Team software development with VersionVault

HCL VersionVault provides configuration management services that make it easy for development teams to work with resources in a shared repository. With the HCL VersionVault Explorer, developers can access HCL VersionVault from a variety of network connections, including broadband (WAN) and traditional local area networks (LANs).

HCL VersionVault provides a secure repository and integrated configuration management tools that enable a variety of operations on repository contents. The HCL VersionVault Explorer provides developers with access to HCL VersionVault repositories and configuration management services supported by an HCL VersionVault server called the VersionVault WAN server.

The HCL VersionVault Explorer is powered by Eclipse technology. Eclipse is an open source platform for the construction of powerful software development tools and rich desktop applications. For more information about Eclipse, see the Eclipse Web site at https://www.eclipse.org

The HCL VersionVault Explorer and HCL VersionVault Explorer for Eclipse

The HCL VersionVault Explorer is available in two forms:

  • The HCL VersionVault Explorer, which is designed for use outside of the Eclipse integrated development environment, and includes:
    • Viewers, such as the VersionVault Navigator view and VersionVault Details view, that provide access to resources loaded into HCL VersionVault views and the ability to browse the contents of remote HCL VersionVault repositories.
    • Dialog boxes that implement operations such as check out and check in.
    • Wizards that automate tasks such as joining a UCM project and creating VersionVault views
    • Toolbars and context menus that provide access to the windows and wizards
  • The HCL VersionVault Explorer for Eclipse, which integrates the HCL VersionVault Explorer with the software development environments provided by Eclipse. When you install the HCL VersionVault Explorer for Eclipse into an Eclipse environment, all HCL VersionVault Explorer viewers are available in the VersionVault Windows Explorer perspective and can also be added to other Eclipse perspectives. Dialog boxes and wizards are accessible from HCL VersionVault toolbars (which can be added to any Eclipse perspective that supports a team provider) and also from the Eclipse Team context menu.
Most Help topics for the VersionVault Explorer also apply to the VersionVault Explorer for Eclipse. When a VersionVault operation behaves differently in the Eclipse environment than it does in a standalone environment, the differences are noted when the behaviors are described.

HCL VersionVault development models

HCL VersionVault supports two development models:

  • Unified Change Management (UCM), which is a pre-configured, activity-based change management process.
  • Base VersionVault, which is a set of tools that you can use to create a configuration management process tailored to your specific needs.

Your project manager determines which development model your team uses.

Both the VersionVault Explorer and VersionVault Explorer for Eclipse support UCM and base VersionVault. To get started, see Using the HCL VersionVault Explorer or Using the HCL VersionVault Explorer for Eclipse.

Documentation

In addition to the Help available with the VersionVault Explorer, you can find detailed information about developing software using either base VersionVault or UCM in the HCL VersionVault documentation.

Context-sensitive Help

Every view and dialog box in the VersionVault Explorer provides context-sensitive Help. To get Help for the VersionVault Explorer interface that has the current focus, press the platform-specific help key (such as F1 on Windows).

Screen resolution

For Linux installations, the minimum recommended screen resolution is 1280x1024. If a lower resolution is used, some dialogs might be truncated or incomplete. In the event that lower screen resolutions are used and truncation occurs, a workaround is to resize the dialog manually.