It's all about the answers!

Ask a question

Improvements in ClearCase Connector Help


David Robinson (2111) | asked Jun 06 '08, 12:26 a.m.
The online help for ClearCase Connector is evolving well but there are still things leaving me confused.

Now partly I think there is an overly ambitious attempt to write just a single on-line help, which does cover both import and export. I like the
"Jazz concepts for Rational ClearCase users"
but I think the idea could be taken further and have the whole
help section spun two different ways:
* Jazz ClearCase Connector help for Rational ClearCase users.
* Jazz ClearCase Connector help for Rational Team Concert users.

My comments going forward are as a "Rational ClearCase user"

Firstly, there are a number of prerequisites that are assumed and not declared.
(Combination of pages "Prerequisites" and "Configuring a synchronization host"
* We do state that
"The ClearCase Connector must be installed on a Rational ClearCase client host that supports dynamic views."
This should say "locally hosted dynamic views"
(When you get further into the document you are told they a locally hosted view will be created)
* While it is obvious that Rational Team Concert and ClearCase Connector need to be installed,
currently you have to get deeper into the document to discover that the RTC Buildsystem is also required.
* The document actually assumes that an RTC Project Area and Team Area are already set up.
This is likely to be the first RTC project a ClearCase user sets up after doing the RTC training/Tutorial
What process template should they use? ...
... details don't need to be repeated here, but some pointers to the guidelines for this preparation are necessary.



Page "Creating a synchronization process account"
* In RTC it is mandatory to give user an email address ! Acknowledge this and suggest a dummy string.
* "If you are using a secure repository, you must create a password for the synchronization process account."
There is no field in the Create New User dialog to give a password.
That is because the initial password is the same as the userid. State this.
ccsync/ccsync does not need to be declared in "ccsync.properties"
What is the condition? Any password that does not match the username must be declared?
* Just what Client Access Licenses are required by this user

4 answers



permanent link
Geoffrey Clemm (30.1k33035) | answered Jun 06 '08, 8:47 a.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER
Thanks for the comments! Richard has opened workitem 57937 for this.

I'll respond below, and copy this response into the workitem.

Cheers,
Geoff

djr wrote:
The online help for ClearCase Connector is evolving well but there are
still things leaving me confused.

Now partly I think there is an overly ambitious attempt to write just
a single on-line help, which does cover both import and export. I
like the
"Jazz concepts for Rational ClearCase users"
but I think the idea could be taken further and have the whole
help section spun two different ways:
* Jazz ClearCase Connector help for Rational ClearCase users.
* Jazz ClearCase Connector help for Rational Team Concert users.

My comments going forward are as a "Rational ClearCase
user"

The target audience for this help is a Rational ClearCase user (since
there are a lot more of those :-) ... there is a post-1.0 workitem for
having a variant of the help targeted at a Rational Team Concert user
(workitem 29030).

Firstly, there are a number of prerequisites that are assumed and not
declared.
(Combination of pages "Prerequisites" and
"Configuring a synchronization host"
* We do state that
"The ClearCase Connector must be installed on a Rational
ClearCase client host that supports dynamic views."
This should say "locally hosted dynamic views"
(When you get further into the document you are told they a locally
hosted view will be created)

The view does not have to be locally hosted ... that's just the default
value (we can't default to a remote location since we can't guess what
that remote location might be).

* While it is obvious that Rational Team Concert and ClearCase
Connector need to be installed,
currently you have to get deeper into the document to discover that
the RTC Buildsystem is also required.

It isn't. We happen to reuse components from the build infrastructure,
but that is just an implementation detail that you don't have to know or
care about ... in particular, those components are just part of the
ClearCase Connector install.

* The document actually assumes that an RTC Project Area and Team Area
are already set up.
This is likely to be the first RTC project a ClearCase user sets up
after doing the RTC training/Tutorial
What process template should they use? ...
... details don't need to be repeated here, but some pointers to
the guidelines for this preparation are necessary.

The guidelines are pretty simple ... you can use any Project Area and
any Team Area that you have write access to, and any process template
that you want. But I agree that we should explicitly state that.

Page "Creating a synchronization process account"
* In RTC it is mandatory to give user an email address ! Acknowledge
this and suggest a dummy string.

An earlier version of the doc gave more detailed instructions on
creating a user account, but it became out-of-date every time there was
a change to how that is done ... so we decided it made more sense to
just have the user refer to the section of the on-line doc that
specifies how to create users.

* "If you are using a secure repository, you must create a
password for the synchronization process account."
There is no field in the Create New User dialog to give a
password.
That is because the initial password is the same as the userid.
State this.

I agree.

ccsync/ccsync does not need to be declared in
"ccsync.properties"
What is the condition? Any password that does not match the
username must be declared?


* Just what Client Access Licenses are required by this user


There is a special class of client access licenses for the ccsync user.
(You get an arbitrary number of them as part of the standard repository,
so you don't pay extra for the account used by the synchronization process).

permanent link
Geoffrey Clemm (30.1k33035) | answered Jun 06 '08, 9:22 a.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER
Thanks for the comments! Richard opened workitem 57937 for this.
Here's a copy of my comment in that workitem:

djr wrote:
The online help for ClearCase Connector is evolving well but there are
still things leaving me confused.

Now partly I think there is an overly ambitious attempt to write just
a single on-line help, which does cover both import and export. I
like the
"Jazz concepts for Rational ClearCase users"
but I think the idea could be taken further and have the whole
help section spun two different ways:
* Jazz ClearCase Connector help for Rational ClearCase users.
* Jazz ClearCase Connector help for Rational Team Concert users.

My comments going forward are as a "Rational ClearCase
user"

The target audience for this help is a Rational ClearCase user (since
there are a lot more of those :-) ... there is a post-1.0 workitem for
having a variant of the help targeted at a Rational Team Concert user
(workitem 29030).

Firstly, there are a number of prerequisites that are assumed and not
declared.
(Combination of pages "Prerequisites" and
"Configuring a synchronization host"
* We do state that
"The ClearCase Connector must be installed on a Rational
ClearCase client host that supports dynamic views."
This should say "locally hosted dynamic views"
(When you get further into the document you are told they a locally
hosted view will be created)

The view does not have to be locally hosted ... that's just the default
value (we can't default to a remote location since we can't guess what
that remote location might be).

* While it is obvious that Rational Team Concert and ClearCase
Connector need to be installed,
currently you have to get deeper into the document to discover that
the RTC Buildsystem is also required.

We happen to reuse components from the build infrastructure, but that is
just an implementation detail that you don't have to know or care about
.... in particular, those components are just part of the ClearCase
Connector install.

* The document actually assumes that an RTC Project Area and Team Area
are already set up.
This is likely to be the first RTC project a ClearCase user sets up
after doing the RTC training/Tutorial
What process template should they use? ...
... details don't need to be repeated here, but some pointers to
the guidelines for this preparation are necessary.

The guidelines are pretty simple ... you can use any Project Area and
any Team Area that you have write access to, and any process template
that you want. But I agree that we should explicitly state that.

Page "Creating a synchronization process account"
* In RTC it is mandatory to give user an email address ! Acknowledge
this and suggest a dummy string.

In RC5, we've changed this to just have the user refer to the section of
the on-line doc that specifies how to create users (which is more
complete and accurate).

* "If you are using a secure repository, you must create a
password for the synchronization process account."
There is no field in the Create New User dialog to give a
password.
That is because the initial password is the same as the userid.
State this.

Yes, this is stated in the RC5 version of the doc.

ccsync/ccsync does not need to be declared in
"ccsync.properties"
What is the condition? Any password that does not match the
username must be declared?

This is fixed in the RC5 doc (in particular, there is no longer any
special password handling for the "ccsync" user account).

* Just what Client Access Licenses are required by this user

This is in the RC5 doc. In pariticular, there is a special class of
client access licenses for the ccsync user.
(You get an arbitrary number of them as part of the standard repository,
so you don't pay extra for the account used by the synchronization process).

permanent link
David Robinson (2111) | answered Jun 06 '08, 11:16 a.m.
Thanks for the detailed reply.

Can you also tell why the owner of the merge workspace should not be a repository admin.
I reacted to that in the wrong way, by creating a special user for the first import, and then "lost" the merge workspace when I switched back to my usual userid.
I did later find the page about "Changing the owner of the merge workspace".

Another thing I would have liked is directions on verifying the success of the import.
Like:
1. Find your project in Team Artifacts view and expand Streams
2. Find the ClearCase Synchronization Stream and expand it
3. Right click on the component and choose Show Repository Files

A separate short section on Sharing the component with other streams would be good too - the steps to make sure changes flow with another stream in the project.

Thanks,
Dave

permanent link
Geoffrey Clemm (30.1k33035) | answered Jun 06 '08, 7:20 p.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER
djr wrote:
Thanks for the detailed reply.

Can you also tell why the owner of the merge workspace should not be a
repository admin.
I reacted to that in the wrong way, by creating a special user for the
first import, and then "lost" the merge workspace when I
switched back to my usual userid.
I did later find the page about "Changing the owner of the merge
workspace".

That advice no longer applies, and has been removed in the RC5
documentation. So feel free to create the merge workspace when logged
in as a repository admin.

Another thing I would have liked is directions on verifying the
success of the import.
Like:
1. Find your project in Team Artifacts view and expand Streams
2. Find the ClearCase Synchronization Stream and expand it
3. Right click on the component and choose Show Repository Files

I agree that would be a desirable section to add. I submitted workitem
57988 on this for you.

A separate short section on Sharing the component with other streams
would be good too - the steps to make sure changes flow with another
stream in the project.

That is documented in the on-line help for Jazz SCM. For example, if
you type in "flow changes with another stream", you'll get several help
topics on the subject.

Your answer


Register or to post your answer.


Dashboards and work items are no longer publicly available, so some links may be invalid. We now provide similar information through other means. Learn more here.