About Areas

Areas are locations that are defined in order to contain item files for project/streams when certain item operations are performed. You define a network node and folder for the area so that the files are held under that "root" folder in the same hierarchical folder structure as the items in the project/stream.

Dimensions CM has the following types of areas:

Area | Description
Work Area | An area that is defined for one or more users or groups, so that their file operations such as check in, check out, and so on, automatically use this area to contain the item files for those operations.
Deployment Area | An area that is defined to contain files whose items have reached a particular stage in the lifecycle for a project. This means that item files are moved to that area when the item revisions are deployed to the corresponding stage in the Global Stage Lifecycle. Deployment areas can also have a Filter specified. A filter is a template file containing a set of rules that determine which files from the project/stream are held in the file area. You can specify that only the items matching a certain filename pattern, or that belong to a certain design part, are transferred to that area. You can also specify Transfer Scripts for a deployment area. These are scripts that are performed: Before files are transferred to the area. After files have been transferred to the area. On Fail. The script is performed if, for any reason, the transfer of the files has failed to complete successfully.
Library Cache Area | An area that is defined in order to contain copies of files whose items are located on a database on a remote server. The purpose is to improve file get performance. When a user obtains a copy of a file using an operation such as get or check out, Dimensions CM first looks in the library cache area to see whether that file is already there and uses that copy instead of transferring the file from the item library. This makes the processing more efficient if, for example the files are being transferred via the network from another country, and a number of users are accessing them. (The administrator could also set up a batch process to populate the library cache area with the latest file versions overnight, when users are not accessing it.) The following clients support the use of library cache areas: Desktop client DMCLI DMPMCLI PowerBuilder Eclipse plugin .NET integration Web client NOTE A library cache area can be used in the web client provided that the user sets the work area to a work area that has been defined in Dimensions as opposed to a folder location on their local machine. A library cache area is assigned for your user for a given project/stream using the Project/Stream Properties dialog box in the web client or desktop client. If the working location is not set to a Dimensions-defined work area, the library cache area will not be used for item file operations in the web client although it will be used in the desktop client.

After you have defined a file area, you relate it to one or more projects/streams so that it is used to contain item files for those projects/streams.