Understanding the Change Management History Window | iFIX 6.5 Documentation

The Change Management (PCM) History window allows you to view the revision history of a file, folder, or project. You can also compare different versions of the same file or folder in the Change Management Server, or even compare versions on the server with the ones stored on your local computer.

For instance, you can compare your local project to the latest version of the project in the Change Management Server, or any labeled version. You must be logged into the Change Management Server in order to use the History window.

Additionally, from the PCM History window, you can get a specific version of a project, file, or folder from the Change Management Server. Getting an entire project requires that you shut down iFIX in the process. Every node should have it's own project in the Change Management Server.

To open the PCM History window, right-click a file, folder, or project in the iFIX WorkSpace system tree. From the Manage menu, choose History Report. The History window displays the change history for the selected project, folder, or file in the iFIX WorkSpace system tree. The following figure is an example of the window that appears.

PCM History Window

The change history for a selected project only includes label changes to the project. For instance, say you label a project 3 times, and then you right-click the top level Project folder for the node, select Manage, and choose History Report. The PCM History window appears with four rows: one for the latest project, and one for each of the three labels you added. If you want to compare the differences between your local project and one on the Change Management Server, click the Difference button. The summary report lists all the files and folders for the project, and whether changes exist.

In the PCM History window, the change history for a folder includes all the files that appear in the iFIX WorkSpace system tree under that folder, as well as the folder label changes. For example, for the Pictures folder, the PCM History window displays the change history for every single picture and the PIC folder.

The following sections describe the parts of the Change Management History window and the information it contains.

Spreadsheet Columns

The spreadsheet that appears in the Change Management History window displays all versions of the selected file or folder. The following table describes the columns in the spreadsheet.

Column Name	Description
Version	The version number of the file in the Change Management Server. All files start at version number 1, and then go on to 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on, with each change that you check in to the Change Management Server.
Path	The relative path of the iFIX folder or file name within the current Change Management project.
User	The name of the Change Management user who performed the action on the file.
Label	A user defined text string that you can assign to a specific version of a file, folder, or project in the Change Management Server. For example, you could label a collection of files in a folder or project with "Beta Release" as the text string. Later, you can read down all the files labeled "Beta Release" from the Change Management Server.
Date/Time	The time that the action occurred on the Change Management Server computer. The time appears with the local region settings defined on the Change Management Server.
Action	The type of action performed on the file or folder in the Change Management product. For instance, these actions include: Add, Label, Get Latest, Get, Check Out, Check In, and Undo Check Out.
Check In Comments	Comment optionally entered by the Change Management user when the check in action was performed. The maximum number of characters in this field is 255.

You can sort files in the spreadsheet based on a column name, in ascending or descending order. To sort in ascending order, click the column heading once. To sort in descending order, click the same heading again.

You can move column headings to different locations by clicking and dragging the column heading to the desired location. Two red arrows appear when you can drop the heading to the new column.

All sorting options and moved column headings are refreshed the next time you open the Change Management History window.

Details Button

Provides details for the selected row. For instance, if the Check In Comments column appears too long to be easily read in the spreadsheet, select the row and click the Details button to open a dialog box that displays the Check In Comments in a larger visible area.

You can also double-click a row to display the Details dialog box. This dialog box displays comments in a larger area and includes the label for the folder, if one exists.

Difference Button

Displays the differences between two versions of the same file or folder in a summary report:

Select two different versions of the same file or folder in the spreadsheet, and click Difference to report the differences between the versions.
Select a single file or folder in the spreadsheet to compare that version from the Change Management Server with the version saved on your local drive.

The History window displays previous versions of iFIX files if they are being stored on the Change Management Server.

Ctrl or Shift click to select two items in the spreadsheet. You cannot select a folder and a file at the same time in the spreadsheet. You must select two different versions of the same file or same folder, or one version of the file or folder (to compare with the one on your local drive). If the action you want to perform is invalid, the button is unavailable.

The summary report displays as an .html file.

Text Compare Check Box

This check box appears only when you select a single picture file (to compare a specific version with the one on your local computer), or two versions of the same picture file (to compare two different versions). This check box is not available for folders or projects, such as the entire iFIX picture folder or project folder. By default, when this check box appears, it is cleared.

When you clear this check box and click Difference, a binary compare is performed that indicates if any differences are found in the picture. If there is a difference found, a red row displays in the summary report.

When you select this check box, and then click Difference, an ASCII compare is performed that lists whether differences are found in the picture, as well as details on each change in that picture. These details include VBA script, Dynamo, process database, and user.fxg changes. They do not include changes to ActiveX Controls or Chart Configuration changes. The ASCII compare may take longer than the binary (default) compare. If there are changes, details on each change appears in the summary report that displays.

Get Button

Retrieves a copy of the selected file, folder, or project in the spreadsheet to your local iFIX folder. Each item is copied with writable attributes. Getting an entire project requires that you shut down iFIX in the process.

The Get button is unavailable for Security Files.

Report Button

Exports the currently displayed spreadsheet into an .html, .xml, .csv, or .txt file.

Help Button

Displays this help file.

Exit Button

Closes the Change Management (PCM) History window.

Right-click Menu Options

The Details, Difference, Get, and Report commands are also available from the right-click menu. Select a file or folder in the spreadsheet and optionally use the right-click commands instead of the buttons to perform the required tasks. Be aware that if an action is invalid for the selected items, the action on the right-click menu is also unavailable.