About access to element information

The tree controls in the Folder pane provide navigation to DevOps Code ClearCase® objects in a view.

Displaying DevOps Code ClearCase element information

When you activate the Folder pane, the default view is represented as a top-level folder in the Folder pane with the context of the last navigation. Expanding the subfolders provides details about the DevOps Code ClearCase objects accessible in the view. Selecting a folder displays fields of file-system and DevOps Code ClearCase information in the Details pane. Use the controls in the Folder pane to expand and close subfolders and navigate to the element that you want to work on. In the Details pane, elements possessing unique characteristics (for example, a checked-out version or an eclipsed version) display with the visual characteristics familiar in other DevOps Code ClearCase tools. Icons in the left column of the Details pane indicate unique characteristics (see the following table).

Icon
Description
A green circle with a white check mark.
A checked-out version. A file or directory is checked out in the current view.
A red circle with a red diagonal line through a white check mark.
A hijacked version. A version in a snapshot view has been modified without being checked out.
A square with a red uppercase X.
A nonloaded version in a snapshot view. A version of the element was loaded into the view, but the file has been deleted or renamed in the view.
A moon in partial eclipse.
An eclipsed version in your view. No version of the element is selected because a view-private object with the same name exists in your view.
A rectangle bound in shadow with diagonal lines on a white background.
For an activity in a project that is enabled for the UCM integration with Rational® ClearQuest®. The UCM activity is bound to a change request in a ClearQuest user database.
A rectangle not bound in shadow with diagonal lines on a white background.
The UCM activity is not bound to a change request in a Rational ClearQuest user database.
A red circle with a red diagonal line through a white check mark and a looping arrow extending from the top.
A formerly hijacked version for which the hijack was undone.

You can control which fields are displayed in the Details pane. Because gathering some data for display takes more processing time and affects tool performance, you may not want to display all possible fields. You can also use standard Windows techniques to sort the data in the columns. Any settings that you make are persistent across invocations of the tool.

In the Folder pane and Details pane, normal Windows Explorer functions such as delete, cut and paste, and dragging are supported. For example, pressing the Delete key performs a cleartool rmname operation on a selection. Rename does a cleartool mv operation. You can use cut and paste and dragging operations to populate your view with folders and files from the file system.

Initial use and appearance

If you start DevOps ClearCase Explorer on a computer on which you have not joined any projects or created any views, the Shortcut pane on the Views page contains only the General page. If you join a project, a page is created under the Views page with the project name.

If you create a view associated with a project from within ClearCase Explorer, a shortcut is created for that view on the page for that project. If you are running ClearCase Explorer and, from ClearCase Explorer, start a view that is associated with a project that does not have a page, a shortcut bar is created for that page.

For any view that you own that is not associated with a project, the tool adds to the General page an icon with the view tag. (There is no way to prevent ClearCase Explorer from creating an icon for a view that you own.) When you exit ClearCase Explorer, it stores, as the default view, information about the view that you last worked in. When you start DevOps Code ClearCase again, it restores the default view.

Ongoing use and appearance

Use the View menu to adjust the window appearance. Click the check boxes to change the display of window panes and bars. Click View > Refresh to have ClearCase Explorer examine the system for the latest state information and re-display the information in the Folder pane and the Details pane.

If you remove a view that you own, its shortcut in ClearCase Explorer is removed. If you remove all the views for a UCM project, its page in ClearCase Explorer is removed. To remove a shortcut for a view that you do not own, remove its view tag from the registry.

Features for new users

For new users, the Information pane presents workflow help topics that outline the work required in different DevOps Code ClearCase environments. The contents of the Information pane depend on the context of your work in a view.

As you work with DevOps Code ClearCase objects in a view, the Information pane displays contextual information about a selected element. Included is brief information about a selected element and its current state. For example, if you select a file, the Information pane shows two columns. One lists the details of your selection. Another offers, under the heading About, informative text or, under the heading Uses, tips on some of the operations that you can perform with the selected object.

In a view context in ClearCase Explorer, you can work in the Details pane to create a new file or directory. If you select the newly created file or directory, the Information pane indicates that you can add it to source control. If you add the file or directory to source control, the Information pane keeps the item selected and tells you that you can check it out. If you are working within a UCM project, you can select an activity; or, if you are checking an element out, you can create a new activity. If the project is enabled for Rational ClearQuest, you can select an activity that is found by the UCMCustomQuery1 query.

After you learn the environment, you can hide the Information pane to reclaim the screen area.