Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Try out the latest 4.0.1 RTC SCM in the jazz.net sandbox

It's really easy to get a feel for the latest RTC SCM 4.0.1. The jazz.net sandbox gets you up and running in seconds. All you need is a jazz.net login account. You'll have your own project area hosted on jazz.net, ready for your trial of RTC and SCM.

Create your jazz.net sandbox


  1. Go to www.jazz.net/sandbox . You may have to create a free jazz.net user account if you've never been there before. That will also allow you to open work items and ask questions on the forum.
  2. Pick the option /sandbox2 - you'll get your project hosted on the very latest RTC 4.0.1 server
  3. Give a name to your project area - e.g. mine is called chrisx's 4.0.1 project.

Upload content into your jazz.net sandbox


Click on Source Control / Welcome to Source Control. You're ready to try our latest SCM!


Your project area is mostly empty to start with. It does come with a default stream, into which you can add folders and files. From the Welcome to Source Control page, click on Show Streams and navigate into the one stream listed there. It has one component which contains no files or folders. Adding new files and folders is very easily done through the Web UI. Click on the Add folder icon as indicated below, give it a name and hit save.


Once that folder is created, you can upload new files, etc. Here below we created a new text file named 'readme.txt'.


Invite others to your sandbox on jazz.net


Being alone isn't the greatest way to try a collaborative tool. So go back to www.jazz.net/sandbox, click on sandbox02/ again. This lists all your project areas, including the one you have just created. Click on the Invitations button and bring your teammates to your trial party. Once they accept your invitation, they will be added to your project area. They will be able to see the files you have added earlier to that default stream and start collaborating with you through RTC Source Control.


Try out the other (non Web UI) RTC Source Control clients


At that point you and your co-workers may want to try out other RTC clients such as the Eclipse RTC Client, RTC Client for Microsoft Visual Studio, RTC Shell (which integrates into the Windows Explorer) or the Command Line Interface tool. You can download the desired client (and your own server if you want to go beyond what the jazz.net hosted sandbox provides) at https://jazz.net/downloads/rational-team-concert/.

As an example, I downloaded and installed the RTC Shell client. This client integrates into the Microsoft Windows Explorer, so I can easily sync up files and folders loaded on my local drive and collaborate with my team members. After the installation, you just accept the team invitation (see below) which is available from the jazz.net sandbox (see above).


I followed the recommendations of the 'Accept Team Invitation' wizard. I created a repository workspace from the stream I had been using earlier and loaded its content under my local drive. It created the expected Documents folder and readme.txt file I had added through the Web UI.


This is showing the RTC Shell client integrated into Windows Explorer. This content was loaded from the RTC server hosted on the jazz.net sandbox. I can make changes to these files and folders with my local editors (Notepad etc.), check-in and deliver them so that others in my team can access them.

Summary


It's really easy to get a quick feel for our latest RTC SCM, with the jazz.net sandbox. And if all you want is to play with our Web UI, you have nothing to download!

Friday, November 23, 2012

Icons used in Rational Team Concert Source Control

The Eclipse client for RTC, RTC Client for Microsoft Visual Studio and the Web UI use specific icons to represent SCM artifacts. These base icons are enhanced with extra visuals relative to their status in certain views (e.g. the Team Artifacts view, Pending Changes view, Repository workspace editor, etc.). Here's a list of the basic icons and their variants used in the SCM. If you are not familiar with any of the terms used below, please try out Good practices and key workflows for Rational Team Concert Source Control users for appropriate references.




Stream


 Repository Workspace


Snapshot


 Baseline




Component


  1. Component (if shown within a repository workspace, also indicate it is loaded or partially loaded in my sandbox)
  2. Component owned by a project area
  3. Component owned by me
  4. Component owned by a contributor who isn't me
  5. Component (if shown within a repository workspace, also indicate it is not loaded in my sandbox)
 



Change Set


  1. Change set (active i.e. not completed, not linked to any work item)
  2. Current change set (active i.e. not completed, auto check-in will default to this change set)
  3. Completed change set (not linked to any work item)
  4. Completed change set linked to one work item
  5. Completed change set linked to two or more work items
If you are puzzled by other SCM icons, please drop a comment below with a link to a screen capture (e.g. attach it to the work item 40464). Hope this reference will be helpful to you.

Note. For icons inside the Pending Changes view, explanations are also provided here.