SW360 User Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Who should be listed as Moderator?

A: Moderator are persons who need to review changes done on certain items (project, component, release or attachment) by persons who do not have the user right to actually do these changes. For BT moderators are the persons with the role ‘Software Clearing Site Representative’.

Q: Who should be listed as Contributor?

A: By default only the owner (or creator) of an item (project, component, release) is allowed to modify this item. Often it is useful that additional people are allowed to edit an item. These additional people (software architects, developers, additional experts) should get listed as contributors.

Q: I have changed a project, component, release or attachment, but SW360 does not show the changes?

A: It might be that you have tried to change something that needs to be review by someone else. In such cases a so called ‘Moderation Request’ is generated. A Moderator needs to approve your changes. Go to the Home view an check the box ‘My Task Submissions’, the project, component, or release should be listed there.

Q: What should I enter in the field ‘Visibility’.

A: Visibility controls which group of people is allowed to see a project. The default setting is ‘Everyone’, i.e. everyone within an organisation can see the project and all its releases.

Q: How can I change the ‘Clearing State’ of a release?

A: There is no direct way to do it. If there is no clearing report available, the clearing state will be ‘New’. If a clearing report available it will be ‘Clearing report available’. If at least one clearing report has been approved, the clearing state will be ‘Approved’.

Q: I can’t find a specific release inside my project – what can I do?

A: You can sort each column by clicking on the column name, i.e. you can sort the entries by name, project origin, clearing state, mainline state or project mainline state – normally that helps finding a certain release.

Q: I can’t delete my component called ‘Tom’s Test Component’.

A: Do not use special characters like single or double quotes. To be able to delete such a component or release you’ll first have to rename it…

Q: What is Copyleft Effect?

A: Copyleft effect is the reverse idea of copyright. Goal is that software licensed under such license is always free and can never get a privatised software asset. The user gets the freedom to run, copy, modify and distribute the software, but it is not possible to add any further restrictions. This implies that modified software must also be free and becomes available to the community.

Q: Different Classification of the Open Source Licenses.

A: There are hundreds of OSS licenses, the following table will give a brief overview about the most common OSS licenses, the risks and the obligations that need to be fulfilled when using them: