Helix Core — version control from Perforce — tracks, manages, and secures changes to all your digital assets, including large binary files. Scale your infrastructure, support your remote teams, and move faster.
Full Video Transcript
P4V is the visual client for Helix Core. It runs on Linux, PC, and Macintosh Computers. It’s an easy way to access the server for many functions, instead of using the P4 command-line client.
We’ll be touring the interface on Windows 10, but the interface looks and acts the same across the supported platforms.
All the available commands are located in the drop-down menus. The toolbar displays icons for frequently used commands and views.
To get more information about what a button or screen element does, just hover over it. P4V displays the descriptive tooltip. Right click menus are available throughout the interface.
The main window is comprised of three sections. The left pane displays all versioned files. Click on the depot tab to display files that are contained on the server. The workspace tab displays files from the server that are available on your local computer.
Versioned files have status indicators. The yellow triangle indicates you do not have the latest version of a file, the blue checkmark indicates the file is checked out by another user. Hover over the file to view who is working on it. The red checkmark indicates a file is checked out by you.
The right pane is the work area. It displays views of pending and submitted changelists as well as forms for editing items such as job entry and workspace setup.
Each of these tabs contains additional information on individual items in the pane. They can be resized or eliminated if you just want to view the list. Most tabs have additional columns you can add to the table. Also, you can sort by column type. Click on the column headers to change the column order.
Now let's add a new history tab. The history tab lists all previous file versions, with relevant metadata. You can view the versions as a list or in thumbnails. Previews are available for most common file types.
The log pane on the bottom displays the commands that P4V issues as well as any relevant messages from the server. This is helpful when creating scripts because all the proper command line instructions and arguments display as you work in P4V. You can easily copy and paste these commands into your script.
P4V is customizable. The tabs can be reordered or they can be undocked from the main screen if you want a separate view of a specific window. You can also close out a tab that you're not using.
If you prefer some extra real estate, right-click and deselect the toolbar. You can also eliminate the log pane.
Lastly there are a large number of P4V preferences available to configure. Such as double click behavior, shortcuts, font size, and workflow options such as merge/branch and streams behavior so you can tailor P4V to your team’s needs.