Configuring the DOORS client: command line switches and registry settings

Many DOORS client properties can be configured using command line switches and/or Windows registry settings, e.g. what database is to be used, what is the default opening mode for opening modules, specifying the user account to log into DOORS etc.

For a general overview on how to set these properties, see the IBM Help page Configuring the registry and using command-line switches for the Rational DOORS client and on what properties can be configure see: Command-line switches for the Rational DOORS client.

To set the command line switches on Windows client the Windows shortcut properties have to be modified. In the picture below the “Target” field shows already one switch, the “-data 36679@pmsoftqa4” which determines that a DOORS client started through this shortcut (icon) will use some other database than the default.

If I wanted always to open my modules in “Read Only” mode instead of the default Exclusive Edit I could add “-defopenmode READ_ONLY -defopenlinkmode READ_ONLY” to the end of the Target field. After adding that, my switches for this shortcut would read “-data 36679@pmsoftqa4 -defopenmode READ_ONLY -defopenlinkmode READ_ONLY” in total. Note that there is a separate switch for those modules opened directly from DOORS main window and for those opened through link browsing.

The command line switches listing in the Help page lists also short versions of the switches so that the long line above can be shortened to “-d 36679@pmsoftqa4 -o r –O r”. I usually prefer the long versions, because that way it is easier to see what the setting is.

The same settings can be also done by editing Windows registry: start up regedit.exe and browse to the path for the DOORS Config settings – this path will be different for different Windows version. For me on Windows 7 Professional 64-bit it is “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Telelogic\DOORS\9.5\Config”

To specify registry settings you have to create new registry values in the “Config” key, these should be of type “String Value”. After creation, rename the value to the wanted switch, e.g. “defopenmode”. After renaming you can give data to the value by double-clicking on the value name

In the picture below the registry settings are defined for opening modules

The command line switches in the shortcut will override the registry settings, so even though the registry defines READ_ONLY modes for opening modules, individual shortcuts might have READ_WRITE and the modules are opened in Exclusive Edit.