Concepts

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Architecture and Design

Powersheet Architecture — How the server extension, client application, and YAML configuration layers fit together inside Siemens Polarion ALM. Core Components — The four building blocks of every powersheet: data model, sheet configuration, Powersheet Drive, and the document entry point. Model-Driven Design — Why Powersheet uses a declarative data model to abstract Polarion work item types and link roles into a portable configuration layer.

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Configuration

Data Model vs Sheet Configuration — Understanding the separation between what data exists (data model) and how it is displayed (sheet configuration). Configuration Hierarchy — How YAML configuration files are discovered and loaded, scoping rules for global vs project-specific storage, and key YAML patterns used in sheet configurations.

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Data Modeling

Entity Types and Relationships — Defining domainModelTypes, mapping them to Polarion work item types, and declaring relationships with from, to, cardinality, and linkRole. Navigation Properties — How direct and back create traversable paths used in expansion paths and column binding paths. Link Cardinality — The meaning of the many-to-one and many-to-many cardinality values and how they affect the sheet UI. Test Records — How the execution results of a test case are read from Polarion test runs and shown as read-only rows beneath the test case. Hierarchy and Traceability — How expansion paths let you navigate multi-level entity hierarchies such as, for example, UserNeed to SystemRequirement to DesignRequirement in an RTM model.

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Constraints and Rules

Process Constraints — Enforcing engineering methodology through load, create, and pick constraints that go beyond what Polarion provides natively. Document Rules — Restricting where work items can be created or selected using moduleFolder, moduleName, type, and component constraints.

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Platform Integration

Polarion Integration — How Powersheet embeds inside Polarion, registers administration pages, and stores configuration in SVN. Collection-Scoped Sheets — How a sheet opened inside a Polarion Collection shows only the Collection’s documents, each at the revision the Collection pins, and which rows stay editable. Admin AI Assistant — The documentation-grounded chat in the configuration editor: how it stays grounded in the documentation, what it needs to be available, and the browser-based authentication flow behind it. AI Assistant — How the Powersheet AI Assistant proposes existing Polarion work items for the row you are on and links the ones you accept: the actions an administrator configures, how a proposal is constrained before you see it, and what applying it writes. Arrives with the separately installed Nextedy AI package.

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See Also

• Getting Started — Hands-on tutorials for your first data model and sheet configuration
• Reference — Complete YAML property reference for data models and sheet configurations
• FAQ — Answers to common configuration and setup questions