Enhanced client problems

[sabrina_c]

Hi,
It's about 9:30 pm and in this very moment I'm seriously thinking to throw my pc out of the window...

so I've decided to write you some notes in the hope someone read them and try and solve some troubles I have with the new client.

0) I use sourcegear Vault in Visual studio 2008 Professional C# environment.

1) There is a bug, I've seen it on a message dated 2008 (beginning), it says that the Enhanced Client does not allow recursive checkout.
I'm wondering why this bug is still there, it is a thing I use often, mostly when, like in this moment, I am working from a remote place
where I haven't a Fixed IP VPN connection so the tunnel falls down about each 2 or three minutes and I need to work and cannot
loose 5 minutes to check out a file because the VPN falled down and I have to reconnect retype passwords wait for timeout errors
retry and so on...

2) There is a problem, With the normal client I got the possibility to set the IP address instead of the server name in the connection
to avoid problems when for any reasons the name could not be resolved. And the connection window allowed me to change
manually the connection data if necessary.
Now the host connection is hidden in projects and solution files and not accessible so that to be able to check out tonight I had
to set the resolution of the name in the hosts file of my computer which is not a great solution.

3) At the moment I'm asking myself why in the world I spent about 15 working hours to switch to enhanced client to have this result.

4) If you ask me why I did it, well I decided to change it because in the last 30 days since we switched to the last client/server release
we've experimented troubles with project files, the problems were as follow:
We are 2 programmers, we work together in several solutions containing each one several projects.
in the last month, randomly it happened that I added a file to a solution check everything in and my colleague did not find it in the
project when he checked it out.
We also updated some references to components checking out the project file upgrading it and then checking in on one pc
but when checking it out on another, the references were still old.
If We opened with notepad the project file the references were correct, but visual studio showed still the old ones.
We cleared the vault cache (was 1.2 Gigabyte of stuff and I'm asking why you need such space) but it didn't change

Now I'm not sure if all this mess is due to problems between vault and visual studio 2008 or the vault client and vault server
or whatever, but I hope you have some answers, probably there is something wrong in what I'm doing, but I'm really
thinking to avoid any upgrade in the future... Because from an upgrade to the other things that were working stopped working
and things we did before seem to be now wrong.

regards
Sabrina

P.s. These are the Vault configuration data of my client/server

Client Information
Vault Client Version: 4.1.4.18402
.Net Framework Version: 2.0.50727.3074
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Business
Service Pack: 1.0
OS Version: 6.0.6001
Total Physical Memory: 3 GB
Time Zone: (GMT+01:00) Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna

Server Information
Vault Server Version: 4.1.4.18402
.Net Framework Version: 2.0.50727.3082
Operating System: Microsoft(R) Windows(R) Server 2003, Standard Edition
Service Pack: 2.0
OS Version: 5.2.3790
Timezone: (GMT+01:00) Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
SQL Version: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - 9.00.4035.00 (Intel X86)
Nov 24 2008 13:01:59
Copyright (c) 1988-2005 Microsoft Corporation
Developer Edition on Windows NT 5.2 (Build 3790: Service Pack 2)

License Information
3 serial number(s):
1 of 3: 3 full users, permanent
2 of 3: 1 full users, permanent
3 of 3: 1 full users, permanent

[Beth]

This is going to take me a bit to reply to all the points here, so this might take a couple of posts.

1) I will check into that bug. While I'm looking though, Ian had a good work-around suggestion posted here: http://support.sourcegear.com/viewtopic ... d=a#p44446.

Expand the project node. Click on the project node. Shift-click on the last file in the project. Checkout. Done.

Give that a try and let me know if it helps.

2) Since it's a DNS problem, I would suggest first adding an entry to your hosts file to see if that helps. Let me know if that helps.

[Beth]

On item one again, it is fixed for Vault 5.0 which is currently at a beta release, so it's on its way.

4) You may have lost your connection or bindings. Working 'offline' looks just like you were connected. I think that's a VS feature. One the cache, you can change the settings in the Vault GUI client to limit how many versions it keeps there. Go to Tools - Options - Local Files - Cache Location. Also check your Backup Location and how many backups are being made. I would suggest setting the number to keep of each to 3, and see how that works for you.

You can always feel free to post, email, or call any time for help rather than trying to get through it alone. We're really quite friendly and ready to help.

[sabrina_c]

For question 1:
Thanks for the Workaround on recursive checkout we had already found it when we first find the problem,
for now we use it and wait eagerly for version 5, we just hope it arrives soon.

About the "Hosts" file solution, if you read my message I already solved the problem using the file,
(and I've send some curses to our system administrator for the DNS problem).

But I think that if for any reason someone needs to change the server binding "on the fly" from a remote location,
the fact that the server address is written in the readonly project and solution files and cannot be
overridden when connecting is a MINUS given by the client.
So as a wish for the future take this suggestion:
You already show the server address in the window that appears automatically if connection is not
possible, why don't put there the possibility to change it and override the standard one?

For my number 4 question the connection and bindings were correct, we got that problem working in office,
just I was updating references in projects from A to J, my colleague in projects from K to Z and at the end
I made a get latest then checkout of projects He updated and He did the opposite.
Not all projects but many of them gave the problem I told you. csproj was updated but checking it out
from vault showed still old references until we get into the xml file, saved it and reloaded the project.

It looked some cache problem, but I don't know if it is Vault or Visual Studio that had the problem.

As a final comment, just to say something positive
The Enhanced client is much faster in checking in/out then the classic, especially when we
call it from command line (for batch compiling). The Out of date icons given on files modified are
very useful. We just need to understand what is the blue flag icon...

thank you
regards
Sabrina

[Beth]

I'm going to respond in chunks to your last post.

Here's a list of the flags:

**In VSS mode:

A padlock next to file/folder means that the file/folder is in Fortress and checked in.
A red check mark means that the file/folder is checked out for editing/viewing.
A red check mark with a small person next to it means the file/folder is checked out exclusively by someone other than the current user.
A + sign (yellow) means that the file/folder has been added to the solution or project, but has not yet been added to Fortress.
A blue flag means the file has a status of "Needs Merge," but it can also be a Renegade status.

**In CVS mode

A green dot with a checkmark next to it indicates that a file/folder is checked into Fortress and is up to date.
An I-bar type icon means the file has been edited.
An hourglass icon indicates the file's status as being old or out of date.

[Beth]

But I think that if for any reason someone needs to change the server binding "on the fly" from a remote location,
the fact that the server address is written in the readonly project and solution files and cannot be
overridden when connecting is a MINUS given by the client.
So as a wish for the future take this suggestion:
You already show the server address in the window that appears automatically if connection is not
possible, why don't put there the possibility to change it and override the standard one?

The best way to deal with this at this time is to use the Change Vault Bindings function.

Open your solution and allow it to remove your bindings, or to work offline. With your solution open, go to File - Vault Source Control - Change Vault Bindings. Select everything and click unbind. Then click OK and perform a Save All. Then return to File - Vault Source Control - Change Vault Bindings. Click on the line for the .sln and click Bind. You should need to login to Vault and browse to the folder containing the .sln. After you bind the .sln and receive see "valid" in the window, then bind the other lines, unless everything bound at once. Then click OK and perform a Save All.

I can take a feature request as well.