Shared and private work areas

A work area consists of a view and a stream. A view is a directory tree that shows a single version of each file in your project. A stream is an HCL VersionVault object that maintains a list of activities and baselines and determines which versions of elements appear in your view.

A project contains one integration stream, which records the project baselines and enables access to shared versions of the project elements. The integration stream and a corresponding integration view represent the project main shared work area.

In a typical project, each developer has a private work area, which consists of a development stream and a corresponding development view. The development stream maintains a list of the developer’s activities and determines which versions of elements appear in the developer’s view.

When you create a project from the UCM graphic user interface (GUI), the integration stream is created for you. If you create a project from the command-line interface, you need to create the integration stream explicitly. Developers create their development streams and development views when they join the project.