Report macro: Insert a traceability matrix into a page

You can now share your traceability matrices more easily with your coworkers, by inserting them in your Confluence pages.

Insert the macro

In the Confluence page editor: Type /req to access the RY macros, and select the RY Report macro

Select the desired saved matrix

RY Report Macro - Choose your matrix.png

3. Then, you’ll see a recap of the selected matrix, and you’ll be able to configure the report display:

By default, we display the title and description of the matrix. If you do not want to see them in the Confluence page, you can remove them with the toggle.

Permissions on the matrices

Matrices need to be shared to the whole space to be displayed in the Report macro. If you have not made them public before hand, you can edit the permissions directly when selecting a matrix (c.f : Step 2.)

The regular way to edit the permissions of your matrices is in the Saved Matrices tab → Edit → And select either the “With view only permissions” or “With view and edit permissions” radio button.

🎉 Tada

Sharing permissions

Note that you can share your traceability matrices either :

to allow other users to update it using the “With view and edit permissions”
to allow others to only see the result of your matrices without being able to update your template using “With view only permissions”. However other will be able to clone your matrices if they went to use yours as template.

To go further

Use the report

Once the report is embedded and the page published, you can interact with the report like you would in the Traceability tab: Move/Add/Remove columns, click on requirement keys to show their details, etc..

Changes to the traceability matrix made in the Confluence page are not saved and will be lost when you refresh the page, and are not viewable by your colleagues.

To make permanent changes to a traceability macro, go to the Saved queries tab, select the macro you wish to change, make your changes, and don’t forget to save.

Edit external properties

On macro creation, you can decide to allow users to edit the external properties directly in the Confluence page by checking “Enable the edition of external properties in the report macro”

Changes to external property values will then be saved.

Use template variables

The report macro supports template variables in the search query to make traceability matrices modular and reusable. Template variables allow you to save traceability matrices with a dynamic search query that can be adjusted when used in a report macro, without modifying the original traceability matrix. This is particularly useful when embedding the same traceability matrix across multiple Confluence pages with only slight modifications to the search query.

Syntax for template variables

Template variables are defined using a dollar sign, curly braces and a name (e.g. ${variableName}). You can also provide a default value by appending a colon followed by the default value (e.g. ${variableName:Default value}). Moreover, if a text looks like a variable but should not be treated as one, you can escape it using a backslash (e.g. \${variableName}).

Examples:

${prefix}: A variable named prefix with no default value.
${prefix:BR}: A variable named prefix with a default value of BR.
\${prefix}: Literal text ${prefix} that should not be treated as a variable.

Use template variables in the “Traceability” tab

Navigate to the Traceability tab.
Use template variables in the search query.
When the search query contains variables, a Variables dropdown is displayed in the search bar.
The Variables dropdown allows you to test and preview the traceability matrix by dynamically setting variable values. The variable values defined here are not saved, they are for preview purposes only.
Once you’re happy with your search query, you can save the traceability matrix.

Use template variables in the report macro editor

Edit a Confluence page.
Start inserting a report macro.
Select the traceability matrix containing template variables.
When the search query of a traceability matrix contains template variables, the macro editor allows you to define a value for each variable. If a value is left blank, the default value of the variable is used (or an empty string if there is no default value).
Insert the report macro.
The report macro will be rendered using the provided values.

Export your reports in PDF

You can now export your reports in PDF! Simply click on the three dots at the top-right of the page and on export. The dynamic RY Report macro will be visible just like this:

Permissions cross spaces

You can insert macros that pull data from an other Confluence space. The report macro uses the permissions of the space where it was saved to display requirements.

As an exemple, if Alice creates a report in space A, and decides to insert it in space B, Bob will not be able to see the results of the report if he doesn’t have the view permission on space A.