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P4 for Visual Studio Documentation | 2025.2

# Define a workspace view

The workspace view A set of mappings that specifies the correspondence between file locations in the depot and the client workspace. Each row in the workspace view consists of a pair of filespecs, first a depot filespec, then white space, and finally a filespec that shows a workspace location relative to the workspace root. (sometimes called a client view) determines which portions of the depot are available for you to work with in P4 for Visual Studio and where local copies of depot files are stored in your workspace. If you use streams, the workspace view is generated and updated automatically. If you use classic depots, you must maintain the view manually, as described in this topic.

To define or change the workspace view for an existing workspace:

1. Select View > Workspaces. The Workspaces tab is displayed.
2. Right-click the workspace and select Edit Workspace. The Workspace form is displayed.
3. Edit the View field. Define the view as described under Syntactic view specification.
4. When you have finished editing, save your changes.

To define the workspace view for a new workspace:

1. Open the Open Connection dialog.

   To learn more, see Connect to a P4 Server.

2. Click the New button next to the Workspace field to open the New Workspace dialog.
3. Enter a workspace name and click OK.
4. In the Workspace dialog, edit the View field. Define the view as described under Syntactic view specification.

## Syntactic view specification

Type your view specification using P4 client view syntax. Views consist of mappings, one per line. The left-hand side of the mapping A single line in a view definition, consisting of a left side, a blank space, and a right side. The mappings specify the correspondences between files in the depot and files in a client, label, or branch. See also 'workspace view', 'branch view', and 'label view'. specifies the depot files and the right-hand side specifies the location in the workspace where the depot files reside when they are retrieved from the depot. Example:

    //depot/...        //bruno/depot/...
    //user_depot/...   //bruno/user_depot/...
    //projects/...     //bruno/myprojects/...

For details about client view syntax, refer to the P4 CLI Documentation.

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