What is Adobe Version Cue?

Quite simply, Adobe Version Cue (along with its partner-in-crime, Adobe Drive) is a different method of managing your CS-created files. Version Cue enables the Project Manager, Graphic Designer, Web Developer, and Web Designer to coexist in the same project workspace.

One of the challenges of working with others (and indeed, even when flying solo) is the difficulty of managing projects, and files within projects. How many different versions of folders, PSDs, CSSs, etc, from the same project do you have stored on your desktop or laptop? I’m willing to bet your answer is somewhere north of “just one”!

Old School Methodology

Typically, when working on a project, one might create one root folder in which to store all project files, perhaps create multiple folders to organize files by file-type, and old versions of files either zip-compressed or renamed with some arbitrary prefix or suffix (think homepage_version1_2009-11-24.psd and so on). But what happens when you work between home and the office, or between a work computer and a laptop, or between the hard drive on your only PC/laptop and a portable USB drive? It’s quite possible that many users have encountered publishing old versions of images, out-of-date CSS rulesets, or stale HTML templates. Add the possibility of collaboration with a second (or more) professional, and suddenly one’s personal file “organization” becomes exponentially chaotic. Lose your portable USB drive, and your day goes from “great” to “I should have stayed in bed”.

Version Cue attempts to eliminate the version shuffle, as well as introduce the idea of organized collaboration, with the arrival of its Version Cue+Drive combination of software.

Adobe Version Cue - Service Panel

Adobe Version Cue

The first, and most important, piece of software is Version Cue. This is not an application one should typically use locally on their desktop or laptop; instead, it is intended to be installed on a network file server which acts as a repository for all media files edited by a team of collaborators.

Version Cue is installed and configured by a System Administrator, (typically someone who has little-to-no business using other Adobe applications!), and is configured with one user account per collaborator (whether Designer or Developer), and each user account is given one of two levels of permission (either standard user or system administrator). More often than not, users would receive standard user permissions (for security reasons, as well as to avoid ‘accidents’ if system administrators are unsure of what they are doing).

Additionally, one project is created per collaborative effort, and user accounts have the ability to create, edit, delete, check-in, and check-out files stored inside the project.

But how does a collaborator actually utilize these projects? Enter Adobe Drive…

Adobe Drive CS4 - Client Application

Adobe Drive

Collaborators of projects must first connect to a Version Cue network file server using Adobe Drive. Once connected, Adobe Drive creates a network drive entry inside your system’s file manager (for Windows users, this equates to a network drive inside Windows Explorer. For Mac, look for a network drive mounted on your desktop).

Once this network drive is visible, it can be manipulated almost exactly the same way other files on the computer can be manipulated. Almost…

Check In and Check Out

With the advent of Version Cue comes the introduction of a small measure of discipline. The basic premise of this discipline is: “if you want access to a file, perform a Check Out on it. When you’re done, perform a Check In”. The idea is the same as renting movies from a video store: if someone has rented-out the only copy of Breakfast At Tiffany’s, no one else may rent-out this movie until the original copy is returned to the video store. (Unless, of course, one tracks down the initial customer, and strikes a deal to watch the movie with them…)

Adobe Version Cue - Service Panel

Check Out effectively makes a given file unavailable for other users. Check In does the opposite, and returns a Checked-Out file back to an available state.

Working from home, or from Starbucks

One of the nice things about this sort of software is that, even though your files might be stored away neatly on a network file server at the office (for example), this doesn’t limit you to only working at the office. When configured correctly, a company’s network may be set up such that Version Cue collaborators can connect from anywhere there is an internet connection: at home, at Starbucks, in the library, and so on. The responsibility of configuring this situation lies, again, with the System Administrator. (And for the SysAdmins out there, for CS4: TCP ports 3703 and 5353, SSL requires 3704, and for CS3: TCP port 51000, SSL requires 51001. See Adobe’s documentation to this regard.)

Integration with other CS4 Applications

Another well-thought-out feature of Adobe Version Cue and Adobe Drive, is that of its integration with other CS4 applications. For example, when working in Photoshop CS4 on a file stored in a Version Cue folder, one has the ability to Check In a file being edited (i.e. committing local file changes to the network file server); Photoshop prompts for additional notes on the file to be entered. These changes may be viewed in your system’s file explorer by right- or alternate-clicking on the file, choosing Adobe Drive CS4, and clicking “Show Versions…”; a window will appear displaying all available versions.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Very simple to install and configure. Users with little-to-no experience with administering projects, user accounts, and files, can jump in fairly easily without difficulty.

Cons:

• Since files are stored on a network file server, access to them may be perceived as slow at times. This is a typical issue with files on a network, but since Version Cue files have some extra features not found in simpler network configurations (specifically, the addition of versioning, check-in/out, and so on), this added layer of functionality unfortunately costs users access-time.
• Backup and restore, while extremely useful, may be cumbersome and time-consuming to perform for System Administrators who are unfamiliar with the technology employed by Adobe.
• Accessing files which are stored remotely, during times when an internet connection may be down or a network file server may be down for maintenance (or, goodness forfend, hardware failure), means zero productivity. This is part-and-parcel for any networked file server situation, and whose down-sides are drastically outweighed by its up-sides.

Conclusion

The days of organized collaboration in a single user-space is very likely coming to an end in the near future. With many large corporations moving applications and interactivity to the collective fondly referred to as The Cloud, users will find many old methods of computing returning back to a set of features originally found at the genesis of thin-client/application-server computing as far back as halfway through the last century.

Fortunately, the apps are cooler nowadays.