Sharing and Pinning

[robe070]

Hi,

We would like to Share a version of our source (Trunk) into a separate folder hierarchy (Branch) and then pin each file to that version. The Vault Client automatically pins the highest level folder and pins any file whose version is different to the tip. This seems fair enough as a starting point. (Note that the Vault Client just has a pin overlay on the icon, it also needs a Shared overlay.

But, we actually want to selectively 'promote' the files in the Branch and not automatically be using the latest version of the Shared files.

So this sounds like a Pin. Pin all the files that are not yet pinned to the tip, or Pin all files releated to a Version. We can then unpin and re-pin whichever files we need to Promote.

If we use the PinAll PowerToy to pin the highest level folder (which is pinned by the share), we get an error. No text is displayed apart from saying there has been an error and to look in the messages pane - there isn't a message in the Vault Client and the PinAll doesn't have a messages pane. Unless its the window thats displayed after this that says the pin has completed, which isn't very useful.

I presume the PinAll PowerToy displays an error becasue it finds no files to pin because the folder is already pinned.

If we remove the pin on the folder, the individual files that are pinned are unpinned and revert to the Trunk version. The PinAll then works and all the files that need to be pinned to a non-Trunk version need to be individually pinned back. Depending on the volume of differences this may be onerous and error prone.

Also note that PinAll also pins the Trunk files too! I don't think it should be doing this. A normal pin in Vault Client doesn't pin all shared instances. UnpinAll does the same thing. I've looked into it further and it looks like if you share a file, then the pin is unique to the folder, but if you share a folder all pins are shared with the parent file. Its not just PinAll. Seems like a bug.

So, I request a feature in PinAll to ignore the folder pin and still pin all unpinned files or, which is more precise as we actually want to pin a version, be able to use PinAll to pin a version. Of course the bug that pins the parent shared files too needs to be fixed for this to be of benefit.

regards

Rob Goodridge

[jeremy_sg]

The confusion is that, if the folder is pinned no operations can be done underneath it (even file pins). You'll need to unpin the folder, then run the PinAll power toy.

Similarly, if a folder is shared, all operations (including pins underneath it) are done to all instances of the folder. That is the expected behavior.

[robe070]

So as the pinned folder behaviour is expected then the request is for PinAll or some other tool to provide the ability to Pin a Version. (because unpinning the folder unpins the files that were different when the Version was Shared.). That is, we would be able to unpin the folder and then run PinAll to pin all the files at that Version.

[jeremy_sg]

Rob,

I've worked on a change to the VSSShare power toy that will share an old version of a folder. Please email support at sourcegear.com ATTN: jeremy with a link to this thread, and I'll give you a copy of it.