2. Using the AccuRev GUI : Mechanics of the AccuRev GUI

Mechanics of the AccuRev GUI
The following sections discuss overall aspects of the AccuRev GUI display and user interface.
Starting the GUI
You can start the AccuRev GUI from the desktop (Windows only) or from a command shell:
On the Windows desktop, double-click the AccuRev icon. There is also an AccuRev group in the Start > Programs menu.
> acgui     (Windows)
> acgui &   (UNIX)
The way the GUI window initially appears varies. It might be blank, or it might open one or more tabs, displaying your work from the preceding GUI session. The AccuRev GUI reopens:
The File Browser tabs, each displaying the contents of an individual workspace or stream.
The StreamBrowser tabs, each displaying the hierarchy of streams, snapshots, and workspaces for a particular depot.
The AccuWork tabs, each showing the set of AccuWork queries defined for a particular depot (and, if you've defined a default query, its results).
The Multiple-Tab Display
The AccuRev GUI window uses multiple tabs to enable you to switch quickly among several activities. For example, you might wish to switch among:
Viewing a list of all depots in the AccuRev repository.
Closing Tabs
At any time, you can "clean up" by closing one or more of the tabs in either of these ways:
Click the "X" icon on the tab control.
Cloning Tabs
The AccuRev GUI assumes that you want to avoid having multiple tabs with the same contents. So, for example, if there's already a File Browser tab on workspace brass_mnt_john and you execute an Open Workspace command on the same workspace, the GUI simply brings the existing tab to the front.
If you do want to have two or more tabs showing the same data structure, use the File > Clone Tab command (or choose Clone Tab from the tab context menu). Cloned tabs enable you, for example, to work in two different parts of a large stream hierarchy (two StreamBrowser tabs), or to work in two different folders of a workspace (two File Browser tabs).
Note: The History Browser, Version Browser, and Stream Version Browser do not support
tab-cloning .
Refreshing Tabs
The data displayed on a GUI tab can become out of date as a result of your work on other GUI tabs, your work using the AccuRev CLI, and/or other users' work. AccuRev displays a "refresh" icon next to the tab title if it determines that the tab's data may be out of date.
The command View > Refresh (or function key F5, or the main GUI menu toolbar Refresh icon) updates a tab's data. You can configure the GUI to refresh tab data automatically whenever you switch tabs: invoke the command Tools > Preferences , and clear the Require Manual Refresh checkbox.
Current User, Depot, and Workspace
With a few exceptions, you must be logged in (See “The Login Command” on page 34.) as a particular AccuRev user in order to execute AccuRev commands. An indicator in the lower left corner of the GUI window shows the current user (the one who is currently logged in).
Typically, the AccuRev repository is organized into multiple depots. For example, there might be separate depots for the development, testing, and documentation groups. Most GUI tabs display the data from one particular depot. When you're using a particular tab, the associated depot is termed the current depot. Its name is displayed at the bottom of the GUI window.
Many tabs have a current workspace context: the workspace that is the source of (or the possible destination of) the data that the tab displays. The name of the current workspace is displayed at the bottom of the GUI window, along with the pathname of its workspace tree.
Keyboard Accelerators
In a dialog box, you can "press" buttons using Alt key sequences, such as Alt-C for Cancel. The Esc key also performs a Cancel operation in any dialog box.
In some dialog boxes, you don't even need to use the Alt key when invoking a keyboard accelerator: In a "Yes/No" dialog box, you can type Y or N (either uppercase or lowercase). In a message or confirmation box (no input field), you can indicate Ok by typing O (either uppercase or lowercase), or by pressing Enter.
Many commands can be invoked with a keyboard accelerator, without opening any menu at all. The accelerators for such commands are listed on the menu itself.
Integration with the AccuRev Web UI
In addition to the Java GUI described in this document, AccuRev also provides a Web User Interface (Web UI) which gives users access to many non-filesystem-based AccuRev features from any supported web browser. The Web UI server must be installed and configured by an AccuRev administrator, who will provide AccuRev users with a web address through which they can access the Web UI functionality.
Once configured, the Web UI can be easily accessed from the Java client via two buttons on the main menu bar:
Open in Web
When you click this button, the current view will be opened in a web browser.
Copy URL to Clipboard
Stores a URL that you can use to bring up the current view in a web browser. This is useful if you would like to share the current view with another user. Use keyboard sequence CTRL-V, or an application “paste” command to retrieve the text from the clipboard. (For example, Windows users might open Notepad, and use the Edit>Paste command to enter the URL into the open document.)
Also, the Web UI will automatically come up when you access an AccuWork issue if any of the following three conditions is true:
There are certain views that cannot be opened from the Java GUI in the Web UI. For example, manipulation of files in a local file system cannot be performed from a web browser for security reasons, so while you can get a File Browser web view of a dynamic stream, you cannot bring up a File Browser web view of your workspace. In these cases, you will see the message “URL not available for this view” when you try to use these buttons.
Note: For these features to function, the AccuRev Web UI server must have been installed and configured with your AccuRev server. If your web browser or clipboard show a URL containing the string “null” (for example, null/stream/1/?view=sb), the AccuRev Web UI server is not available. Information about installing and configuring the AccuRev Web UI server is available to AccuRev administrators in the AccuRev Installation and Release Notes, the AccuRev Web Interface Installation and Release Notes, and the AccuRev Administrator’s Guide.
While some features that are available in the Java GUI are not available in the Web UI, other features, such as Bulk Update for AccuWork issues, are available only in the Web UI.

AccuRev, Inc.
Phone: 781-861-8700
Fax: 781-861-8704
support@accurev.com