Project types

SNiFF+ distinguishes between two different project types: shared and absolute. The following table outlines the differences between these two project types:

Project Type | PDF Default extension | Can files be shared among developers? | Project attributes refer to files and subprojects using:
Shared | *.shared | yes | paths relative to a root directory
Absolute (Browsing-Only) | *.proj | no | absolute path names

Shared projects
As the name suggests, shared projects are suitable for team development. Each team member has access to a shared project and can make changes to its files and/or structure. Shared projects are always used in conjunction with a configuration management and version control (CMVC) tool of your choice.
Shared projects offer a great deal of flexibility. Since all references to files and subprojects are relative to a root directory, you can easily move a shared project to another location on a file system.

| Note
| We strongly recommend that you work with shared projects, even if you don't work in a team. In our experience, most single-user development work is incorporated into a team development environment sooner or later. With shared projects, the transition from a single-user to a team environment is much smoother than with absolute projects.

Absolute projects (Browsing-Only)
Absolute projects are most suitable for browsing code. It's easy to set up an absolute project, so it makes sense to use them if you just need to get your source code "into SNiFF+" for browsing purposes. For any serious development work, use shared projects.