Workgroup menu

Use the Workgroup menu to set up version control and manage workflow on projects involving many programmers. JBuilder version control is an interface to Intersolv PVCS Version Manager 5.1 or later.

Choose one of the following Workgroup menu commands for more information.

Why use version control?

After you have created more than one application or source code file with JBuilder, version control helps you organize and keep track of the programs. You might want to archive old versions of an application before you start to work on the new version. If you work with a team of programmers, you need a way to coordinate which programmers have access to certain files, so that one programmer does not accidentally lose, change, or overwrite another programmer's code.

A version control system is useful when managing multiple or complex programming projects. Version control is used to archive files, control access to files by locking, and manage multiple versions of your projects. Team development support is included in JBuilder Client/Server.

PVCS Version Manager lets you store all the successive revisions of each file in an archive. Each project consists of a set of archives. Programmers checkout working files ("workfiles") from the archives, modify them, then check them back in, indicating revisions made, author, and date. The locking features of checkin and checkout prevent overwrites and out-of-sync problems. Also, you can track which changes were made at every stage to every file in a project: the who, what, when, and why of every modification.


Workgroup|Browse PVCS Projects

Displays the PVCS Project window where you perform all version control tasks. You can check in or check out files, add, edit, or remove labels, lock or unlock revisions, run visual comparison, and archive reports. The Help icon opens the PVCS Help system for details on version control tasks.


Workgroup|Manage Archive Directories

Specifies or creates directories for the PVCS Version Control archives that make up a project.

This command is only available when the PVCS window open and a project selected in the left pane.

An archive stores all the successive revisions of an individual workfile. Developers checkout workfiles from the archives, modify them, then check them back in, indicating revisions made, author, and date.

To use the Manage Archive Directories dialog box:

  1. Specify an archive directory in the Directory and Drives lists.
  2. To designate the specified directory an archive location, click Add.
  3. To remove an archive location from the Archive directories list, click Remove.
  4. Choose OK to save the archive directory specification.


Workgroup|Add <Project> to Version Control

Creates a new PVCS project for the current JBuilder project.


Workgroup|Set Data Directories

Sets directories for workfiles. When you check out a workfile from the archive, it is located in the directory you specify in this dialog box.