Adding files in Client

vrapp · Post by **vrapp** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:12 am

Hello,

1. In Vault Client 4.0.4, I create new folder $/MyFolder; then I right-click on it, select "add files/folders", and add c:\autoexec.bat. Autoexec.bat appears in the Contents pane, however, status = "Missing". Why "Missing"? If this is because I did not set working directory for MyFolder, maybe it would be right to prompt for the working directory when I was adding the file. In any case, in fact, the file is not missing. Maybe it's unknown (because the working directory is not set), but not missing.

2. I create $/MyFolder, set working directory c:\, add autoexec.bat, then delete it in Client. As soon as I delete it, the file itself gets deleted from c:\ as well, without any warning. Is this expected??

thanks,
Vadim Rapp

lbauer · Post by **lbauer** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 11:01 am

File status compares the status of the file in the working folder to the file in the repository. If the file exists in the repository but not in the working directory, the status is "missing." In this case, if there is no working directory, the status is also "missing." You don't need a working directory in order to add items, so that might be why we don't prompt -- but I'll add a feature request for this. We do prompt for working directory for gets, checkouts, and other operations that require retrieving the file to the local drive.

As soon as I delete it, the file itself gets deleted from c:\ as well, without any warning. Is this expected??

Yes. We've had requests from users to synchronize the contents of the working folder with the contents of the repository. However, this can also inadvertently delete files. We're re-evaluating this behavior. In the meantime you can undelete the file from the folder Properties to get it back.

vrapp · Post by **vrapp** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 11:48 am

Thanks for the reply Linda; couple of cosmetic suggestions...

1. if there's no working folder, the status should be "unknown" rather than "missing". "Missing" is plain misleading and somewhat scary for the user.

2. maybe it would be even more clear if when the status is OK, display it as "OK", or "Present", or "Synchronized", etc. - rather than empty space.

3. re. deleting the files - regardless of whether there's an option somewhere to do it or not, since this is potentially data-destructing operation, there should be a prompt, and with big yellow exclamation mark.

4. It would be nice to have "undelete files..." operation in the context menu of the folder, right after "delete".

5. in Properties/Deleted items, I think it would look much better if the list was one item per line - rather than like on the picture.

GregM · Post by **GregM** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:25 pm

1. Unknown means "present but Vault can't tell what it is". Perhaps a different status here would eliminate the confusion, such as "Not Set" or "No Working Folder"

2. Having it be blank when the status is up to date is really useful. You can tell at a glance that the folder matches Vault, for example, and you can sort by status to get all the files that don't match Vault up at the top.

vrapp · Post by **vrapp** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:33 pm

GregM wrote:1. Unknown means "present but Vault can't tell what it is". Perhaps a different status here would eliminate the confusion, such as "Not Set" or "No Working Folder"

It seems to me, "Unknown" means "can be any", including "absent". It does not mean "present". But I agree that "no working folder" is even better, more straightforward.