Help Make NetBeans ClearCase Support Great

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Subheadline:

Test the new ClearCase support in NetBeans 6.1

Location:

Prague

As of 12 days ago, there is ClearCase support for NetBeans 6.1 available. So far there have not been many downloads. This is not that surprising since it tends to be used in fairly large, conservative companies, who don't tend to try daily builds of NetBeans.

So I'm asking for your help - if you use ClearCase and could spare a few minutes, please try it out. Version control system integration is something that, in particular, needs heavy testing to make sure it meets people's needs. But we have a problem that there isn't as much overlap between people use ClearCase and people who use daily builds of NetBeans. So we're asking for the help of anyone who is using ClearCase and can try this out to please do. Here's how:

Get a daily build of NetBeans 6.1 - This link will always give you the most recent
Start it and go to Tools | Plugins on the main menu
Toward the bottom of the list you should see an item for Clearcase. Check its checkbox.
Click the Install button below to download and install it (no restart required :-)).
Try it out:
- Either open an existing NetBeans project that is already controlled by ClearCase - versioning options will be available by right clicking files, or...,
- Do a checkout using the Versioning | ClearCase menu and then do the above
File an issue if you encounter any problems, or think of a way it can be improved

Thanks for your support,
Tim

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Comments

cfagan replied on Fri, 2008/02/15 - 5:32pm

~~I can't seem to get the installer to work. Is there a knows issue under windows? Which JDK should I use?~~ (reboot and the install went fine)

Since I can't test I have to ask. Is there a mechinism for keeping the XML file that the GUI builder uses in sync with the code that gets generated? When you check out/in one does the other automatically follow?

Eugene Kuleshov replied on Fri, 2008/02/15 - 7:22pm

An actual overview of that ClearCase support would be really appreciated. Give us a sneak pick preview so we can see if it worth to try it out at all.

Tim Boudreau replied on Fri, 2008/02/15 - 9:22pm

Eugene: I've asked the developers of it to reply with some details here. Since it's already Saturday morning in Prague, you may not get an answer until Monday. In the meantime, here is a link to the UI specification for it, which shows all of the proposed menu contents and therefore what features it supports. It is pretty extensive - the goal is to be comparable to NetBeans (quite good) CVS and SVN support.

Collin: The GUI editor question is a bit off topic in this thread; I'd suggest using nbusers@netbeans.org or a separate thread to discuss that. To briefly answer your question: The java code for the GUI is generated from the XML file. The GUI editor is an editor for that XML file really. When the XML file changes, the code gets regenerated. If you open the GUI editor and make a change, it gets sync'd at that time.

Tim Boudreau

Senior Staff Engineer

Sun Microsystems

cfagan replied on Fri, 2008/02/15 - 10:01pm

@Tim: I'm sorry I wasn't really clear. Does the clearcase plugin or netbeans itself force the XML and the GUI code to be chekced in and out at the same time? One concern some people at my office have is the two getting out of sync becouse the XML is "one more thing to remember to check in". I'm very happy clearcase support is comming. I know it was something I asked about at the midwest java tech days.

Tim Boudreau replied on Sat, 2008/02/16 - 12:25am

I see. Yes, you need to check them both in at the same time; it's best to think of them as if they were one file. If you are using NetBeans ClearCase support, then it should, just as with CVS or SVN, check in both if you right click the Java file (the XML file is invisible in the filesystems view - the node for the associated Java file represents both); FWIW I've never had a problem with accidentally checking in or out one and not the other using NetBeans CVS or SVN support. If you were doing it manually from the command line and used a glob pattern like *.java, I could see how it might be an issue though.

cfagan replied on Sat, 2008/02/16 - 7:40am

@Tim this is perfect. Thanks.

David Sills replied on Sat, 2008/02/16 - 2:51pm

I am very glad to see this, even though in this particular position I'm not actually using ClearCase. It is one of the major players and this will assist many. Great job, folks, and good luck!

Gilles Philippart replied on Sun, 2008/02/17 - 8:26am

Hello Tim,

I just downloaded Netbeans and the CC plugin and played a few minutes with it. Note that i'm an IntelliJ user a quite satisfied with its CC support although there are still a few quirks.

Here is my feedback :

1 - There is no support for Clearcase UCM, which we use (UCM adds activities management and facilitates branch management).

2 - Couldn't find a global 'cross project' view of everything changed. The "show changes" seems to work on a per project basis. If i have 10 opened projects, and have make related changes in those projects, i'd like to be able to see those at once.

3 - The Versioning -> clearcase main menu was disabled after a few operations (don't know how) and never went enabled again...

4 - Some strange popup dialogs 'clearcase command failure' in the show changes view

5 - There should be a clearcase menu in editor (currently only available on file tab and file node)

Gilles

Tomas Pavek replied on Sun, 2008/02/17 - 9:06am in response to: eu

You'll find all info here:

http://versioncontrol.netbeans.org/clearcase/

- links to installation instructions, overview of functionality, UI spec, mailing list to ask questions, etc.

Tim Boudreau replied on Sun, 2008/02/17 - 12:37pm in response to: gphilipp

Thanks for the feedback! Generally, when someone tells me they are using ClearCase today, should I assume they mean ClearCase + UCM?

Re the global 'cross project' view, I tend to agree - we don't have that for CVS or SVN either - if you have project B underneath project A, and do a commit on A, project B is not committed - which is exactly right some of the time, and completely wrong some of the time.

Re menu in the editor popup - I actually filed a patch to do that some time ago - the justification for not having it there was to avoid cluttering the editor menu and the idea that that menu should be more for editing-like things. It was closed, I reopened it, and that's the state of it. Feel free to vote for it or add comments.

Re menu disablement and popup dialogs, I've passed that on to the folks working on it, who are also reading this discussion.

Peter Pis replied on Sun, 2008/02/17 - 2:32pm in response to: gphilipp

Hi Gilles,

1. As far as I know there are no plans for having the support for UCM implemented in 6.1.

2. And what about using "Favorites" view "Ctrl+3". Invoking the "Add to Favorites" popup menu action choose the active ClearCase View where your projects are located. But this approach calls for having projects in one view. Then you can invoke CC actions for the entire view.

3. All clearcase actions are available in main menu directly under "Versioning" item while "Versioning | Clearcase" is disabled to prevent duplicity of available actions for appropriate context under CC control.

4. Could you please be more specific? Or possibly file an issue with additional information (messages.log)? http://qa.netbeans.org/issues/enter_bug.cgi?component=clearcase

Regards and thanks for feedback,

-Peter

Gilles Philippart replied on Mon, 2008/02/18 - 3:55am in response to: tim

Hi Tim,

In fact, supporting UCM is not much more complicated than supporting "Base Clearcase".

The only thing that must absolutely be supported is the activity concept. Every 'cleacase checkout' (not cvs checkout) is done under some activity. When editing a file, a popup should ask which activity you want to use (combo), you can create a new one if you want to. That's it.

Everything else is not IDE related : deliver, rebases etc..., and can be done outside Netbeans via command line or Clearcase Explorer. Other ide like Eclipse and IntelliJ don't support these operations natively, they just delegate to various clearcase tools.

The global cross project view i was talking about is something really useful, and i can't work without it now (in IntelliJ). Eclipse doesn't have that by the way, you can't see in a glance what files you have modified.

I don't even expect Nebteans to create my views, i think most serious shops that use CC will have some scripts to do that (we do).

For your information, i have like 10 projects open at a time, with dependencies between them, and each project is located in its own view.

Augusto Sellhorn replied on Thu, 2008/02/28 - 8:29pm

Tim;

Clearcase support is a BIG gap in Netbeans. As a matter of fact, I know a lot of people that had to switch to Eclipse basically because of the lack of cc support in Netbeans.

I tried the module pretty quickly, but I don't use native clearcase on my system I use clearcase web. What is really needed is native clearcase (and clearcase integration) instead of using the cleartool executable which is what the module does now.

CCWeb is important for remote and VPN connections, and is more accessible than clearcase native. Eclipse has integration with CCWeb, and I believe IBM has a package for this. Obviously, they have some Eclipse Plugin that does it, and I wouldn't be surprised (and hope) that that is open source code that could be used in Netbeans.

Wish I could help with this, the important thing is to get a clearcase library that integrates well (not just uses cleartool.exe) ... maybe it's time to look at those packages on the eclipse/IBM sites again.

Peter Pis replied on Mon, 2008/03/03 - 8:28am

We have created mailing list for people interested in discussion about the NetBeans Clearcase plugin development and features, you can subscribe here: clearcase-interest-subscribe@versioncontrol.netbeans.org?subject=Subscribe . We are looking forward for feedback.