Developing software with HCL VersionVault Explorer

HCL VersionVault provides two clients for software developers: local and remote. Each client supports different mechanisms for accessing source-controlled filesystem objects. Both clients provide graphical and command-line interfaces.

The table that follows summarizes some important characteristics of the two clients.
Table 1. Characteristics of VersionVault clients for software developers
Client Network connection type Connection to repository of source-controlled objects View types User interfaces
VersionVault Local Client LAN only RPC connection to a Versioned Object Base (VOB)
  • Dynamic
  • Snapshot
  • GUI: VersionVault Explorer
  • CLI: cleartool
VersionVault Remote Client WAN and LAN http(s) connection to a VOB through a VersionVault WAN server
  • Automatic
  • Web
  • GUI: VersionVault Explorer
  • CLI: rcleartool

The term view, as used in this table, refers to the mechanism for accessing versions in a VOB. For example, snapshot, automatic and web views provide copy-based mechanisms, whereas the dynamic view provides a mechanism to access versions in real time directly from VOB storage.

Another qualification of the term view refers to the configuration management model that governs the development of software. The two models are called Base VersionVault and Unified Change Management (UCM):
  • In a Base VersionVault view, you specify the configuration explicitly by rules for version selection, branching, and so on.
  • In a UCM view, the configuration is generated by VersionVault operations based on the stream used by the view.

The topics that follow describe the use of VersionVault using VersionVault Explorer, the GUI that is common to both clients. For information on the cleartool and rcleartool command-line interfaces, refer to HCL VersionVault command reference.