Checking Out an Item

Purpose

Check out an item revision when you want to edit it. The item revision is copied into your work area and locked in Dimensions CM so no one else can modify it.

Your process model may require you to relate an item to a request when you check it out.

This operation is not available for items in a stream.

PRIVILEGES Revise Item Content

NOTE In Windows, the maximum supported length of file path for a checked out file in the work area is 260 characters.

NOTE You cannot check out an item in response to a request if the request is above the initial stage in the Global Stage Lifecycle.

To check out an item:

On the My Current Project tab or Items tab, in the navigation pane, select the project folder in which the item(s) are located.
Do one of the following:

To check out copies of individual items, select one or more items.
To check out the entire project folder, do not select any items.

Click the Check Out button.
Do one of the following:

If you have selected a single item, for Check out to location, enter the full path of the file in your work area to which you want the file to be copied, or use the browse button to select it.
If you have selected multiple items or a project folder, for Check out to folder or Check out contents of <name>, enter the full path of the folder in your work area to which you want the file or folder to be checked out, or use the browse button to select it.

For If writeable workfile exists, select overwrite if you want existing files to be overwritten by the file from the repository.
For Branch, accept or select a branch.
If required, in the Relate to requests field, type the name of the related request, or click the browse button to find it.
If you have selected a project folder and you want to check out the contents of its subfolders, select Include subdirectories of <name>.
If you want Dimensions CM to expand item header substitution variables, select Expand substitution variables. Note that this will only occur if Enable item header substitution is set for the item type in the Administration Console. Also, you should specify reversible substitution variables to prevent the variables from being overwritten by the expanded values when the items are delivered back to the repository.
If you do not want Dimensions CM to write metadata to the work area for the copied files/folders, deselect Write metadata.
Click the OK button.

In the content pane, the icon changes indicating the checked out item revision.

NOTE The Status column is set to $TO_BE_DEFINED. This means that the status of the newly created item revision has not yet been set. It will be set to a definite value in the Check In dialog box when the item revision is checked back in.