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Working with VFPX and CodePlex Source Control

Many developers who want to get involved with VFPX face a bit of a challenge, especially if they've never used Source Control. (What!?!?! You've never used source control)

When I started working on the Code Analyst, I used the SCCI provider within VFP but it always conflicted with my own SSC tool (SourceOffSite). There's also a TeamPrise Explorer or one built directly into Visual Studio but within VFP, I wanted something a little more, um, basic.

So there's a CodePlex SC command line click, that's really easy to work with.  I'm still experimenting with it - but in the end, I think it may be the way to go. One thing to realize though is that it will give you FULL access to the VFPX project, which includes LOTS of sub-projects. I only wanted to work on the Code Analyst but as a result, I ended up getting everything. I don't think that's a bad thing because it makes it easier to really appreciate the entire scope of the VFPX project. After all, this IS the future of Visual FoxPro.

It's useful to read the post below because as it explains the Command Line client works in a different mode than what you may be used to with Visual Source Safe ( I believe however it's closer in nature to other approaches).  From the introduction on the site, Source Safe and Team System operate on a "checkout-edit-checkin" approach whereas CodePlex client works in a "edit-merge-commit" approach. For VFP developers, this might actually work out better.

My big problem with using Visual Studio is that for some reason, it's gotten confused and thinks that SourceSafe is my ONLY client and thus I can't connect to the CodePlex team system. In addition, if you're pretty much living in VFP, why do you really want a 400 MB client (for the Team Explorer ALONE) when you're used to working with the relatively small development IDE of VFP (150 MB).

CodePlex Source Control Client - Home

To maintain compatibility with the "checkin/checkout" style approach, you may want to run DO HOME()+"SCCTEXT" WITH <filename> every now and then to make sure the SCA, VCA,MNA files are running, although for the record, I noticed that some of the projects do NOT include those pieces in there.

What tools are you using for working with CodePlex? If there's enough need, it might be worthwhile to create a little VFP wrapper for this little gem.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks a lot for this post Andrew. I hope to try this soon.

Cesar
May 19, 2008 at 10:06 AM
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