Read, write and query OMG ReqIF requirements documents from any .NET application.

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ReqIF (Requirements Interchange Format) is the OMG standard that requirements tools such as IBM DOORS, Siemens Polarion, PTC Codebeamer and ReqIF Studio use to exchange specifications. ReqIFSharp gives you the complete ReqIF object model in C#, so you can import requirements into your own application, export them to other tools, or build pipelines that check, transform and report on them.

Read a ReqIF file in ten lines

using ReqIFSharp;
using ReqIFSharp.Extensions.ReqIFExtensions;

var reqif = new ReqIFDeserializer().Deserialize("traceability.reqif").First();

Console.WriteLine($"{reqif.TheHeader.Title}, exported by {reqif.TheHeader.SourceToolId}");

foreach (var specification in reqif.CoreContent.Specifications)
{
    Console.WriteLine(specification.LongName);

    foreach (var requirement in specification.QueryAllContainedSpecObjects())
    {
        var id   = requirement.Values.OfType<AttributeValueString>().FirstOrDefault()?.TheValue;
        var text = requirement.Values.OfType<AttributeValueXHTML>().FirstOrDefault()?.ExtractUnformattedTextFromValue();

        Console.WriteLine($"  {id,-7} {text}");
    }
}

Traceability Template, exported by fmStudio (http://formalmind.com/studio)
Requirements Document
  REQ-1   Stakeholder Requirements
  REQ-2   This is a simple template that demonstrates the traceability capabilities of ReqIF Studio.
  REQ-6   Simply delete these instructions in the Stakeholder Requirements and System Requirements, and you are good to go.
  REQ-7   Traceability Basics
  REQ-3   You can quickly recognize whether outgoing traces exist by looking into the right-most column (called Link).
  ...

Write one just as easily

var content = new ReqIFContent();
var reqif = new ReqIF
{
    Lang = "en",
    TheHeader = new ReqIFHeader { Identifier = "header-1", Title = "Coffee machine", CreationTime = DateTime.UtcNow,
                                  ReqIFToolId = "my-tool", ReqIFVersion = "1.0", SourceToolId = "my-tool" },
    CoreContent = content
};

var text = new DatatypeDefinitionString { Identifier = "dt-text", LongName = "Text", MaxLength = 1000, LastChange = DateTime.UtcNow };
var textAttribute = new AttributeDefinitionString { Identifier = "ad-text", LongName = "Text", Type = text, LastChange = DateTime.UtcNow };
var requirementType = new SpecObjectType { Identifier = "sot-req", LongName = "Requirement", LastChange = DateTime.UtcNow };
requirementType.SpecAttributes.Add(textAttribute);

var requirement = new SpecObject { Identifier = "req-1", Type = requirementType, LastChange = DateTime.UtcNow };
requirement.Values.Add(new AttributeValueString { Definition = textAttribute, TheValue = "The machine shall brew a cup in under 30 seconds." });

content.DataTypes.Add(text);
content.SpecTypes.Add(requirementType);
content.SpecObjects.Add(requirement);

new ReqIFSerializer().Serialize(new[] { reqif }, "coffee.reqifz");   // or .reqif

The Writing ReqIF guide turns this into a full, schema-valid document with a specification tree and trace links.

Why ReqIFSharp

• The whole standard. Datatypes, spec types, spec objects, specification hierarchies, relations and relation groups, enumerations and rich XHTML text: the complete ReqIF 1.2 object model, as plain C# classes.
• Every file format. .reqif XML, and .reqifz / .zip archives that hold several ReqIF documents plus embedded images and other attachments.
• Optional schema validation. Validate against the official ReqIF and XHTML schemas. They are embedded in the library, so validation works offline.
• Faithful round-trips. Namespace declarations and attributes of the original document are kept when you read a file and write it back.
• Sync and async. Every read and write has an ...Async variant with cancellation support, from files or streams.
• Query helpers. ReqIFSharp.Extensions answers questions like "which specifications contain this requirement?", "which trace links start here?" and "show me this attribute value as text".
• Runs everywhere .NET runs. Targets netstandard2.0: .NET Framework 4.6.2+, .NET 6, 8 and 10, on Windows, Linux and macOS.
• Built for regulated work. Apache 2.0 licensed, a single runtime dependency, reproducible builds and an SBOM inside every NuGet package.

Installation

dotnet add package ReqIFSharp
dotnet add package ReqIFSharp.Extensions   # optional: query helpers and a loader service

Package	What it gives you
ReqIFSharp	The ReqIF object model, ReqIFDeserializer and ReqIFSerializer.
ReqIFSharp.Extensions	Query extension methods over the model, and ReqIFLoaderService to load and cache a document and its attachments.

See it in action

Open any .reqif or .reqifz file in the browser with the ReqIF Viewer, a web application built on ReqIFSharp. The source is at STARIONGROUP/reqifviewer.

Documentation

The wiki has the guides:

• Quick Start: install, read and write a document in five minutes
• ReqIF Concepts: how a ReqIF document is structured, with a diagram
• Reading ReqIF: files, streams, archives, validation, attribute values and logging
• Writing ReqIF: build a document from scratch
• ReqIFSharp.Extensions: query helpers, attachments and the loader service
• FAQ

Release notes are in the CHANGELOG.

Dependencies

ReqIFSharp has a single runtime dependency: Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Abstractions, with a deliberately low minimum version of 6.0.0. A NuGet package reference is a minimum, so the low floor keeps the library usable from older applications.

On .NET 8, 10 or any other modern runtime you don't have to do anything: NuGet picks the version your application already uses. To be explicit, reference the version that matches your runtime in your own project:

<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Abstractions" Version="10.0.0" />

Software Bill of Materials (SBOM)

Every NuGet package contains an SPDX 2.2 SBOM at _manifest/spdx_2.2/manifest.spdx.json, generated during the build. It lists the components and dependencies of the package with their versions, so you can track vulnerabilities and audit what you ship. See the SBOM page for how to extract it.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome: bug reports, documentation fixes and pull requests alike. Read the contribution guidelines first. Before we can accept a code contribution, we ask contributors to sign the Contributor License Agreement (CLA) and send it digitally signed to s.gerene@stariongroup.eu. The CLAs are in the CLA folder.

License

ReqIFSharp and ReqIFSharp.Extensions are provided to the community under the Apache License 2.0.