Workflow for setting up work areas

To contribute work to a UCM project, you must first set up your work areas.

Figure 1. Workflow for setting up work areas in a multiple-stream project

Setting up work areas in a multiple-stream project is a developer role that involves a cyclic workflow. The workflow iterates through finding and setting activities; working on activities; delivering activities; rebasing your work area; and returns to finding and setting activities.

Figure 2. Workflow for setting up work areas in a single-stream project

Setting up work areas in a single-stream project is a developer role that involves a serial workflow. The workflow starts at finding and setting activities, moves to working on activities, and ends with complete activities.

Setting up work areas

To set up work areas for a UCM project that uses multiple streams, you join a project and create your work areas: a development area for working on activities in isolation and an integration area for testing the activities you deliver. Each work area consists of a view and a stream.

If you work in a single-stream project, you set up only one work area: a view attached to an integration stream.

On the Windows® system, you can customize your HCL VersionVault Windows Explorer environment.

To set up work areas for multiple-stream projects, you must complete the following tasks:
  • Adjusting your umask (Linux and UNIX only)
  • Starting the Join Project Wizard
  • Choosing a project
  • Verifying stream names
  • Setting up views
  • Choosing components to load in to snapshot views
  • Accessing your development view
Several of the tasks such as choosing a project, verifying stream names, setting up views and choosing components will be accomplished by completing the steps of the Join Project Wizard.
Tip: If you prefer to use the command line, you can complete some of these tasks by using arguments for the cleartool mkstream and cleartool mkview commands.

About setting up work areas in a single-stream project

The tasks that you perform while setting up work areas in a single-stream project are similar to those for a multiple-stream project. However, there are a few differences in the details.

  • You do not verify stream names.

    You cannot create development streams in a single-stream project. Therefore, you create only one view that is attached to the integration stream, the only stream in the project.

  • You create only an integration view when you run the Join Project wizard.

    In single-stream projects, the integration stream is the sole project work area. Each developer has a view (an integration view) in which to work privately. Your integration view is attached to the integration stream, the shared work area for the project.

  • You access your integration view rather than your development view.

    In a single-stream project, you have no development views. However, to access your integration view, you follow the same steps as you would to access development views.

Associating additional views with a development stream

To maintain the isolated nature of a development work area in a multiple-stream project, you usually associate only a single view with a single development stream. However, if you and a team member need to develop a single activity or set of closely related activities together, each of you might need to create a separate view and associate it with a single development stream. You can attach a new view to an existing development stream.

Tip: You must explicitly update a snapshot view to see any changes to the stream that occur outside your view. For example, if someone checks in files or initiates a rebase operation for a development stream from a different snapshot view, you must update your view to see the changes in the stream.

Check with your project manager to determine whether associating multiple views with a single development stream is the best way to complete your task.