See some usages that can help you on your daily tasks:
1. Quickly find out who checked-in a certain code line, when, and on which version:
Figure 1: Line #42 indicates that it was checked-in by ‘yuval’ on 11/14/2012 through version \main\BankDev_1.0\Integration\2
This feature is particularly useful when you have dozens or hundreds of file versions and you can’t readily open the Version Tree for each one and quickly ascertain into exactly which one of the many existing versions your ”target” code was checked-in.
Using Visual Annotate, you get the answer immediately; accurately and hassle-free!
2. Using ClearCase UCM? Quickly find out via which activity your code lines came
Figure 2: You can quickly see that line #12 was checked-in through activity named ‘annotate-test’
Furthermore, if your bug tracker is ClearQuest (UCM-enabled), you automatically see the record ID.
3. Get the full picture: your code + annotated data + diff to another file version, so you can see them in one dashboard (!) for a better root cause analysis:
Figure 3: In this example, we track the file backgroundtask.java (see the code lines in the middle). You can see the annotated data to the left (date i.e. when it was checked-in; by whom; on which version) and then compare differences .vs. file version 5 to the right far right column)
4. Quickly see correlations between code lines:
Visual Annotate enables you to color the code lines by some criteria, including file versions, dates, users and UCM activities. This helps you to easily find out which lines have been put together.
Using color layers to find out the context between code lines can help drill down and find the reason of a change or why a bug occurs.
Figure 4: Using colors you can easily see that lines #112-113 and #129-130 were checked in via the same activity ‘E6008’ – so they may mutually affect one another
These are only 4 usages of the 33+ already reported by users. (More examples coming soon – Stay informed by registering for our newsletter)
See a quick demo (3 min.) on YouTube:
Did you know? Important facts about Visual Annotate:
- Developers and integrators who use Visual Annotate report the tool helps them be more efficient with daily tasks and when they have to cope with merge conflicts.
- Visual Annotate can be integrated with ClearCase Explorer, ClearCase Version Tree, Visual Studio, Eclipse and many other IDEs
- It’s a light-weight application, so it takes only 2 minutes to start using Visual Annotate
- Visual Annotate offers a Free edition – see here: https://www.almtoolbox.com/annotate-features
- Soon it will support ClearCase on Linux \UNIX and remote hosts (CCRC and CTE)
- It can be integrated with our R&D Reporter add-on tool for ClearCase
- You can see the correlation from your code lines to relevant bugs and issues on your bug tracker. See examples: https://www.almtoolbox.com/support/knowledgebase.php?article=14
- It works for both UCM and Base ClearCase users
- It’s used by many ClearCase users. See some testimonials from current users: http://www.gomidjets.com/testimonials.php
- Users report that the tool saves lots of time and effort, up to 80%!
Related articles:
