Documention

P4Web is documented in "How to Use P4Web" and in embedded help files.

Requirements

• P4Web works with a Perforce Depot Server at Release 99.2 or higher.

• P4Web works with any web browser. Some older browsers do not provide the authentication support needed by P4Web; those browsers can be used only when P4Web is running as a read-only "Viewer".

• On Windows and Unix, you must have P4, The Perforce Command-Line Client, installed in order to interactively resolve files from within P4Web.

• On Macintosh, Unix, and Windows, P4Web can launch an editor. Which editor it launches is determined by the startup environment of the p4web executable, as described in "How to Use P4Web." You must set P4EDITOR before running p4web to control which editor is launched.

Latest Changes

Major New Funtionality in Release 2001.1

• A P4Web Helper can now show you your actual Perforce client workspace path hierarchy as well as the depot path hierarchy. Use "Go To->Workspace root" or "Go To->Settings" to initiate workspace path browsing. See Settings and Preferences for more information.

• You can now set a Back-in-Time Browsing point to see what your Perforce depot looked like at that time. See Back-in-Time Browsing for more information.

• Users are no longer allowed to switch Perforce ports. Once a P4Web Helper starts up, it always uses the same Perforce user and port. Only users who know the password stored in the Perforce server at the startup port can connect to a P4Web Helper. See Passwords and Authorization for more information.

• You can now set a limit to the size of the pages displayed by P4Web. This should help users whose browsers are easily swamped by large pages. See Settings and Preferences for more information.

Changes Since Release 2000.2

2001.1/25842

25842: Files displayed or run by browser are exempt from page content limit (6439)

2001.1/23813

23813: Support for 'integrate -t' added (5848)

23767: No longer attempts to run xterm on Mac OS (5819)

23419: Support for changing current client in Viewer restored (5755)

23409: Workspace browsing available via 'Go To', not 'Go To->Settings' (5614)

23296: 'Resolve preview' window no longer closes instantly (5668)

23061: Fixed 'launch editor' warnings (5631)

22960: 'Launch editor' now can create new file (5615)

22934: Files opened for add now appear in Path Browser even if directories haven't been created yet.

22860: Workspace mode shows only current path contents instead of "phantom" new files in subdirectories (5564)

22466: Corrected 'add' page for unmapped paths (5524)

22444: Corrected help file link on Open File For Add page (5523)

22443: Submitted Changelists fixed for workspace mode (5519)

22388: Empty workspace root no longer causes error (5495)

2001.1beta/22346

22333: The File Browser page no longer displays a link to workspace files that don't exist. (5483)

22326: Displaying empty file content doesn't cause browser errors. (5471)

21436: "Show deleted files" preference now works with directories containing only deleted files. (5196)

21773: Directories with only deleted files no longer appear in a P4Web Viewer's Path Browser unless "show deleted files" is in effect. (5240)

21336: Attempts to add previously deleted file no longer cause error. (5142)

21808: "Launch Editor" doesn't crash when attempting to edit file that doesn't exist. (5298)

19642: Pending changelist page shows only the files opened by the current user so that files opened by another user won't be included in a "submit" (4689, 4705)

21823: Edit pending changelist and submit default changelist now use same form. (5278)

21530: Revert buttons on Submit/Edit Pending Changelist forms now work correctly with default changelist. (5143)

21066: Can now revert changelists (4786)

22218: The "Entire depot/Client view" preference is no longer listed in the Show menu, since it's now available in "Go To->Settings" and in a shortcut button. (5418)

21380: P4Web Viewer now allows "Client view only" preference. (4864)

20087: Client view page now has a link to make that client the current client (4058)

20101: Client edit form has a larger views field (4597)

21863, 21853: Client syntax can be used in a Path Browser URL. (5238)

21203: Submitted changelists page now accepts user-selectable changelist range and file matching pattern. (4022, 4404)

21440: P4Web now shuts down properly when "Shut Down" is chosen from the "Special" menu on the Mac. (5156)

22078: The Mac doesn't crash after waking up from sleep while running P4Web (3646)

21258: On the Mac, P4Web no longer includes "invisible" system-generated files (eg. "icon " and ".DS_Store") when listing files to open for add. (4945)

21435: P4Web now accommodates "%" and other special characters in filenames passed in URLs. (4993)

20780: file@rev1,@rev2 in URL can be used to show a Submitted Changelists page for that file and revision range (4891)

21576: Interactive resolve now works correctly when selecting individual files. (5202)

21914: Filelog page now gives links to file text at each revision (4681)

20190: Filelog now gives links to File Browser page for files integrated to/from the current file (4057)

20735: Path browser at depot root level now shows all depots, including those which do not yet contain any files. (4472)

21268: Improved error message at startup when P4Web port is already in use. (5153)

Changes Since First Beta Release

2000.2/19495

"Open for add" can now scan workspace path for new files to add

"Interactive resolve" replaces "safe automatic resolve" as the default

The File Browser now offers a link to the workspace copy of the current file

Launching the editor no longer causes the browser to wait or time out

On Unix, launching an editor or interactive resolve is allowed even if the browser and the P4Web Helper are on different machines

Added shortcut for "launch editor"

Client spec form now shows abbreviations as well as verbose option descriptions

4693 fixed: "&" in path causes bad "return to browser" links

4696 fixed: file text not displayed correctly on Mac

4626, 4659 fixed: resolve operates on invalid/missing filepattern

4384 fixed: interactive resolve launched even when there are no files to resolve

4586 fixed: P4Web Viewer displays irrelevant client-related info

4596 fixed: "workspace diffs" gives wrong output when file is not at head revision

2000.2beta/18974

4424 fixed: now allows reconnecting after stopping & restarting browser

2000.1beta/18743

Macintosh startup configuration dialog now available

Support for changing filetypes added

Support for "Show opened files -- all clients" added

4454 fixed: case mismatch in username makes authentication fail

4446 fixed: trailing "?=" in file content URLs prevents some browsers from recognizing file suffix

4326 fixed: can't see filetype of opened files

4507 fixed: can't diff opened binary files

4267 fixed: p4web doesn't check for port in use before starting up

2000.1beta/18548

Label spec and branch spec list pages available

"Recent activity" display now optional, not shown by default

4443 fixed: wrong "Go To" menu items shown in Viewer mode

2000.1beta/18366

Support for moving opened files between pending changelists added

3532 fixed: no way to delete an empty pending changelist

4426 fixed: maxresults error prevents display of links to subdirectories

2000.1beta/18267

4376 fixed: Changing settings to bad port prevents access to settings page.

2000.1beta/18170

Startup command flags & arguments have changed -- run p4web -h for info.

Support for "integrate" added

Interactive "resolve" available on Windows and Unix

Hide/show files now available

4337 fixed: "return to browser" button now returns to file browser page too

4296 fixed: showing command results in file browser page invited futile refresh/reload

4291 fixed: attempt to show filelog on path (via URL) gave mangled results

4261 fixed: no "all files" option in "revert" form

4222 fixed: "open for delete" showed empty "options" heading

4219 fixed: "show" menu operations caused inconsistent page titles

4212 fixed: shortcuts worked on "matching files" not on current path

4167 fixed: on Mac, client root field was displayed incorrectly

4132 fixed: invalid URL crashed p4web

4100 fixed: attempted to launch editor even if browser and workspace on different machines

4086 fixed: p4web crashed trying to launch editor on non-existent file

4085 fixed: p4web crashed when certain wildcard mappings occured in client views

4049 fixed: some help file links not working in IE5

4032 fixed: path browser margins not lining up

3993 fixed: p4web doesn't pick a default port address; requires user to supply one

3937 fixed: deleted files not on workspace show up with "synced" icon

3654 fixed: on Mac, client root field was cleared every time client edit page was shown

3568 fixed: password help file now displayed at authentication error

3415 fixed: on Mac, now outputs a message if p4web.config file can't be found

3247 fixed: drop-down menus weren't pre-selected

2000.1beta/17344

Introductory Help files added

Path browser shows file revision and type info

Interactive resolve available on Mac

Editor launch support added

Configuration Settings page added

Support for MIME display of file content

Support for extended filelog (filelog -i)

3843 fixed: authentication problems on Unix

2000.1beta/16431

The File Browser offers shortcut buttons for common file operations.

3421, 3491 fixed: Macintosh memory allocation problems.

99.2beta/15399

P4Web's "Client mode/depot mode" concept has been replaced with client/depot view preferences available in the Path Browser's "Show" menu. Now you can view mapped files you're not synced to yet. (Same as what you see in P4Win.)

3494 fixed: Offline remote depots prevent viewing top level path.

99.2beta/15106

3426 fixed: "Error: //* - must refer to client 'clientname'"

3399 fixed: No "resolve" page help

3252 new: Support for browse-only P4Web.

3011 fixed: P4Web stops running (or won't start up) if it can't connect to a Perforce server

3438 fixed: No "unlock" help

3378 fixed: Problems with diff output page

3433 fixed: Mangled $Id examples in help pages

Unsupported Operations

This release of P4Web does not support:

• Doing single-file or single-directory operations from Path Browser page
• Diffing non-consecutive file revisions
• Creating or editing branch specs
• Creating or editing labels; syncing files to a label (labelsync)
• Creating, editing, or searching for jobs
• Changing user name and/or password from a P4Web page (2957)
• Showing unintegrated file state in Path Browser and File Browser
• Showing pending changelists for client workspaces other than the current one (5429)
• Showing submitted changelists that have no associated files (5431)
• Operations that require Perforce superuser or review privileges

Limitations and Known Problems

• This release of P4Web uses no Javascript or frames. Consequently, it may not look as sophisticated as other web-based applications. However, it is equally as usable in browsers that don't support Javascript or frames as it is in browsers that do.

• Neither P4Web nor Perforce store MIME type mappings. P4Web commands that show file text use "text/plain" to qualify file content sent to the browser. P4Web commands for file browsing send unmodified, unqualified file content to the browser. This lets the browser choose how to display content according to the file suffix, the same way it would if a file URL was used. In some browsers, and with some file types, this works very well. In others, it does not.

• Using Internet Explorer on Macintosh Classic platforms (MacOS 9.x and below) causes P4Web performance problems. P4Web users on Mac Classic should try Netscape instead.

• On Mac and Windows, the "launch" commands are only available when your browser and your P4Web Helper are running on the same host machine.

• Neither the "Revert" button nor the "Revert if unchanged" operation work on files opened for branch or add. Revert those files with "Revert even though changed." (3400)

Please Send Us Your Feedback

Your feedback will help us improve P4Web. Please email your comments and bug reports to [email protected]. Be prepared to tell us:

• The version ID of the P4Web and the browser you were testing with. (Cut and paste this information from any P4Web page.)
• For bug reports, the URL of the P4Web page in question.