Configuring Projects to Use Alternate Property Editors

If your company has licensed StarTeam Enterprise Advantage, you can use alternate property editors (APEs). APEs are Java forms created specifically for your company to support a corporate process. Workflow processes are created for use with the forms. APEs can be created for the File, Change Request, Requirement, Task, and Topic components.

APEs use the StarTeam SDK to access a StarTeam server configuration. APEs can be customized because they are implemented in standard programming languages. Sample property editors for several StarTeam components are included with StarTeam Enterprise Advantage.

By default, every project uses the standard property dialogs. When an APE is ready for use, you must change the project properties so that all the views in a project will use the APEs. Once set, every view in the project must use an APE instead of the standard dialog. However, each view can use a different APE that you have checked into the appropriate view-specific subfolder in the Projects folder of StarFlow Extensions project.

To configure a project to use Alternate Property Editors (APEs), do the following:

  1. Choose Project > Properties.

    The Project Properties dialog box opens.

  2. Click the Editors tab.
  3. In Type, select the component for which you want to create an APE.

  4. Click Browse to navigate and find the correct APE. Generally, you enter the word Locator followed by the name of the APE. Locator is a program on each client workstation that distributes code and XML updates to client workstations. When Locator is specified and StarTeam requests the APE, Locator looks for the StarTeam Extensions project managed by the server configuration. If the project exists and contains an APE with the specified name, Locator copies the tip revision of that APE and its related files to the client workstation (if they are not already there). Then the APE will be used instead of the StarTeam standard dialog for that type of item.

    Caution: Take care when setting the APE for a project in production because the new setting takes effect immediately. It is important to test any changes in an APE prior to making this editor available to a wide audience.

  5. Click Add, Update, or Delete depending on which action you want to perform to configure the project.
  6. Click OK.