Information to send to IBM when reporting a problem

When you report a problem to IBM, include the following information to increase the likelihood that the Model RealTime development team can reproduce and fix it:

• Version number of Model RealTime installation used
  You can find the version number in the About dialog. Click on the Model RealTime icon to see the version number.
• Clear description of the steps taken that led to the problem
  If you don't remember the steps or the problem occurs only sporadically, at least you might be able to say in which area of the tool that the problem occurred.
• The error log
  Always look in the error log when you are about to report a problem. It might contain a recent message that is relevant to the problem. To open the error log, invoke Window – Show View – Other – Error Log. If the problem has caused Model RealTime to hang, you can access the error log from the file system (go to your workspace folder and look in the text file .metadata/.log). Attach any recent message from the error log to the problem report. Make sure to include any stack traces (obtained by double-clicking the message in the Error log view).
• A sample model
  If the problem can be reproduced in a sample model, please attach that model to the problem report. If you know that the Model RealTime development team already has access to the model where the problem occurred, you can refer to relevant elements of that model. If you are unable to provide a model, a screen shot that shows the problem occurring in your model can sometimes help.
• Workspace metadata
  This is the contents of the .metadata folder in your workspace folder. The workspace metadata can be big so you don't always need to attach it to a problem report. However, if you have noticed that the problem only occurs in a particular workspace, attach the workspace metadata. Even if you decide not to attach the workspace metadata initially, it is a good idea to make a copy of it so that you can provide it later if required.
• A thread dump
  A thread dump contains information about what the application is doing at a particular point in time. For certain kinds of problems, a thread dump is the most important information to attach to the problem report:
  • If Model RealTime seems to be hanging, or operates very slowly, for whatever reason.
  • If Model RealTime enters some unexpected state, such as showing a faulty dialog. Taking the thread dump in that situation might provide valuable information about how the tool ended up in that state. See Taking thread dumps for information about how to obtain a thread dump from Model RealTime.
• A screen shot or video clip
  A picture says more than a thousand words. For performance related problems, a screen shot of the Progress dialog can give hints about what the tool is doing. For diagram related problems, a screen shot can show the symptom of a problem. Take more than one screen shot if necessary. For problems that only occur after a sequence of actions, a video recording can be helpful.