Share projects with Dimensions CM

To place existing Eclipse projects under Dimensions CM control, you must share your Eclipse project with Dimensions CM. If you are working with Eclipse project containers, see Add Eclipse projects to project containers.

When you share an Eclipse project that resides outside the Eclipse workspace, that location becomes a compatible work area that can be shared with other Dimensions CM clients. It means that Eclipse, the desktop client, and other clients can work on common files located in this shared area. This is not possible for Eclipse projects that reside within the Eclipse workspace.

To share an Eclipse project:

  1. In Eclipse, right-click the project icon, and select Team > Share Project. The Share Project dialog box opens.

  2. From the Select a Repository Type list, select Dimensions CM, and click Next. The Select Connection pane opens.

  3. To create a connection to a Dimensions CM server, select Create a new Dimensions CM connection.

    To use an existing Dimensions CM connection, select Use existing Dimensions CM, and select a connection from the list.

  1. If your current Eclipse session is not yet logged in to Dimensions CM, the Dimensions CM Login dialog box opens. Log in to Dimensions CM.

    The Project Selection pane opens, where you specify the following options. The options depend on how your administrator has configured your Dimensions CM installation. You may be able to use Dimensions CM project, streams, or both.

    Option Description
    Create a new Dimensions CM Stream Create a stream in Dimensions CM and connect it to the Eclipse project.
    Create a new Dimensions CM Project Create a project in Dimensions CM and connection it to the Eclipse project.
    Use existing Dimensions CM Project Select an existing project.
    Use existing Dimensions CM Stream Select an existing stream.

  1. To add the project to a Dimensions CM project container, select Create in Eclipse Project Container. For details about working with project containers, see Use Eclipse project containers.

  2. If you are creating a new stream or project, complete the following steps:

    1. For a stream, click Next, then select the product, enter a stream name and description, and name the unique branch to use for identifying file revisions stored in the stream.

      For a project, click Next, then select the product, enter a project name, select a project type, and enter a description.

    2. To set a container offset, choose the design part, and set a work area for new items, click the Show Advanced Settings button. Set the following options:

      Work Area

      If there is already an established Dimensions CM work area outside the Eclipse workspace and above the project location, the project files are shared into this work area.

      If there is no existing Dimensions CM work area above the Eclipse project, you can select any folder between the Eclipse project’s location and the root of the system drive and create a new compatible work area.

      Caution: We strongly recommend that you do not use the system root.

      The container offset is automatically adjusted to ensure that the repository structure matches the path from the work area.

      For example, if the Eclipse project is located at C:\Work\MyProjects\Project1, and the work area is set to C:\Work\MyProjects, then the offset is set to Project1.
      Container Offset For projects that you are sharing to a new Eclipse project container, you can set the container offset. This offset allows you to modify the project layout in the Dimensions CM repository, if you want to structure it differently from the work area layout. By default this is the project name.
      Design Part for New Items Set the design part for new items. By default, this is set to the top part of the product in which the new project or stream is being created. This option applies to Single Eclipse Projects, and to projects that you are sharing to a project container.

  1. Click Next.

  2. If you are creating a new stream, complete the Additional Details dialog box and click Next. If you are creating a new project, skip to the next step. Complete the following options on the Additional Details dialog box:

    • From the Based On group, choose Nothing to create an empty stream, or choose Based on Stream or Based on Baseline to populate the new stream with items from an existing stream or baseline.

    • Under Change Management Rules, you can choose whether to require users to specify valid change requests when delivering their local changes to the stream.

  1. If you are creating a new project, complete the following steps:

    1. In the Based-on dialog box, specify the following options, and click Next:

      • Select the Nothing option to create an empty project.

      • Select Based on another Project or Based on Baseline to populate the new project with items from an existing project or baseline.

    2. In the Options dialog box, specify the following options, and click Next:

      Option Description
      Version Management Options Choose whether or not to create branches when new versions of files are created.
      Allow user to override default version number Select this option if you want to enable users to enter non-default version numbers when creating file versions.
      Change Management Rules Choose whether to always enable or always disable change management rules in the new project, or to use the change management rules set on item types.
      Request required to refactor Select this option if you want to require users to associate a change request to any refactoring activities, such as moving and renaming files.

    3. In the Named Branches dialog box, select valid named branches for the new project. CTRL+click to select multiple branches.

      Choose a default named branch from the Default Branch list. Click Next.

  2. If you have selected an existing Eclipse Project Container or Dimensions CM project or stream, the Share Project page opens. From here you can define a work area, set a container offset, and choose a design part. The same considerations and constraints for creating a work area, offset and design part apply as described earlier in Step 7.

  3. If you are working with Eclipse Project Containers, you may be required to specify a request when sharing projects. If the Relate Requests page opens, select a request from your inbox or favorites.

  4. Review the Sharing Summary dialog box to ensure that the share settings are correct. Do any of the following:

    • Select Add workspace files to source control to automatically add the files within the project to Dimensions CM source control.

    • Select Open Synchronize View when done sharing to display the synchronize view which allows you to synchronize your local files with the Dimensions CM repository. For details on using the Synchronize View, see Synchronize with a Dimensions CM repository.

  5. Click Finish.

    Depending on your selections, any of the following may happen:

    • A new project or stream is created in Dimensions CM for your Eclipse project, or the Eclipse project is added to a subfolder in a project container.

    • The Synchronize View opens, so that you can place files into the Dimensions CM repository.

After your project is placed under control, a gold cylinder is added to the icon of each item to indicate that the item is under source control. The Dimensions CM information for the project, including its product and Dimensions CM project name, shown in brackets alongside the Eclipse project name.

Important considerations for setting a work area:

  • Dimensions CM for Eclipse performs a number of checks to ensure correct configuration. Error messages appear in the following cases:

    • Pre-existing work areas are not associated with the Dimensions CM project or stream into which the Eclipse project is being shared.

    • Multiple pre-existing work areas reside above the Eclipse project location.

    • Pre-existing work areas reside below the project location.

    You cannot share in any of these circumstances.

  • Although you can specify the root of a drive on Windows or the root folder on Linux as the work area, a warning is displayed. We strongly recommend to avoid using the drive root as the work area.

    If you are working with project containers, see Add Eclipse projects to project containers.

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