Microsoft Visual Source Safe How & Why William Gunkel

What is Source Safe Graphical Win 95 / 98 / NT Repository Stores any work product that can be saved on a PC Historical version tracking Stores each version with user entered comments Accessibility to any past versions Admin Selected Access Control Read Only Check-in Check-out (Read / Write) Add Rename Delete All including destroy (unrecoverable delete) Project Tracking / Reporting Features 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Why Use Source Safe Centralized storage of work product Controlled access to stored work product Version tracking of work product Tracking and change comments stored with saved work product 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Getting Starting You will need the Source Safe client Request a account from SQA User name will be your RWC network log in name Default password will be your log in name From swgroup2/vss folder run the Netsetup program Install the Source Safe client on your PC SQA will supply the CD key to complete the installation 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Starting Source Safe Click on the Source Safe Icon Enter your user name and password. Press OK If you do not already have a database selected you will need to select one 12/26/2018 Source Safe

A Few Source Safe Terms Working Folder Project Files Project Label User working area On your local computer or a network folder owned by you You must have read/write permission for the folder Project Group of files and/or folders Files Any work product that can be saved as a Win 95 98 NT file Project Label Logical tag for a group of files and/or folders Current Version All file(s) / project(s) operations work on last checked in copy of selected file(s) or project(s) 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Major Commands Get Check out Check in Show Difference Show History Copies latest or user option historical version of file(s) or project(s) to your local (working) folder Check out Gets the latest version of file(s) or project(s) and locks file as checked out by you. Others may get copy of file, while the file is in check out it, BUT is effectively read only for all other users Check in Updates Source Safe copy of file from you local folder. Optionally may keep file check out Show Difference ASCII File’s: show difference(s) in a side by side window, of same file in your local working folder Project’s: Shows list of difference between local project and Source Safe project Show History File’s: Shows list of version(s) of the selected file. View, Get, Show Difference of old vs.. same file(s) in your local folder Project’s: Using a project label Get or View old version(s) of project Add File(s) Add File(s) to exciting project folder from your local folder Also may use Drag and Drop to add file(s) or folder(s), avoids copying your local system path into Source Safe Project 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Working Folders Working Folder must point to a folder on your computer Source Safe will copy (Get) file(s) to your local folder, or Check out file(s) Each Project requires setting the Working Folder Top of Project tree must have working folder set By default Source Safe automatically expands sub-projects, when you Get or Check out a Project Your project tree by default will mirror that of source safe Source Safe remembers your working folders You may set a different working folder for each project an/or sub-project You may override default project tree with this feature 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Tool & Project Status Bar First time that you access a project, to perform a Check out or Get. You will need to set a Working Folder All future operations are referenced from the currently selected Source Safe file or project to YOUR local working folder 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Window Frames Files Processed window Process Status Bar Project Window File Window Shows file check out status Date/Time is LAST update Files Processed window Process Status Bar 12/26/2018 Source Safe

File Window Frame File is check out (and not shared) File is shared (Note multiple icon layers) File may appear in one or more other project folders. Check out or check in effects all ‘copies’ of the shared file. Two check marks on a file indicates that the file is checkout by two people Files is not checked out 12/26/2018 Source Safe

From the ‘File’ menu select ‘Open SourceSafe Database’ Selecting Database From the ‘File’ menu select ‘Open SourceSafe Database’ Currently RWC has two VSS database, one under swgroup and the second under swgroup2. Use this dialog to switch between the databases 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Projects The Power of Source Safe In Source Safe a folder, or directory is treated as a Project. A Project may have many sub-projects or folders Get, Check out, Check in, Show Difference, History commands can be executed on a Project Select the Project and Source Safe will build the same tree in your local folder OR Set a Working Folder in each ‘sub-project’ and you may change the default tree 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Changing Default Project Tree Set working folder to c:\myfolder Set working folder to c:\myfolder\build Set working folder to c:\myfolder\data Set working folder to c:\myfolder\Sounds This procedure allows overriding the default project tree in your local folder Use the ‘override’ feature if the default project tree dose not meet your requirements Note: Note any folder not ‘overridden’ will default to its ‘base’ folder + the sub-folder name 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Getting Files Press tool bar button after Selecting the file or files you wish to Get (copy) to your Working Folder. Or right click selection and 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Checking Out Files Press tool bar button after Selecting the file or files you wish to Check out to your Working Folder. Or right click selection and This feature will work on a file, group of select files or an entire project if you use the ‘recursive’ option 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Checking In Files Press tool bar button after Selecting the file or files you wish to Check in from your Working Folder. Or right click selection and This feature will work on a file, group of select files or an entire project if you use the ‘recursive’ option 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Check in Dialog Select to check in a project (multiple folders) Update changes only Does not unlock files. All your local folder changes are copied into the Source Safe database, but the file remains checked out to you (locked) CHECK IN COMMENTS This is the history comments. This field is effectively unlimited in size. Detail your changes here. Choose your words wisely. Comment should include Why change was make, what was changed and project version 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Show Differences Press tool bar button after Selecting the file you wish to Show Differences of Or right click selection and This command can be used to ‘diff’ files within the project Use the command at the project level to compare the entire project to in your local folder. IT IS RECOMMENED that you use the feature before any operation on a project to validate that you local folder is not out of sync in unexpected ways. 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Show History Press tool bar button after Selecting the file you wish to Show History Or right click selection and 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Show History Dialog Show file in read only editor Show comment details Get a read only copy of file Show Difference of file Project Label, by using this label you can retrieve a complete copy of the project that was ‘tagged by this label 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Add Files Press tool bar button to display Add Files dialog OR Drag and Drop to add file(s) or folder(s) This command is used to add files to an existing project or adding files to a newly created project 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Add Files Dialog Files not already in project window 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Project Labels After checking in a complete project, place a tag with comments on that project. MAKE LIBERAL USE OF PROJCT LABELS Without the project label You CAN NOT ‘get’ that same set of files for future reference. Use the label feature any time you wish to take a ‘snap shot’ of a project or group of files belonging to that project. Use project version as label tag, the comment field should give brief statement as to changes in this version. Label automatically works recursively, therefore all sub-project & files will be tagged with the same label 12/26/2018 Source Safe

User Options Use to change display for Show difference command Points to your preferred editor for viewing files (defaults to notepad) Default options Generally changing is not required Be sure you have a local directory selected here 12/26/2018 Source Safe

File Sharing Select file(s) to share to “EXE” folder Select if you which to have an unlinked copy of file First select folder to be shared to, then select from SourceSafe menu “Share”. Find the file(s) or folder(s) you which to share and select “Share” command from the Share dialog. The selected file(s) or folder(s) are now shared. 12/26/2018 Source Safe

Rules of Use Never leave out a check-in comment check in comments must be more than “misc changes” Its better to over comment changes, than under comment Avoid checking in files that have not at least compiled and linked (if applicable) Do not change Read Only attribute of source files An unchecked out file is marked Read Only by source safe Use as reminder that if changes are needed you need to check out that file Avoid moving files or projects from your local working folder after check out Make LIBERAL use of project labels Without the label you can not get a old version of a project 12/26/2018 Source Safe

VSS ADMIN SQA maintains the Visual Source Safe New project are create by SQA New users are added by SQA Project access privileges are set by SQA Project team member(s) will given access based on project Full access to your project(s), but read only to all others Database maintenance performed each Monday, database off line till 9:00 AM 12/26/2018 Source Safe