Rational® ClearCase® Explorer supports access to tools in several ways:
The Toolbox page accesses icons for shortcuts to run both Rational ClearCase tools and user-selectable tools and to access documentation and URLs. Tools are organized by tool groups divided into two pages: UCM for project-related tools and Base ClearCase for tools not related to UCM projects. The tools provided by default are classified as developer tools. To access other Rational ClearCase tools classified as project manager or administrator tools, in the Windows Taskbar, click Administration.
The Toolbox page also presents a Getting Started page that provides access to the Help, online versions of printed documentation, and tutorials.
Rational ClearCase Explorer provides access to tools through the following types of shortcut menus:
When you right-click in the Folder pane and in the Details pane, a context-sensitive shortcut menu offers access to file-handling operations, or element-processing functions. Provided by the Rational ClearCase integration with Windows Explorer, this shortcut menu contains commands that are activated based on the type and state of the item you select. If the item is under Rational ClearCase source control, you have available Rational ClearCase commands for element processing functions and Windows commands for file-handling operations. If the item is view-private, you have available file-handling operations and the Rational ClearCase command Add to Source Control.
You can use the Context Menu Editor to customize the Rational ClearCase shortcut menu. The editor allows a Rational ClearCase administrator or you to add shortcuts to or remove shortcuts from the menu. The steps to do this are described in the Context Menu Editor Help. You can also add tool shortcuts to your Send To folder to access your favorite integrated development environment (IDE), your favorite editor, or a command shell. Any tool shortcuts newly added to your Send To folder are displayed on the shortcut menu Send To command the next time you start Rational ClearCase Explorer.
When you right-click in the Shortcut pane, another type of context-sensitive shortcut menu enables you to add your own tool groups and tool and URL shortcut icons. If the Toolbox tab is active, you can use the shortcut menu commands to add shortcuts to your favorite tools and URLs and add page controls for your own tools. If the Views tab is active, you can use the shortcut menu to add and remove view shortcuts and add pages to organize view shortcut icons. You can also perform some operations on views.
A tool started from the Shortcut pane or from a shortcut menu command can have view context, if applicable. For example, when you start the History Browser, you can view the event log for the currently selected element in the Details pane. If you start a project file (for example, a .DSW or a .VPB file) from within Rational ClearCase Explorer, you can perform element processing functions from within the IDE. As you work with Rational ClearCase objects within the IDE, you can refresh the Rational ClearCase Explorer display to see the state change of the elements in the Details pane.
Rational ClearCase Explorer supports defining tool and URL database shortcuts that can be shared among Rational ClearCase users. Called site shortcuts, this type of shareable shortcut is defined externally by a project manager or Rational ClearCase administrator and can be made available to you. (View shortcut definitions can only be locally defined.) The external location for the shortcut definitions is specified during Rational ClearCase site preparation. The location for the definition file is stored in the Windows registry on each Rational ClearCase client computer. You can access these site shortcuts by configuring Rational ClearCase Explorer to import the shortcut definitions at startup. At any time, you can reset system tool shortcuts to remove all modifications or deletions you made to any system or site shortcuts.