P4Web can be used to browse files and paths in the Perforce depot. If you are using P4Web in Standard mode, you can also use it to browse files and paths in your client workspace. Workspace browsing mode affects only the Tree view and File view pages. All other P4Web pages behave the same, regardless of whether you arrived at them using depot browsing or workspace browsing. File links in pending changelists, submitted changelists, and filelogs take you to a File view page with depot browsing mode in effect, which can be confusing if you started out using workspace browsing. You can always use your browser's right-click feature to keep a workspace browsing window open while following other links.
Note the following distinctions between the two browsing modes.
| Depot browsing | Workspace browsing | |
| Am I seeing the depot or the workspace? |
The Switch to depot tree link turns on depot browsing. It takes you to a Tree view page showing the root of the Perforce depot tree. The Tree view can show files not in your client workspace. For instance, files not synced to your workspace, and files you have opened for delete, can be browsed in depot mode. |
The Switch to workspace tree link starts workspace browsing. It takes you to a Tree view page showing files and path at the top level of your workspace. The Tree view shows only the files that are actually present in your client workspace. |
| What's the impact on the Perforce Server? | You can restrict the scope of depot browsing to the current client view. See Settings and Preferences to find out how to set this. For users of large Perforce depots, this setting is a good idea because it reduces the amount of work the Perforce Server has to do for each P4Web depot browsing request. | The Perforce Server does less work for P4Web when you browse the workspace tree because it only has to get information about files in the current client view. |
| How do I know which mode I'm in? |
You'll know when you're in depot browsing mode because P4Web will show the current path using Perforce syntax. For example, //depot/projects/mars/... |
You'll know when you are browsing the workspace tree because the current path will be shown in local syntax. For example:
|