Tools Guide

Chapter 14 SilverStream Source Control

SilverStream Source Control enables you to manage different versions of the objects you are using in your applications, such as forms, views, pages, and business objects. Before you can use Source Control on your system, you must first have one of the following source control software packages installed:

Microsoft Visual SourceSafe 5.0 or 6.0
Intersolv PVCS 5.3 or above
Rational ClearCase 3.2.1

This chapter describes the following:

About source control

A source code control system can do several things for you:

It can keep track of the changes made to the file: what was changed, when it was changed, and by whom.
It provides a version numbering scheme so you can tell which versions of a file are more recent.
It can retrieve previous versions of your file, so that you can revert to an older version if you decide that the current version is no longer valid, or if you want to see some text that has since been changed or deleted.
If you accidentally delete or change a current file, you can get back the last version.
If several people are working with the same file, a source code control system can help you coordinate your work and keep track of who did what, and when.

Using Microsoft Visual SourceSafe

If you are using Microsoft Visual SourceSafe as your source control program, first do the following:

If you haven't used source control with SilverStream, go to Setting up your connection to Visual SourceSafe.
If you have been using SilverStream Source Control with Visual SourceSafe version 5 and have upgraded to Visual SourceSafe version 6, go to Upgrading to Visual SourceSafe version 6.
Otherwise, go to Setting up SilverStream Source Control.

Setting up your connection to Visual SourceSafe

First, you need to make sure you can access the Visual SourceSafe server and database from your machine.

To access the Visual SourceSafe server and database:

Open the Visual SourceSafe application.
Select File>Open SourceSafe Database. The Open SourceSafe database dialog box appears.
- If the SourceSafe database you want to use is listed, you are all set and can cancel out of this dialog. Continue with Setting up SilverStream Source Control.
- If the SourceSafe database you want to use is not listed, continue with the next step.
If the database you want to use is not listed, press the Browse button and select the directory.
Select srcsafe.ini and press OK.

Now you are ready to use SilverStream Source Control. Go to Setting up SilverStream Source Control.

Upgrading to Visual SourceSafe version 6

If you have been using SilverStream Source Control with Visual SourceSafe version 5 and have upgraded to Visual SourceSafe version 6, do the following to upgrade your SilverStream Source Control.

To upgrade to SourceSafe version 6:

In the Main Designer, select the database now under source control with Visual SourceSafe version 5.
Select Source>Disconnect from source control and click OK in the confirmation dialog.
With the database still selected, select Source>Source Control Settings.
Specify Microsoft Visual SourceSafe 6.0 and click OK.

The dialog containing source control settings displays. The settings should be correct because they are taken from your Visual SourceSafe 5 setup.
Click OK.

Your database is now set up to use source control with Visual SourceSafe 6.

To set up additional databases under source control, see Setting up SilverStream Source Control.

Setting up SilverStream Source Control

Once you install your source control software on your machine, use the following procedure to set up source control within the SilverStream Designer. You set up Source Control on a per-database basis.

To set up Source Control:

Select the database that you want to add to Source Control in the left pane of the SilverStream Designer.
Choose Source>Source Control Settings. A list box appears that contains the names of the source control packages that SilverStream supports.
Select the source control package that you have installed on your system and press OK. The Source Control Setup dialog box appears.
For Visual SourceSafe, enter:
- The SourceSafe database that you listed in the previous procedure (click Select and select the database from the list).
- The project name for this SilverStream database. (See the Visual SourceSafe documentation for information on setting up projects.)
- Your SourceSafe username and password exactly as you entered it in SourceSafe, making sure to get the capitalization correct.
  
  For PVCS, enter:
- The PVCS configuration file.
- The archive directory.
  
  For ClearCase, enter:
- The view location. The view location is a directory location in a view. The directory must have been added to source control. SilverStream creates a directory structure under the view location that matches the folder hierarchy in the SilverStream Designer. For example, if you specify d:\views\myVOB\myDirectory as the view location, SilverStream creates the following directory structure:
```
  d:\views\myVOB\myDirectory\SilverStream\Forms 
  d:\views\myVOB\myDirectory\SilverStream\Media 
  d:\views\myVOB\myDirectory\SilverStream\Media\General 
  d:\views\myVOB\myDirectory\SilverStream\Media\Images 
  d:\views\myVOB\myDirectory\SilverStream\Media\Jars 
  d:\views\myVOB\myDirectory\SilverStream\Media\Sounds 
  d:\views\myVOB\myDirectory\SilverStream\Objects 
  d:\views\myVOB\myDirectory\SilverStream\Pages 
  d:\views\myVOB\myDirectory\SilverStream\Views 
```
  NOTE ClearCase is case-sensitive. Therefore, make sure the view location you specify uses the correct case. In addition, make sure the path you specify for your SilverStream compile cache uses the correct case.
Click OK.

What happens

The Designer workspace updates. There is now an SC Status column that indicates whether a file has been checked into or out of the source control system. There is also a User column that shows who has a file checked out.

Also, additional icons appear, which you can use to get files, check files out and in, undo a check out, and look at an object's history.

Icon

Description

Get

Check out

Check in

Undo check out

History

Icon	Description
	Get
	Check out
	Check in
	Undo check out
	History

NOTE You must set up Source Control for each database you add to the SilverStream Designer.

Adding items to Source Control

When you activate Source Control on a database within SilverStream, the items contained in that database are not automatically added to Source Control. You can add items (one at a time) to Source Control.

To add an item to Source Control:

Select the plus sign next to the database you added to Source Control to expand its list of items. The item list appears in the right pane of the SilverStream Designer.
Select the object that you want to add to Source Control.
Add the item to Source Control by selecting the Check In icon from the action gallery at the bottom of the right pane of the SilverStream Designer, or select Check In from the Source menu. The Check-In dialog box appears.
Add any comments you feel are appropriate and click OK.

What SilverStream does

Source Control creates a SilverStream subdirectory within the project directory you specified when you set up Source Control.

Within the SilverStream subdirectory, Source Control creates individual directories that are named according to the type of item you are adding.

For example, if you are using Microsoft Visual SourceSafe as your source control package and you specify the following as your project directory:

  $/Test/Release1

when you add the page candidates.html by checking it in, Source Control creates the following structure in SourceSafe:

  $/Test/Release1/SilverStream/Pages/candidates.html

Working with objects under Source Control

Once an object is under Source Control, only one person at a time can check out that object to update it. However, any number of people can run the object or open the object for viewing (get the object) in the Designer.

When you open an object under Source Control without checking it out, SilverStream creates a copy of the object (you can see that it is a copy by looking at the title bar in the Designer). If you try to save the object, you are prompted to specify a new name.

Checking items out

To check items out of Source Control to edit them:

NOTE Only one person at a time can check a file out.

Select the checked-in item in the Silverstream Designer.
Select the Check Out icon from the action gallery or choose Check Out from the Source menu. Your user name appears in the User column in the right pane of the SilverStream Designer.

You can now update the object.

Checking items back in

To check items back into Source Control:

Select the checked-out item in the Silverstream Designer.
Select the Check In icon from the action gallery or choose Check In from the Source menu. A dialog displays.
Enter any comments you want to make about the new version of the object and click OK.

The item is checked back into source control and your name is removed from the User column for the object.

Performing a Get

To get the most recent version of an item stored in Source Control:

Select the item in the SilverStream Designer and choose the Get icon from the action gallery.

The Get popup menu displays.
Select one of the following:
- Get Selected creates a copy of the latest version of the selected item.
- Get Directory creates a copy of all of the items in the selected directory.
- Get Database creates a copy all of the items in the selected database.
- Get Advanced creates a copy of the specified item, directory or database. You can also specify the date or the label for each item, directory, or database. For example, you could get a copy of all the forms that were created by 5/30/99 at 5:00 PM.
  
  NOTE If you specify a label, the label must already exist and have been created using your source control system.
  
  Source Control retrieves copies of the items you specified. Note that you are now working with a copy of the items; the items are not locked in your source control system.

Getting an item from ClearCase

Before you get an item in a snapshot view in ClearCase, you need to update your view in Windows Explorer. If you do not update the view first, you will not get the latest version of the item.

Doing a build after performing a get

Whenever you do a Get from source control, you should use the Build command to compile the code. For more information, see Using the Build command.

Viewing item history

To view the history of an item:

Highlight the item and click the History icon in the action gallery.

The History dialog appears. It contains a listing of each version stored in the source control system.
If you want to get (not check out) a version, select the version and click Get.

Disconnecting from Source Control

At any time, you can disconnect a database from Source Control. For example, if you are working on a laptop and taking your machine home, you would disconnect from Source Control before disconnecting from the network.

To remove Source Control from a database:

Select the database and the items within the database that you want to disconnect from Source Control.
Select Disconnect from Source Control from the Source menu in the SilverStream Designer. The following message appears.
```
  Are you sure you want to disconnect this database from the source control system? 
```
Select OK to disconnect from source control or Cancel to retain the connection.

Once you are back on the network, you can reconnect the database to Source Control, as described in Setting up SilverStream Source Control. Then you can check in your changes.