VCS Operations for Microsoft TFS and Subversion¶
The following subsections explains how the check in (commit) and check out (update) operations work when using the VCS integration with Microsoft TFS or Subversion.
Check In / Commit Operations¶
The action of sending a resource to a version control repository is commonly called check in or commit. A resource that is not under version control needs to be added before being committed. In Virtual DataPort, these commands are integrated into a single operation: check in.
You can check in a single element (and all their dependencies), a folder or an entire database. When you do this, the Tool will display a dialog that lists the elements that will be checked in. Enter a “check in message” in the text box at the top of the dialog and click VCS > Check in.
The author of the commit will be the username you entered in the dialog VCS Management.
When you work with VCS system, there is a conflict in an element when you try to check in an element that has been modified and checked in by another user, after the last time you checked-out this element. All the VCS systems detect conflicts to prevent users from unknowingly overwriting changes made by other users. Virtual DataPort also has a “conflicts detection system” to help you when there are conflicts between two resources.
The “check in” dialog has different options depending on if “conflicts detection” is enabled or disabled on the Administration Tool. To know if “conflict detection” is enabled, click Admin Tool preferences on the menu Tools and then, click the VCS tab. If the check box “Enable conflict detection” is selected, it means that “conflict detection” is enabled. Note that this preference is set in the Administration Tool. Therefore, is not a global setting.
If the conflict detection is disabled on the Administration Tool (default and recommended option), the “Check in” dialog has two check boxes (see Check in dialog with “conflict detection” disabled):
Check in dialog with “conflict detection” disabled¶
Enable conflict detection check box:
If you select Enable conflict detection in the “Check in” dialog, the Server will look for conflicts between the local and the remote versions of the selected resources, before performing the commit.
If there are no conflicts, the check in will be performed as expected.
If there are conflicts, the Tool will switch to the “Conflicts” tab (see Check in dialog: Conflicts tab), which will list the elements that have conflicts. Select an element to see the differences between the VQL of the local and the remote version. If you configured an external diff viewer tool, you can click Compare to see the differences in this external tool.
To set the path to an external diff tool, open the Admin Tool preferences on the menu Tools and click the VCS tab (see more about this in the section VCS Settings of the Administration Tool).
If there are conflicts, you have two options:
Overwrite the version stored in the VCS server with your local version. To do this, click Check in.
Overwrite your local version with the version in the VCS server. To do this, click Cancel. Then, on the Server Explorer, right-click the element and click Check out to obtain the version stored in the VCS server.
If you clear the check box Enable conflict detection, the conflicts will be detected by the VCS server. When you click the Check in button on the “Check in” dialog, Virtual DataPort will try to commit of the changes. If there is a conflict, the operation will fail because the VCS server will return an error. The error returned by the VCS server is different in each VCS server. In Subversion, is “File xxx is out of date”.
Check in dialog: Conflicts tab¶
Resolve conflicts automatically with local changes: if selected and there is a conflict in an element, the remote version will be overwritten by the local one. Be careful when selecting this option because it may lead to lose changes committed by other users unknowingly.
If conflict detection is enabled, the “check in” dialog does not display these two check boxes (“Enable conflict detection” and “Resolve conflicts automatically…”). The reason is that in this case, when you right-click an element and then, “Check-in”, the Tool will look for conflicts automatically. If there are any, the “Conflicts” tab will be immediately displayed. If there are not, the tab will be disabled.
Important
In the Administration Tool, the “conflict detection system” is disabled by default because performing this process is slow; especially when the database has a lot of changes. So, it is better to rely on the VCS server to do this because it performs this process much faster. If, at any point, the check in operation fails because there is a conflict, you can open the “check in” wizard again and select the “Enable conflict detection” check box.
Check Out / Update Operations¶
In Virtual DataPort, the check out and update commands are integrated into a single operation: check out. You can check out a single element and all their dependencies, a folder or the whole database.
To check out an element, right-click it in the Server Explorer, and click VCS > Check out. In the “Check out” dialog, in the Revision list, you can select which revision you want to obtain or enter one, manually. Usually you just want to use the default option: “HEAD”. If you are checking out a database or a folder, you can check out the whole database or folder, or just select one of its elements, by clicking Element and selecting it in the list.
The “check out” dialog has different options depending on if “conflicts detection” is enabled or disabled on the Administration Tool. To know if “conflict detection” is enabled, open the Admin Tool preferences, on the menu Tools and then, click tab VCS. If the check box “Enable conflict detection” is selected, it means that “conflict detection” is enabled. Note that this preference is set in the Administration Tool. Therefore, is not a global setting.
If the conflict detection is disabled on the Administration Tool (default and recommended option), the “Check out” dialog has three check boxes (see Check out dialog of a database with “conflict detection” disabled):
Check out dialog of a database with “conflict detection” disabled¶
Enable conflict detection:
If you select Enable conflict detection in the “Check out” dialog, the Server will look for conflicts between the local and the remote versions of the selected resources.
If there are no conflicts, the check out will be performed as expected.
If there are conflicts, the Tool will switch to the “Conflicts” tab (see Check out dialog: Conflicts tab), which will list the elements that have conflicts. Select an element to see the differences between the VQL of the local and the remote version.
If you configured an external diff viewer tool, you can click Compare to see the differences in this external tool.
To set the path to an external diff tool, open the Admin Tool preferences on the menu Tools and click the VCS tab (see more about this in the section VCS Settings of the Administration Tool).
If there are conflicts, you have two options:
Overwrite your local version with the version stored in the VCS server. To do this, click Check out.
Overwrite the version of the VCS server with your local version. To do this, click Cancel. Then, on the Server Explorer, right-click the element and click VCS > Check in to store your version in the VCS server.
If you clear the check boxes Enable conflict detection and Resolve conflicts automatically… and there is a conflict between an element that is modified locally and an element of the VCS server, the check out will fail.
Resolve conflicts automatically with remote changes (only available when “Enable conflict detection” is cleared):
If selected and there is a conflict between an element that is modified locally and an element of the VCS server, your local version will be overwritten with the version from the VCS.
Be careful when selecting this option because it may lead to lose your changes unknowingly.
If cleared and there is a conflict between an element that is modified locally and an element of the VCS server, the check out will fail.
Include Jars and I18N maps: if selected, the Server will check out the jars and i18n maps that are dependencies of the checked-out elements. If during the check out process, the Server retrieves from the VCS a jar or an I18N map with the same name as a local unversioned jar or I18N map, it will be listed in the Overwritings tab of the following step of the wizard.
Check out dialog: Conflicts tab¶
If conflict detection is enabled, the “check out” dialog does not display the check boxes “Enable conflict detection” and “Resolve conflicts automatically…”. The reason is that in this case, Virtual DataPort will look for conflicts automatically.
Important
In the Administration Tool, the “conflict detection system” is disabled by default because performing this process is slow; especially when the database has a lot of changes. So, it is better to rely on the VCS server to do this because it can do it much faster. If, at any point, a check out operation fails because there is a conflict, you can open the “check out” wizard again and select the “Enable conflict detection” check box.
If as a result of a check out, one or more elements are deleted, they are listed in the check out dialog, in the Deletions tab.