port number where the dashboard should listen for incoming http connections.
  

  Format:	Number
  Default:	2468
  Example:	http.port = 3000



• pauseButton.historySize
  The maximum number of entries which should be retained in the play/pause button's history list.
  

  Format:	Number
  Default:	10
  Example:	pauseButton.historySize = 20



• pauseButton.quiet
  If this property is set to "true", the Play/Pause button will not provide any audible feedback. By default, the Play/Pause button will make a clicking sound whenever you start the timer or change tasks with the timer running.
  

  Format:	true or false
  Default:	false
  Example:	pauseButton.quiet = true



• pauseButton.compact
  Controls the appearance of the play/pause button on the dashboard.
  If true, a single button with both play and pause icons will be displayed. If false (the default), two separate toggle buttons will be displayed.
  

  Format:	true or false.
  Default:	false
  Example:	pauseButton.compact = true



• probeDialog.onlyCompleted
  Controls implicit filtering of data by the PROBE tool.
  If true, the PROBE tool only correlates data from completed projects.
  If false, the PROBE tool will use all available data.
  

  Format:	true or false.
  Default:	true
  Example:	probeDialog.onlyCompleted = false



• pspdiff.suffix.c
  The pspdiff LOC counter built into the dashboard has support for several common language syntaxes. You can tell it which language to pick based on the suffix of the filename. This rule lets you control which suffixes will cause the pspdiff tool to use the C/Java LOC counting rules.
  

  Format:	A space-separated list of filename extensions (e.g. ".c .h .java") which signal that a file contains C/Java source code.
  Default:	.c .cpp .c++ .h .java
  Example:	pspdiff.suffix.c = .c .h .cxx .hxx



• pspdiff.suffix.cobol
  The pspdiff LOC counter built into the dashboard has support for several common language syntaxes. You can tell it which language to pick based on the suffix of the filename. This rule lets you control which suffixes will cause the pspdiff tool to use the Cobol LOC counting rules.
  

  Format:	A space-separated list of filename extensions (e.g. ".cob") which signal that a file contains Pascal source code.
  Default:	.cob .cbl
  Example:	pspdiff.suffix.pascal = .p .pas



• pspdiff.suffix.pascal
  The pspdiff LOC counter built into the dashboard has support for several common language syntaxes. You can tell it which language to pick based on the suffix of the filename. This rule lets you control which suffixes will cause the pspdiff tool to use the Pascal LOC counting rules.
  

  Format:	A space-separated list of filename extensions (e.g. ".p") which signal that a file contains Pascal source code.
  Default:	.pas
  Example:	pspdiff.suffix.pascal = .p .pas



• pspdiff.suffix.sh
  The pspdiff LOC counter built into the dashboard has support for several common language syntaxes. You can tell it which language to pick based on the suffix of the filename. This rule lets you control which suffixes will cause the pspdiff tool to use the perl/sh LOC counting rules.
  

  Format:	A space-separated list of filename extensions (e.g. ".sh") which signal that a file contains perl or sh source code.
  Default:	.pl .sh .bash
  Example:	pspdiff.suffix.sh = .sh .pl .pm



• pspdiff.suffix.sql
  The pspdiff LOC counter built into the dashboard has support for several common language syntaxes. You can tell it which language to pick based on the suffix of the filename. This rule lets you control which suffixes will cause the pspdiff tool to use the SQL/Ada LOC counting rules.
  

  Format:	A space-separated list of filename extensions (e.g. ".sql") which signal that a file contains perl or sh source code.
  Default:	.sql .ada .adb .ads
  Example:	pspdiff.suffix.sql = .sql .ada