Trouble binding solution and web files separately in VS2005

[tmhesket]

We are trying SourceGear Vault 4.1.3 (18336) as a potential replacement for SourceSafe.

We like to check-in our solution and web files into separate locations and have been doing this for SourceSafe in the past.

I cannot seem to reproduce the same behaviour in SourceGear and wondered if anyone had any advice on the issue?

These are the steps we typically used to carry out for SourceSafe in the past:
a) Create a folder c:\webprojects\vss\asp2.0\WorkFiles\<application_name>
b) Created a similar folder in SourceSafe and set the working folder
c) Create a Visual Studio solution in the WorkFiles folder
d) Added a Web Application to the solution and set the folder to c:\webprojects\vss\asp2.0\WebFiles\<application_name> (NB. note that I set the folder to WebFiles, not WorkFiles)
e) Created a similar application folder under WebFiles in SourceSafe and set the working folder
f) Used the "Change Source Control" button on the Visual Studio Source Control Toolbar to bind the Web Application to the WebFiles project in SourceSafe and then bind the Solution to the WorkFiles project in SourceSafe.

A point of interest: in the case of both bindings above, they are reported as "invalid" bindings but we then click "Continue with these bindings" and then everything works successfully on our project thereafter.

When attempting to reproduce these steps with SourceGear, I follow the same steps as above but find the following at step (f):
f) Clicked File, Vault Source Control, Change Vault Bindings. Attempted to bind the Web Application to the WebFiles folder in SourceGear and then bind the Solution to the WorkFiles folder in SourceGear.

The bindings again show as invalid, but there is not the same option to ignore the error and continue when we click OK.
When clicking on the "Invalid" link for more details, the following error is given:
Invalid Binding: Not in repository

The project or solution does not exist in the repository at location that is expected by the current working folder association.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can achieve the same separation of WebFiles and WorkFiles in SourceGear that we've always done in SourceSafe?

NB. I wondered if the reason for the failure was that we should add the source code to SourceGear before making the bindings. However, I only see the option to "Add Solution to Vault" in the Solution Explorer context menu and this tries to replicate the entire folder structure and doesn't allow separation of WebFiles and WorkFiles (as far as I can see).

Many thanks to anyone who is able to offer any advice.

[ian_sg]

Unfortunately your workflow isn't anticipated by the current binding design. You can do it, but there is an extra step outside Visual Studio.

I wondered if the reason for the failure was that we should add the source code to SourceGear before making the bindings. However, I only see the option to "Add Solution to Vault" in the Solution Explorer context menu and this tries to replicate the entire folder structure and doesn't allow separation of WebFiles and WorkFiles (as far as I can see).

You're absolutely right. The way to do this would be to add the solution to the repository, as you'd like it organized, using the stand-alone client. When that's done, you should be able to get valid bindings. Make sure you check in changes after you've done the binding.

[tmhesket]

Thanks very much Ian, that worked a treat...

I've now moved on to further tests and found another difference with SourceGear.

If we wanted to load a project on to someone-else's PC then this is what we used to do when using SourceSafe:

- Simply manually create the "WorkFiles" folder on the second PC
- Set Working Folder and Get Latest from SourceSafe (this will get the SLN solution file and any non-web projects)
- Double-click on the SLN file to open it in Visual Studio
- We are prompted "Projects haven been recently added..." and asks if we want to retrieve them from source control.
- We click yes and the WebFiles folder is created in the relevant place and all files downloaded to it.

I tried to undertake the same steps with SourceGear, but unfortunately we receive a message that the project is missing rather than prompting to retrieve it.

It *does* work if we first perform a separate "Get Latest" for both WebFiles and WorkFiles from the Vault Client but this is obviously a little more hassle.

Would I be right in saying that SourceGear doesn't have the same ability to automatically retrieve related projects from different locations?

Many thanks to anyone who can assist.

[ian_sg]

The enhanced client doesn't automatically prompt to retrieve projects, as you've seen. You can enable always get latest when opening a solution, if that's helpful.

The Vault Classic Client may provide this option--it looks and feels more like VSS.