Customizing Perforce: Job Specifications

Perforce’s jobs feature enables users to link changelists to enhancement requests, problem reports, and other user-defined tasks. Perforce also offers P4DTG (Perforce Defect Tracking Gateway) as a means to integrate third-party defect tracking tools with Perforce. See Working with third-party defect tracking systems for details.

The Perforce user’s use of p4 job is discussed in the Helix Versioning Engine User Guide. This chapter covers administrator modification of the jobs system.

Perforce’s default jobs template has five fields for tracking jobs. These fields are sufficient for small-scale operations, but as projects managed by Perforce grow, the information stored in these fields might be insufficient. To modify the job template, use the p4 jobspec command. You must be a Perforce administrator to use p4 jobspec.

This chapter discusses the mechanics of altering the Perforce job template.

Warning

Improper modifications to the Perforce job template can lead to corruption of your server’s database. Recommendations, caveats, and warnings about changes to job templates are summarized at the end of this chapter.

The default Perforce job template

To understand how Perforce jobs are specified, consider the default Perforce job template. The examples that follow in this chapter are based on modifications to the this template.

A job created with the default Perforce job template has this format:

# A Perforce Job Specification.
#
#  Job:         The job name.  'new' generates a sequenced job number.
#  Status:      Either 'open', 'closed', or 'suspended'. Can be changed.
#  User:        The user who created the job. Can be changed.
#  Date:        The date this specification was last modified.
#  Description: Comments about the job.  Required.
Job:    new
Status: open
User:   edk
Date:   2011/06/03 23:16:43
Description:
        <enter description here>

The template from which this job was created can be viewed and edited with p4 jobspec. The default job specification template looks like this: 

# A Perforce Job Specification.
#
#  Updating this form can be dangerous!
#  See 'p4 help jobspec' for proper directions.
Fields:
      101 Job word 32 required
      102 Status select 10 required
      103 User word 32 required
      104 Date date 20 always
      105 Description text 0 required
Values:
      Status open/suspended/closed
Presets:
      Status open
      User $user
      Date $now
      Description $blank
Comments:
      # A Perforce Job Specification.
      #
      # Job: The job name. 'new' generates a sequenced job number.
      # Status: Either 'open', 'closed', or 'suspended'. Can be changed.
      # User: The user who created the job. Can be changed.
      # Date: The date this specification was last modified.
      # Description: Comments about the job. Required.

The job template’s fields

There are four fields in the p4 jobspec form. These fields define the template for all Perforce jobs stored on your server. The following table shows the fields and field types.

Field / Field Type Meaning

Fields:

A list of fields to be included in each job.

Each field consists of an ID#, a name, a datatype, a length, and a setting.

Field names must not contain spaces.

Values:

A list of fields whose datatype is select.

For each select field, you must add a line containing the field’s name, a space, and its list of acceptable values, separated by slashes.

Presets:

A list of fields and their default values.

Values can be either literal strings or variables supported by Perforce.

Comments:

The comments that appear at the top of the p4 job form. They are also used by P4V, the Perforce Visual Client, to display tooltips.

The Fields: field

The p4 jobspec field Fields: lists the fields to be tracked by your jobs and specifies the order in which they appear on the p4 job form.

The default Fields: field includes these fields: 

Fields:
      101 Job word 32 required
      102 Status select 10 required
      103 User word 32 required
      104 Date date 20 always
      105 Description text 0 required

Warning

Do not attempt to change, rename, or redefine fields 101 through 105. Fields 101 through 105 are used by Perforce and should not be deleted or changed. Use p4 jobspec only to add new fields (106 and above) to your jobs.

Each field must be listed on a separate line. A field is defined by a line containing each of the following five field descriptors.

Field descriptor Meaning

ID#

A unique integer identifier by which this field is indexed. After a field has been created and jobs entered into the system, the name of this field can change, but the data becomes inaccessible if the ID number changes.

ID numbers must be between 106 and 199.

Name

The name of the field as it should appear on the p4 job form. No spaces are permitted.

Data type

One of six datatypes (word, text, line, select, date or bulk), as described in the next table.

Length

The recommended size of the field’s text box as displayed in P4V, the Perforce Visual Client. To display a text box with room for multiple lines of input, use a length of 0; to display a single line, enter the Length as the maximum number of characters in the line.

The value of this field has no effect on jobs edited from the Perforce command line, and it is not related to the actual length of the values stored by the server.

Field type

Determines whether a field is read-only, contains default values, is required, and so on. The valid values for this field are:

  • optional: the field can take any value or can be deleted.
  • default: a default value is provided, but it can be changed or erased.
  • required: a default is given; it can be changed but the field can’t be left empty.
  • once: read-only; the field is set once to a default value and is never changed.
  • always: read-only; the field value is reset to the default value when the job is saved. Useful only with the $now variable to change job modification dates, and with the $user variable to change the name of the user who last modified the job.

Fields have the following six datatypes.

Field Type Explanation Example

word

A single word (a string without spaces).

A userid: edk

text

A block of text that can span multiple lines.

A job’s description.

line

One line of text.

A user’s real name: Ed K.

select

One of a set of user-defined values.

Each field with datatype select must have a corresponding line in the Values: field entered into the job specification.

A job’s status. One of: open/suspended/closed

date

A date value: year/month/day:hours:minutes:seconds

The date and time of job creation: 1998/07/15:13:21:46

bulk

A block of text that can span multiple lines, but which is not indexed for searching with p4 jobs -e.

Alphanumeric data for which text searches are not expected.

The Values: fields

You specify the set of possible values for any field of datatype select by entering lines in the Values: field. Each line should contain the name of the field, a space, and the list of possible values, separated by slashes.

In the default Perforce job specification, the Status: field is the only select field, and its possible values are defined as follows: 

Values:
      Status open/suspended/closed

The Presets: field

All fields with a field type of anything other than optional require default values. To assign a default value to a field, create a line in the jobspec form under Presets, consisting of the field name to which you’re assigning the default value. Any single-line string can be used as a default value.

The following variables are available for use as default values.

Variable Value

$user

The Perforce user creating the job, as specified by the P4USER environment variable, or as overridden with p4 -u username job

$now

The date and time at the moment the job is saved.

$blank

The text <enter description here>

When users enter jobs, any fields in your jobspec with a preset of $blank must be filled in by the user before the job is added to the system.

The lines in the Presets: field for the standard jobs template are: 

Presets:
      Status open
      User $user
      Date $now
      Description $blank

Using Presets: to change default fix status

The Presets: entry for the job status field (field 102) has a special syntax for providing a default fix status for p4 fix, p4 change -s, and p4 submit -s.

To change the default fix status from closed to some other fixStatus (assuming that your preferred fixStatus is already defined as a valid select setting in the Values: field), use the following syntax: 

Presets:
      Status openStatus,fix/fixStatus

In order to change the default behavior of p4 fix, p4 change, and p4 submit to leave job status unchanged after fixing a job or submitting a changelist, use the special fixStatus of same. For example: 

Presets:
      Status open,fix/same

The Comments: field

The Comments: field supplies the comments that appear at the top of the p4 job form. Because p4 job does not automatically tell your users the valid values of select fields, which fields are required, and so on, your comments must tell your users everything they need to know about each field.

Each line of the Comments: field must be indented by at least one tab stop from the left margin, and must begin with the comment character #.

The comments for the default p4 job template appear as: 

Comments:
      # A Perforce Job Specification.
      # Job: The job name. 'new' generates a sequenced job number.
      # Status: Either 'open', 'closed', or 'suspended'. Can be changed
      # User: The user who created the job. Can be changed.
      # Date: The date this specification was last modified.
      # Description: Comments about the job. Required.

These fields are also used by P4V, the Perforce Visual Client, to display tooltips.

Caveats, warnings, and recommendations

Although the material in this section has already been presented elsewhere in this chapter, it is important enough to bear repeating. Please follow the guidelines presented here when editing job specifications with p4 jobspec.

Warning

Please read and understand the material in this section before you attempt to edit a job specification.

  • Do not attempt to change, rename, or redefine fields 101 through 105. These fields are used by Perforce and should not be deleted or changed. Use p4 jobspec only to add new fields (106 and above) to your jobs.

    Field 101 is required by Perforce and cannot be renamed nor deleted.

    Fields 102 through 105 are reserved for use by Perforce applications. Although it is possible to rename or delete these fields, it is highly undesirable to do so. Perforce applications may continue to set the value of field 102 (the Status: field) to closed (or some other value defined in the Presets: for field 102) upon changelist submission, even if the administrator has redefined field 102 for use as a field that does not contain closed as a permissible value, leading to unpredictable and confusing results.

  • After a field has been created and jobs have been entered, do not change the field’s ID number. Any data entered in that field through p4 job will be inaccessible.
  • Field names can be changed at any time. When changing a field’s name, be sure to also change the field name in other p4 jobspec fields that reference this field name. For example, if you create a new field 106 named severity and subsequently rename it to bug-severity, then the corresponding line in the jobspec’s Presets: field must be changed to bug-severity to reflect the change.
  • The comments that you write in the Comments: field are the only way to let your users know the requirements for each field. Make these comments understandable and complete. These comments are also used to display tooltips in P4V, the Perforce Visual Client.

Example: a custom template

The following example shows a more complicated jobspec and the resulting job form: 

# A Custom Job Specification.
#
#  Updating this form can be dangerous!
#  See 'p4 help jobspec' for proper directions.
Fields:
        101 Job word 32 required
        102 Status select 10 required
        103 User word 32 required
        104 Date date 20 always
        111 Type select 10 required
        112 Priority select 10 required
        113 Subsystem select 10 required
        114 Owned_by word 32 required
        105 Description text 0 required
Values:
        Status open/closed/suspended
        Type bug/sir/problem/unknown
        Priority A/B/C/unknown
        Subsystem server/gui/doc/mac/misc/unknown
Presets:
        Status open
        User setme
        Date $now
        Type setme
        Priority unknown
        Subsystem setme
        Owned_by $user
        Description $blank
Comments:
        # Custom Job fields:
        # Job:    The job name. 'new' generates a sequenced job number.
        # Status: Either 'open', 'closed', or 'suspended'. Can be changed
        # User:   The user who created the job. Can be changed.
        # Date:   The date this specification was last modified.
        # Type:          The type of the job. Acceptable values are
        #                'bug', 'sir', 'problem' or 'unknown'
        # Priority:      How soon should this job be fixed?
        #                Values are 'a', 'b', 'c', or 'unknown'
        # Subsystem:     One of server/gui/doc/mac/misc/unknown
        # Owned_by:      Who's fixing the bug
        # Description: Comments about the job. Required.

The order of the listing under Fields: in the p4 jobspec form determines the order in which the fields appear to users in job forms; fields need not be ordered by numeric identifier.

Running p4 job against the example custom jobspec displays the following job form: 

# Custom Job fields:
# Job:    The job name. 'new' generates a sequenced job number.
# Status: Either 'open', 'closed', or 'suspended'. Can be changed
# User:   The user who created the job. Can be changed.
# Date:   The date this specification was last modified.
# Type:          The type of the job. Acceptable values are
#                'bug', 'sir', 'problem' or 'unknown'
# Priority:      How soon should this job be fixed?
#                Values are 'a', 'b', 'c', or 'unknown'
# Subsystem:     One of server/gui/doc/mac/misc/unknown
# Owned_by:      Who's fixing the bug
# Description: Comments about the job. Required.
Job:    new
Status: open
User:   setme
Type:   setme
Priority:       unknown
Subsystem:      setme
Owned_by:       edk
Description:
        <enter description here>

Working with third-party defect tracking systems

Perforce currently offers two independent platforms to integrate Perforce with third-party defect tracking systems. Both platforms allow information to be shared between Perforce’s job system and external defect tracking systems.

P4DTG, The Perforce Defect Tracking Gateway

P4DTG, the Perforce Defect Tracking Gateway, is an integrated platform that includes both a graphical configuration editor and a replication engine.

The P4DTG includes a graphical configuration editor that you can use to control the relationship between Perforce jobs and the external system. Propagation of the data between the two systems is coordinated by a replication engine. P4DTG comes with plug-ins for HP Quality Center, JIRA, Redmine, and Bugzilla.

For more information, see the product page at:

http://www.perforce.com/product/components/defect_tracking_gateway

Available from this page are an overview of P4DTG’s capabilities, the download for P4DTG itself, and a link to the Defect Tracking Gateway Guide, which describes how to install and configure the gateway to replicate data between a Perforce server and a defect tracker.

Building your own integration

Even if you don’t use Perforce’s integrations as your starting point, you can still use Perforce’s job system as the interface between Perforce and your defect tracker. Depending on the application, the interface you set up will consist of one or more of the following:

  • A trigger or script on the defect tracking system side that adds, updates, or deletes a job in Perforce every time a bug is added, updated, or deleted in the defect tracking system.

    The third-party system should generate the data and pass it to a script that reformats the data to resemble the form used by a manual (interactive) invocation of p4 job. The script can then pipe the generated form to the standard input of a p4 job -i command.

    The -i flag to p4 job is used when you want p4 job to read a job form directly from the standard input, rather than using the interactive "form-and-editor" approach typical of user operations. Further information on automating Perforce with the -i option is available in the P4 Command Reference.

  • A trigger on the Perforce side that checks changelists being submitted for any necessary bug fix information.

For more about triggers, including examples, see “Using triggers to customize behavior”.