Where could I find a lexicon of terms used in PW ?

Following my discovery of project wise, I am still a bit unsure of the meaning of the following terms in PW : directory, document, vault, project, environment, storage,  datasource, workarea...

My current understanding is : 

  • Datasource : a PW Server (unless a PW Server could host several datasources)
  • Directory : a container of document and or directory
  • Project : a special document 
  • Storage : the physical location used to store data of a given datasource 
  • Workarea : a local directory used by PW client for a given user to checkout out documents to
  • Vault : stands for project
  • Environment : ???

Do you know if exists a place in the documentation where those words are clearly defined in the PW context ?

Thanks in advance for your help.

  • Just found the documentation entry : PWGlossary.chm (which can be typically found here C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\Bentley\ProjectWise\help\)

    Answer Verified By: Guillaume Charbonnier 

  • Guillaume,

    One of my "go to" sayings is "words get in the way", meaning that we both may know what we mean, but the communcation of those meanings gets lost for so many reasons when we try to talk about them!  One of the reasons in the ProjectWise world is legacy.  Over the years, the same "things" have been named with different words.

    If you look in the PW SDK documentation under Modules -> ProjectWise DMS API -> Project Functions, you will find this interesting Paragraph: 

    At the API level, a folder is called "project". Keep in mind that "folder" and "project" are the same thing ("folder" is used in ProjectWise GUI). ProjectWise has "rich" projects as well. These projects have more properties than regular ones. In the ProjectWise GUI a rich project is named simply "project".

    I point this out when teaching the PW SDK because one of the hardest things about the PW SDK documentation is knowing what you are looking for!  You may be thinking "folder", but Project, directory, vault, rich project or eventually "work area" might be the key word that you should be searching for!

    No easy solution, but it helps to keep in mind that it isn't you, its the words...

    Hope this helps!