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From: ASCE Support Team
To: ASCE Users
Title: User guide for the eCassandra plugin for ASCE
Contents
1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 1
2 Requirements ...................................................................................................................................... 2 2.1 ASCE requirements .................................................................................................................. 2 2.2 eCassandra requirements ........................................................................................................ 2
3 Installation ........................................................................................................................................... 2
4 Usage ................................................................................................................................................... 3 4.1 Inserting the ASCE DNRs ......................................................................................................... 4 4.2 Examples in use ........................................................................................................................ 8 4.3 Connecting to exported XLS files ........................................................................................... 10
4.3.1 Exporting XLS content from eCassandra .................................................................. 10 4.3.2 Importing eCassandra XLS content into ASCE ......................................................... 11 4.3.3 Performance limitations of XLS import .................................................................... 11
5 Troubleshooting ................................................................................................................................ 11
6 Technical support .............................................................................................................................. 12
Appendix A Risk matrix file for exported XLS hazard logs ...................................................................... 13 A.1 Structure of the riskmatrix.xml file ....................................................................................... 13 A.2 Using Windows Notepad to create the risk matrix file ......................................................... 14
1 Introduction
This document is a user guide for the ASCE eCassandra plugin.
Version of plugin covered by this user guide: 0.1.7
The plugin provides a DNR (Dynamic Narrative Region) facility that allows the safety case in ASCE to
summarise and report on information held in eCassandra Hazard logs. The plugin works with all ASCE
Schemas (e.g. Claims, Arguments, Evidence, Goal Structuring notation etc).
The plugin provides two core reporting services:
1. Summary of an individual hazard, accident, control, cause or reference from eCassandra.
Optionally, this can include a list of linked items
2. Summary of a hazard log as a whole, showing a populated risk matrix that indicates the current
risk status for accidents managed in the hazard log
The plugin can connect to the following data services:
1. Exported XLS hazard logs from eCassandra.
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2 Requirements
2.1 ASCE requirements
The plugin requires ASCE v4.1 or later.
This plugin requires a proper 32 bit driver installed on the system in order to read MS Office files. If you are
using a 64 bit version of Microsoft Office you have to install the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010
Redistributable (x86 - 32bit version).
This component is included in the ASCE zip package inside the prerequisites folder or can be downloaded
freely from the Microsoft website.
2.2 eCassandra requirements
To connect to hazard logs in eCassandra, you will need to have:
• Access to the eCassandra webservice
• One or more hazard logs hosted on eCassandra
To connect to hazard logs exported from desktop eCassandra, you will need to create an accompanying risk
matrix XML file – see Appendix A for details.
3 Installation
Use the ASCE plugin manager to install the *.bundle file, choosing the “just me” option when asked where
to install the plugin.
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Figure 1: ASCE plugin manager
4 Usage
The general process is that in the safety case, a claim would be made that hazards are being adequately
managed. Evidence for this would typically be held in the hazard log.
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Figure 2: Safety case in ASCE with Hazard log evidence
4.1 Inserting the ASCE DNRs
To insert the eCassandra DNR, open the node editor and then from the Plugin DNR menu, insert the DNR
from the Insert->Plugin (DNR element).
Select one of the two options from the Adelard eCassandra plugin:
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Figure 3: Menu options for ASCE eCassandra plugin in node editor
This will insert an unconfigured DNR element, to configure it, click on it
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Figure 4: Inserted DNR for eCassandra hazard log
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Figure 5: Configuring the DNR options
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The following DNRs are available:
DNR menu option Purpose Required parameters
1. Insert specific item(s) from
XLS
Allows summarizing a specific item
(Hazard, Accident, Control, Cause,
Reference) from an exported XLS file
from eCassandra. A summary of a
specific item will include:
• all fields for that item,
• (optionally) a summary of
linked items (e.g. hazards
linked to some accident)
Allows summarizing all items of a
specific type. In this case, summary
fields (title id, description) will be
shown.
Path to the XLS file,
exported from
eCassandra
Selection of the item type
to be summarized
2. Insert Hazard log summary
from XLS
Provides a populated risk matrix
showing either:
• Identifier of each
accident, grouped by the
various risk categories
• Lifecycle status for each
risk class
Path to XLS file, exported
from eCassandra
Summary type required
4.2 Examples in use
The following screenshots provides examples that show how the plugin will summarise and report
information from eCassandra hazard logs.
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Figure 6: Hazard log summary – showing populated risk matrix
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Figure 7: Example showing summary of a particular accident held in eCassandra
4.3 Connecting to exported XLS files
4.3.1 Exporting XLS content from eCassandra
The ASCE eCassandra plugin can summarise hazard logs exported from eCassandra. To export the XLS file
you can use the following steps:
• Tools/"Import/Export Hazard Log"/Export to Microsoft Office.
• A form appears.
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• Select Excel as the export format (Access is also available - you get one table for each Excel
worksheet, but nothing else)
o Click Select all for Entities to export and Links to export.
• Then click Export at the top of the form.
• After a pause, a dialog appears with "Do you want to open or save ExportProject.xls from
<servername>?" with Open and Save buttons.
o The latter has drop-down options that allow you to change the filename and select a folder
to save to.
• The dialog disappears, and you can close the form manually.
4.3.2 Importing eCassandra XLS content into ASCE
Use the relevant DNR from within the node editor, then edit the DNR and select your exported hazard log
spreadsheet. Make sure you have a risk matrix file as described in Appendix A.
4.3.3 Performance limitations of XLS import
The Microsoft Data Access Driver for Excel can be quite slow if you have the file open at the same time in
Microsoft Excel.
If you are experiencing performance problems, you should close the file in Excel before updating or
querying any ASCE DNRs using this plugin.
5 Troubleshooting
The following table contains advice covering various issues that may arise when using the plugin
Issue Solution
Exported eCassandra XLS files
The information in the hazard log report does not
reflect the state of the hazard log
Re-export the XLS file from eCassandra (see
Section 4.3)
It is recommended that the XLS file is re-exported
whenever a significant change is made to the
eCassandra file.
I get an error message about a missing risk
matrix
Create a manual risk matrix XML file – see
Appendix A for details
Performance is slow when connecting to or
updating a DNR that queries an exported XLS file
from eCassandra
Check the XLS file is not already open in Excel.
Close the file in Excel and the performance will be
significantly improved.
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6 Technical support
For technical support on this plugin, email ASCE technical support on:
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Appendix A Risk matrix file for exported XLS hazard logs
At the time of writing (spring 2018), the XLS export from eCassandra does not include all information being
maintained in eCassandra. In particular, the risk matrix is not exported.
In order for the ASCE plugin for eCassandra to correctly classify the risks, it needs to know which
combination of severities and probabilities constitute the chosen risk levels. The workaround is to re-create
this risk matrix as an XML file that replicates the risk matrix table held in eCassandra. This needs to be
done only once for each hazard log.
Creating this risk matrix file is a more advanced task and so you should be confident in editing XML files
using a plain text editor.
The risk matrix file must be saved in the same folder as the exported XLS file as follows:
\path\to\exported\xls\file\<exported_filename>.riskmatrix.xml
Where <exported_filename> is the name of the XLS file.
For example, if the example “Glider” example was exported as:
d:\desktop\hazard_log\Glider_export.xls
The associated risk matrix would have to be saved to a file called
d:\desktop\hazard_log\Glider_export.xls.riskmatrix.xml
This is shown in the following screenshot:
Figure 8: Risk matrix XML file saved to export folder
A.1 Structure of the riskmatrix.xml file
The structure of the riskmatrix file should be the same as that used in the exported eCassandra file. It
should have a list of severities and probabilities defining the columns and rows of the risk matrix.
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The <matrix> section of the file should replicate exactly the same risk matrix structure used in hazard log.
An example of the required structure of the XML file is as follows:
<?xml version="1.0"?> <!--
A simple specification of a risk matrix.
Severities are the columns, Probabilities are the rows
and the risk matrix specifies the assigned risk classes
for the various pairs.
-->
<risk-matrix>
<severities>Catastrophic,Critical,Marginal,Negligible</severities>
<probabilities>Frequent,Probable,Occasional,Remote,Improbable,Incredible</probabilities>
<matrix>
<row>A,A,A,B</row>
<row>A,A,B,C</row>
<row>A,B,C,D</row>
<row>B,C,D,D</row>
<row>C,D,D,D</row>
<row>D,D,D,D</row>
</matrix>
</risk-matrix>
Figure 9: Example content required for a risk matrix XML file
A.2 Using Windows Notepad to create the risk matrix file
Windows Notepad can be used to create the risk matrix file, as it is a plain text file.
The main point of note is when you save the file, you should save the full filename, including the full
filename extension – e.g. “Project.xls.riskmatrix.xml”.
If you do not include the full filename and extension, Notepad will save the file with the .TXT file extension.
Other plain text editors can be used as an alternative to Windows Notepad and do not have this limitation.