The Related Projects item in the Utilities section of the project explorer allows shows all relationships between this project and other projects. As soon as a relationship is established across project boundaries, an entry is added for that related project reflecting the name of the related project, the location (shown in square brackets), and the number of related elements in that project (shown in parenthesis). A project can be related to zero, one, or as many other projects as you wish.
When a related project is selected, the element list shows all elements within that project that are related in one or more ways to the current project. This element is actually a proxy (a lightweight copy of the element in the other project) guaranteeing that there is at least some context information available at all times. If the other project is offline or the specific element proxy can't be resolved, the proxy maintains a cached set of attribute values. This cache is automatically updated whenever the related project is online and accessible.
All rules that govern the behavior of elements apply whether the element is in this project or in a related project. Access control determines what a user can and cannot see, what a user can and cannot do.
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To help distinguish elements in other projects, two conventions are used. When the element name is shown in a list, it is shown in blue. When the element is shown on a diagram, a block is placed in the lower-left corner of the icon. |
By default, a property sheet is shown for related elements. If the related project is offline and the project cannot be resolved, no other views are available. However, if the project is online and can be opened, all of the view tabs are available. Depending upon the connection settings (whether the related project is to be treated as a white box or a black box), you can seamlessly cross the boundary and treat the combined project space as a meta-project.
When dealing with cross-project relationships, the Jump to Element command provides a quick way to navigate into the related project (even opening it if necessary) without losing your place in your current project.