Is there a way to have ClearCase display icons in the Windows Explorer to denote the state of files/directories?

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+3 Q:

Is there a way to have ClearCase display icons in the Windows Explorer to denote the state of files/directories?

For example, in TortoiseSVN, I can find out when a directory is out-of-date or checked out by looking at the images in the corner of the directory icon. However, I don't have that with ClearCase. Inside of Eclipse, I can see what I have checked in/out, but I'm not always inside Eclipse. It appears that I can right click on the file and I see "Check Out..." as an option if the file is not checked out and "Check In..." as an option if the file is checked out.

What I really want are images or icons to let me know visually what I have checked in and out through the Windows Explorer shell. Is this possible?

+2 A:

Currently, this is not done by any tool/plugin I know of, except for ClearCase Eclipse plugin (where a "recursive" option can be set, to show a "dirty" state on packages of a project if one of the files is checked out)

Since ClearCase is managed file-by-file, that would require a recursive request which may not be compatible with the speed a Windows explorer is supposed to refresh itself.

VonC 2009-07-22 20:37:55

How about on a per-file basis? Is there an icon at least on a file-level?

Thomas Owens 2009-07-22 20:51:54

@Thomas, not on the explorer level. The way it is done in an Eclipse plugin is through a lazy CNF (Common Navigator Framework) with icons computed through a Job (background thread). I have not seen this approach used on a Windows Explorer plugin

VonC 2009-07-22 20:54:58

Thanks. I wish you were wrong, though, but you are simply confirming what my searches had turned up.

Thomas Owens 2009-07-22 21:29:59

You would think though, that you could have Windows display a different Icon depending on the attributes of the directory/file. I'm not convinced this is impossible - not through a ClearCase tool, but through configuration of the OS :S

Spedge 2009-07-23 08:25:23

@Spedge: the thing is: there is no global state for a CC repo, only a file-per-file state (checkout or not): to report a dirty state on a (non-checkout) directory, you would have to complete a `lsco -rec` which can be fairly long. The only alternative is to process that request when you enter a new directory...

VonC 2009-07-23 11:16:24

I wonder if it'd be possible to do it this way, with a little bit of Perl? Not particularly efficient, but it's a start...

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1036832/windows-perl-script-to-change-folder-icons

Spedge 2009-07-23 08:30:11

@Spedge: the thing is: there is no global state for a CC repo, only a file-per-file state (checkout or not): to report a dirty state on a (non-checkout) directory, you would have to complete a lsco -rec which can be fairly long. The only alternative is to process that request when you enter a new directory...

VonC 2009-07-23 11:17:04

Agreed. I'm just so surprised there's not a feature or tool to set the icon of a file depending on the attributes within. How does the tooltip know that the file is checked in or out anyway? There must be a golden attribute!I shall ponder.

Spedge 2009-07-24 09:16:47

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Is there a way to have ClearCase display icons in the Windows Explorer to denote the state of files/directories?

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