Workspace Browser: Have It Your Way

The Workspace Browser displays your workspace files and their status at a glance, and provides buttons for performing routine actions quickly. In this article, we show you how you can quickly customize the browser to hone in on the information of interest to you for your current task.

The Workspace Browser can be configured in four areas: browser geometry, focus, filters, and fields. In addition, the find dialog provides an easy way to select all items matching a certain file name pattern.

Browser Geometry

The Workspace Browser provides sticky geometry: If you resize or move it, it will remember. This includes resizing of each of the five individual panes. While the typical configuration will show all panes, it is possible to hide any of the upper panes by setting its width to zero. Just drag the right side of the pane to the left side. Some users hide the Snapshot View to gain space in the Workspace View. This is especially workable if you enable showing missing and pending items in the Workspace View (see Project->Options, Workspace). You also can hide actions pane if desired. If you hide the Snapshot View, be aware that if you browse a snapshot without a workspace, you'll need to open the Snapshot View to see the files. (TIP: If you decide to hide the Snapshot View, for best performance, de-select recursive first.)

Directory or Hierarchy Focus

In a large hierarchy of files, you can filter the items you see by selecting a directory in the Snapshot Folders pane. Only items below that directory in the hierarchy will be selected.

View Filter

The view filters (one for the Snapshot View and one for the Workspace View) display items with certain attributes. You can also show the whole hierarchy of items, or just the selected directory.

The following are the filters available in the Snapshot View and/or Workspace View panes:

• Working Set: The Workspace View can display files not in the workspace, but which want to be there because they are selected by the workspace's working set and missing locally. Select Project->Options, Workspace to enable or disable this setting. When enabled, this option also causes missing local files to be displayed appropriately in the Workspace View filters.
• Names only, or Details: The Snapshot and Workspace Views can be set to show only the item names in a multi-column list, or to display item names in a single column list with details in additional columns. Check or uncheck this using the View->Show Snapshot Details and View->Show Workspace Details menus.
• Recursive: If checked, the complete folder hierarchy is displayed (subject to the selected filter). If not checked, only the immediate folder is displayed. Note: displaying a large hierarchy can be slow. Select a smaller portion of the hierarchy, a more restrictive filter or disable recursive to improve performance.
• All Files: Show all files and folders.
• Out-of-date Files: Show files and folders which are out-of-date in the workspace. Files missing from the workspace are also shown.
• Files Not in Workspace: Show files and folders existing in the snapshot but not in the workspace.
• Files in Workspace: Show files which are in both the workspace and the snapshot.
• Files Not in Snapshot: Show files and folders existing in the workspace but not in the snapshot. Can be especially useful during initial import.
• Files in Snapshot: Show files which are in both the snapshot and the workspace.
• Recoverable Files: Show files and folders in the snapshot which are recoverable. Recoverable folders will also be added to the folder pane for navigation.
• Locked Files: Show files which are locked.
• My Locked Files: Show files which are locked by you.
• Files Needing Action: A combination of the Out-of-date Files, Files Needing Check In and Files Needing Merge filters. Show files which need to be checked in, imported, merged or updated. Perhaps the most used filter of all.
• Files Needing Check In: Show files which exist in both the snapshot and the workspace and have been modified in the workspace since the most recent check out. Files need not be locked to be shown as needing check in. Files needing merge are included, as are items marked for import.
• Files Needing Merge: Show files for which both the workspace and snapshot files have changed since the most recent check out. Files need not be locked to be shown as needing merge.

Field Columns

The Workspace Browser displays the file or directory names selected by the filter, plus up to 11 optional fields for each item. You must select details in the View menu to view additional columns. Fields are shown in columns which you can order to suit your needs simply by dragging the column header to a new position. The list can also be sorted on each column by clicking the column header. Columns are selected and displayed separately for the Snapshot and Workspace View panes by right-clicking on a column header and selecting the Select Columns to View menu. Field order and selection, and column sorting are preserved across runs of the Workspace Browser.

The following fields are available for display:

• Name: Displays the base name or trailing portion of the path name for the item. The Name column cannot be removed, but it can be moved.
• Locks: Display account@host for a lock on the file, where account is the SnapshotCM account of the user setting the lock, and host is the host name of the client system where the lock was set. If no locks are set on the file in this snapshot, the field is empty.
• Lock Revision(s): Show the revision (or revisions in the case of a merge lock) which are locked. Shown as additional information in the Locks column rather than a separate column.
• Modified Date & Time: Shows the date and time modified for the file or directory. If the date is more than 6 months past, the date and year are shown and the time is not shown. Otherwise, the month, day and time are shown. In the Snapshot View, the time shown is that of the active revision referenced by the snapshot. In the Workspace View, the time show is the modification time of the file in the workspace.
• Keyword: Shows the Keyword attribute value for files in the snapshot. This field is empty for directories, and for files which do not exist in the snapshot.
• Lock Comment: Shows the comment entered when the file was locked. This field is empty for items which are not locked, and for locked items for which no lock comment has been set.
• Mode: In the Snapshot View, shows the stored mode attribute for the file or directory. In the Workspace View, shows the mode of the file or directory in the workspace. The mode is shown in octal form.
• Revision: In the Snapshot View, shows the active revision in the snapshot. In the Workspace View, shows the checked out revision. This field is empty for files and directories which do not exist in the snapshot.
• Size: In the Snapshot View, shows the size of the active revision. In the Workspace View, shows the size of the file in the workspace.
• Status in Workspace: Shows the status of the file in the workspace.
• Type: Shows the standard Windows Explorer description of the file type.
• Text / Binary (I/O Mode): In the Snapshot View, shows the Text/Binary attribute value for files in the snapshot. In the Workspace View, shows the Text/Binary mode used to check out the file into the workspace. This field is empty for directories, and for files which do not exist in the snapshot.

The default columns are Name, Locks, and Modified Date & Time.

Find Selection Filter

The Workspace Browser's Find files dialog supports selecting all visible items matching a pattern. For example, to check out all Makefiles, first set your view filter to View All Files Recursively, then select the "Find files" button, or the File->Find menu, and enter "Makefile" in the Find dialog. You can do pattern matching on file or directory names, or on the full item path. Pressing the "Select All" button will select all matching items in the Workspace Browser.

The Workspace Browser is highly configurable to meet your specific needs. And if you see something we've forgotten, please let us know. We are always open to suggestions for further improvements that help you get your work done easier, faster, better.