On the 30th of May we did another “Subversion in the Enterprise Webinar”. Quite a few people asked about migrating from ClearCase® to Subversion (Bob blogged about that already) and some asked specifically about synchronizing the two systems. For example:

“I work for a place that does contract development. Often we find people that are deeply entrenched with ClearCase, which works fine as long as you are working within the local environment. Is there a tool set that allows moving to and from Clear Case? We far and away prefer to work with Subversion, and only push back major releases to the customer’s ClearCase repository.”

There is a solution for this: you can download a ClearCase <> Subversion connector right here from openCollabNet, for free!

The connector synchronizes changes between IBM Rational ClearCase and a Subversion working copy. It provides two modes to synchronize data: from ClearCase to Subversion, and vice versa.

From ClearCase to Subversion: For the connector to work in this mode, you need to have two ClearCase views to clearly distinguish between modifications made:

• A "ClearCase Reference View" which must match the Subversion working copy.
• A "ClearCase Current View" containing the most recent changes made to the ClearCase VOB.

The connector gets the difference between a ClearCase - Reference View and the ClearCase - Current View, and synchronizes it with the Subversion working copy.

When you export, the following will happen:

• The connector will detect the difference in data between the two ClearCase views.
• The file deleted (red), file added (blue) and file renamed (green) will be exported to the Subversion working copy and also directly committed to the Subversion repository.
• The file whose content has been modified (Orange) will be updated only to the Subversion working copy. You need to manually commit it to a Subversion repository to synchronize all data.

From Subversion to ClearCase: In this mode, the connector brings in the changes made in the CollabNet Subversion working copy to a ClearCase view of your choice.

When you import, the following will happen: The file deleted (red), directory added (blue), file renamed (green) and file whose content is modified (orange) in the Subversion working copy will be imported to the ClearCase view. You need to manually checkin the changes made in this view to the ClearCase VOB.

The connector can be used with stand-alone Subversion as well as with CollabNet Enterprise Edition and SourceForge Enterprise Edition. If you want more information about the connector, download it and read the included manual (most of the above is from there). To get community support for the connector, go to our connectors project on openCollabNet. Support is also available directly from CollabNet.

Next to the ClearCase connector we have two free connectors for HP Quality Center. Our Subversion connector allows you to version test plans in Subversion and the CollabNet Enterprise Edition connector bi-directionally synchronizes defect information to ensure that developers and testers work on the same data. You can download datasheets for all connectors from our corporate web site.