Specifying the Path to the cleartool Executable

NetBeans IDE automatically tries to identify the location of the cleartool executable file by using the $PATH system variable on your computer. Depending on your platform however, or whether you installed the ClearCase client to a different location, it may be necessary to specify the path to the executable file explicitly. To set the path to the ClearCase executable file in the IDE:

1. Choose Tools > Options from the main menu. The Options dialog opens.
2. Select the Miscellaneous icon along the top of the dialog, then click the Versioning tab. In the left pane under Versioning Systems, select ClearCase. User-defined options for ClearCase display in the main window of the dialog:
   
   
3. In the Specify the cleartool Executable Path text field, either type in the path to the executable file or click Browse to navigate to it on your system.
4. Click OK, then restart the IDE to allow changes to take effect.

Note: For more information see NetBeans ClearCase Integration Setup and Release Notes.

Opening an Existing Project in the IDE

If you already have a ClearCase versioned project which you have been working with, you can open it in the IDE and versioning features will automatically become available to you. The IDE scans your open projects and if they are located in a ClearCase view directory, file status and context-sensitive support automatically become active.

To open a ClearCase versioned project:

1. Choose File > Open Project from the main menu and work your way through the Open Project wizard. When specifying the project location, navigate to the location within a ClearCase view directory on your computer. When you complete the wizard, the project displays in the Projects window (Ctrl-1), and versioning support becomes active.

Note: You can also open a project or directory in the Favorites window. This may be necessary if your ClearCase directory is not a NetBeans project. To do so, right-click in the Favorites window (Ctrl-3) and choose Add to Favorites. In the Add to Favorites dialog that displays, navigate to the top-level ClearCase view directory on your computer and click Add. A tree view of the directory is added to the Favorites window.

Creating a New Project and Placing it under Source Control

Alternately, you can create a new project and place it under ClearCase source control, then continue to work on it in the IDE. When you create a new project, you need to specify its location within a ClearCase view. This allows the IDE to recognize that versioning support is required. When the project is created, all files are initially view-private). You can then add the project to the ClearCase server using the IDE's Add to Source Control command.

To create a new project:

1. Choose File > New Project from the main menu and work your way through the New Project wizard. In Step 2, Name and Location, select a directory in a ClearCase view. When you click Finish, the project is created and a tree view of its directory is added to the Projects window (Ctrl-1). Upon creation, the IDE automatically recognizes that the project is in a view and all relevant ClearCase actions and file status information become available.

When a versioned project is opened in the IDE, all file and folder names are rendered green, indicating that they have 'new' status. (Any files displayed in grey have 'ignored' status. See Badges and Color Encoding below for more information.) The IDE automatically decides for each versioned project file whether it is a candidate for version control or not (i.e., Source files in packages are usually meant to be versioned, whereas project private files are generally ignored).

It is possible to to modify the way IDE handles private file views using the following options:

• Schedule View Private Files For checkin option in the ClearCase Options dialog
• Ignored Files setting available under Tools > Options > Advanced Options > IDE Configuration > System > System Settings > Ignored Files

Now that your project is created, you can synchronize it with a ClearCase server using the IDE's Add to Source Control command:

1. Right-click the project node in the Projects window and choose Add to source control. The Add dialog opens listing all new view-private files which are not automatically ignored by the IDE:
   
2. Type in a message in the Describing Message text area. Alternatively, click the Recent Messages () icon located in the upper right corner to view and select from a list of messages that you have previously used.
3. After specifying actions for individual files, click Add. The IDE's status bar, located in the bottom right of the interface, displays as the Add action takes place. Upon a successful Add, versioning badges disappear in the Projects, Files and Favorites windows, and the color encoding of checked-in files becomes black.

Note: From the Add dialog, it is possible to specify whether to exclude individual files from the Add action. To do so, click the Action column of a selected file and choose Do not Add from the drop-down list.

Viewing Changes in the Source Editor

When you open a versioned file in the IDE's Source Editor, you can view real-time changes occurring to your file as you modify it against your previously checked-out version from the repository. As you work, the IDE uses color encoding in the Source Editor's margins to convey the following information:

The Source Editor's left margin shows changes occurring on a line-by-line basis. When you modify a given line, changes are immediately shown in the left margin.

You can click on a color grouping in the margin to revert the newly made changes. For example, the screen capture below left shows widgets available to you when clicking a red icon, indicating that lines have been removed from your checked out file.

The Source Editor's right margin provides you with an overview that displays changes made to your file as a whole, from top to bottom. Color encoding is generated immediately when you make changes to your file.

Note that you can click on a specific point within the margin to bring your inline cursor immediately to that location in the file. To view the number of lines affected, hover your mouse over the colored icons in the right margin:

Left margin

Right margin

Viewing File Status Information

When you are working in the Projects (Ctrl-1), Files (Ctrl-2), Favorites (Ctrl-3), or Versioning windows, the IDE provides several visual features that aid in viewing status information about your files. In the example below, notice how the badge (e.g. ), color of the file name, and adjacent status label, all coincide with each other to provide you with a simple but effective way to keep track of versioning information on your files:

Badges, color coding, file status labels, and perhaps most importantly, the Versioning window all contribute to your ability to effectively view and manage and versioning information in the IDE.

• Badges and Color Coding
• File Status Labels
• The Versioning Window

Badges and Color Coding

Badges are applied to project, folder, and package nodes and inform you of the status of files contained within that node:

The following table displays the color scheme used for badges:

UI Component	Description
Blue Badge ()	Indicates the presence of files or folders that have been checkedout, hijacked or added. For packages, this badge applies only to the package itself and not its subpackages. For projects or folders, the badge indicates changes within that item, or any of the contained subfolders.

Color coding is applied to file names in order to indicate their current status:

Color	Example	Description
Blue		Indicates that the file has been checked out.
Green		Indicates that the file is new and has not been added to source control yet.
Gray		Indicates that the file is ignored by ClearCase and will not be included in versioning commands (e.g. Add to Source Control or Checkin). Files can only be made to be ignored if they have not yet been versioned.
Strike-Through		Indicates that the file is excluded from checkin or Add to Source Control operations. Strike-through text only appears in specific locations, such as the Versioning window, checkin dialog and Add to Source Control dialog, when you choose to exclude individual files from an action. Such files are still affected by other ClearCase commands, such as Update.

File Status Labels

File status labels provide a textual indication of the status of versioned files in the IDE's windows. By default, the IDE displays status (new, reserved, unreserved, ignored, etc.) information in gray text to the right of files, as they are listed in windows. You can, however, modify this format to suit your own needs. For example, if you want to add version selectors to status labels, do the following:

1. Choose Tools > Options from the main menu. The Options window opens.
2. Select the Miscellaneous button along the top of the window, then click the Versioning tab beneath it. Make sure ClearCase is selected beneath Versioning Systems in the left panel. (See the above screen capture for reference.)
3. Click the Add Variable button to the right of the status label Format text field. In the Add Variable dialog that displays, select the {version} variable, then click OK. The version variable is added to the status label Format text field.
4. To reformat status labels so that only status and version selector display to the right of files, rearrange the contents of the Status Label Format text field to the following:

   [{status}; {version}]

   Click OK. Status labels now list file status and version selector (where applicable):
   

File status labels can be toggled on and off by choosing View > Show Versioning Labels from the main menu.

The Versioning Window

The ClearCase Versioning window provides you with a real-time list of all of the changes made to files within a selected folder of your local working copy. It opens by default in the bottom panel of the IDE, listing new, checked out, or hijacked files.

To open the Versioning window, select a versioned file or folder (e.g. from the Projects, Files, or Favorites window) and either choose ClearCase > Show Changes from the right-click menu, or choose Versioning > Show Changes from the main menu. The following window appears in the bottom of the IDE:

By default, the Versioning window displays a list of all files within the selected package or folder that exhibit a noteworthy status (i.e., new, reserved, unreserved, etc.). You can click the column headings above the listed files to sort the files by name, status, location or rule.

The Versioning window toolbar also includes buttons that enable you to invoke the most common ClearCase tasks on all files displayed in the list. The following table lists the ClearCase commands available in the toolbar of the Versioning window:

Icon	Name	Function
	Refresh Status	Refreshes the status of the selected files and folders. Files displayed in the Versioning window can be refreshed to reflect any changes that may have been made externally.
	Diff All	Opens the Diff Viewer providing you with a side-by-side comparison of your local changes with versions maintained in the repository.
	Update All	Updates all selected files. (Applies only to snapshot views.)
	checkin All	Enables you to check in local changes.

You can access other ClearCase commands in the Versioning window by selecting a table row that corresponds to a file, and choosing a command from the right-click menu:

For example, you can perform the following actions on a file:

Show Annotations: Displays author and revision number information in the left margin of files opened in the Source Editor.
Exclude from Checkin: Allows you to mark the file to be excluded when performing a checkin.

Make Changes to your checked out file

If you are performing a diff on checked out files, it is possible to make changes directly from within the Diff Viewer. To do so, you can either place your cursor within the right pane of the Diff Viewer and modify your file accordingly, otherwise make use of the inline icons that display adjacent to each highlighted change:

Replace ():	Inserts the highlighted text from the previous versions into the checked out version
Move All ():	Reverts the file's checkedout version to the state of the selected previous version
Remove ():	Removes the highlighted text from the checked out version so that it mirrors the previous version

Navigate among Differences between Compared Files

If your diff contains multiple differences, you can navigate among them by using the arrow icons displayed in the toolbar. The arrow icons enable you to view differences as they appear from top to bottom:

Previous ():	Goes to previous difference displayed in the diff
Next ():	Goes to next difference displayed in the diff