Installer projects are not getting added to source control

gsmalter · Post by **gsmalter** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 12:37 pm

I just added two projects to a VS2008 solution using the enhanced client. One is a Windows Installer and the other is a Merge Module to be merged into the installer.

The solution file has been updated in source control to reflect to two new projects, but computers other than the one the projects were added on are blowing up because the project files aren't actually there.

The Windows Installer project hasn't been added to source control at all. No folder, no project file, nothing.

The Merge Module project has made its way into source control. It has a folder and a vdproj file. But, when I modify the project in VS, no pending changes appear and the file goes Renegade.

What's going on here? Are these project types supported? Do I need to manually add new projects to source control now?

ian_sg · Post by **ian_sg** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:05 pm

If I understand correctly, you answered your own question:

The solution file has been updated in source control to reflect to two new projects, but computers other than the one the projects were added on are blowing up because the project files aren't actually there.

If the solution file references these two projects, and you check in that solution file but not the two projects it references, then this is what I'd expect to happen: Visual Studio tries to load the projects and can't.

You can work with an unbound solution to avoid this problem, or simply add the two troublesome projects to the repository and work normally.

The merge module project sounds like a separate issue, but to simplify the troubleshooting process I'd recommend that we get the first problem resolved and go from there.

gsmalter · Post by **gsmalter** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:21 pm

Yes, I accurately described what was happening, and given what happened, it makes sense that it is blowing up. What I need explained to me is why Vault did not add the projects to source control. Previously (VS2005, Vault 3.x), if I added a project to a solution, the next checkin would add the project file and everything in the new project to source control. This didn't happen here. Why?

ian_sg · Post by **ian_sg** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:24 pm

Sorry, my mistake. I get it now. It should have been automatically added. I'm not sure why it wasn't. Does it work to manually add it, via right-click->Add to Vault?

gsmalter · Post by **gsmalter** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:30 pm

There is no Add to Vault option. There are options to CheckIn/CheckOut/GetLatest, but I don't think that tells us anything since items in other projects that are already in source control and already checked in also have a Check In option. I think that just appears no matter what.

I'm noticing now that if I go to Change Vault Bindings, the two projects I'm having problems with are Unbound. Can I manually bind them without messing up the other projects?

ian_sg · Post by **ian_sg** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:37 pm

Yes you can. That was the next thing I was going to suggest. Are the project files actually in the repository at this point? (You could check with the stand-alone client, if you're not sure.) Binding will only work if they are. So if they're not (you mentioned that one is, but the other is not) you'll need to add them first, then bind.

gsmalter · Post by **gsmalter** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:58 pm

Binding was successful on the Merge Module project because the project file was already in source control. After binding, though, changes to the project file in VS did not result in an automatic checkout.

Binding was successful on the Windows Installer project after I manually added the project file to Vault.

On a separate machine, Get Latest from within Visual Studio worked fine on the Merge Module project, but it showed up as Unbound on that machine. Manually binding it worked again.

The Windows Installer project did not correctly Get Latest from within Visual Studio. I had to Get Latest manually in the Vault client. Then things worked.

Unfortunately I have no experience with either of these project types in 3.x so I don't know if this is normal or not. But they seem to involve a lot more manual steps than what I'm used to.

ian_sg · Post by **ian_sg** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:23 am

Something is amiss--all these manual steps in the stand-alone client shouldn't be necessary. It's possible there's a problem with these particular project types. We'll do some checking and follow-up.