Excluding 'hidden' files; rather, any VS.NET files.

[rjmphd]

I'm using CodeSmith for some code generation purposes. It creates (.vb or .cs) files that only appear when you enable the 'Show all files' toggle button in the VS.NET (2003) Solution explorer (just as .resx files do.)

However, I don't want these autogenerated files also to be checked in. Non 'hidden' files can be explictly excluded from the project (via a right click). (See 'Exceptions.xml' in this screenshot.)

However, hidden files cannot. (See 'Exceptions.vb', child of 'Exceptions.xml' in this screenshot).

Is there a way to explicitly (and automatically) exclude these files from being checked in? (I suppose one way would be to remove them from any 'pending checkin' list, but this is not a viable and reliable solution).

P.S. Are inline image disabled in this forum? I tried using the IMG tag, but no such luck. Perhaps I'm using it wrong?

[bfinney]

There's (currently) not a way to autmaicially exclude these hidden files. I'll log a feature request for it.

[rjmphd]

Will v3.1 have this feature? I have been browsing the 3.1 forum (briefly) but didn't see any mention of it. (Certainly, I'm not the only one hear using something like CodeSmith).

[lbauer]

We do have this logged to our feature enhancements database, but it has not been implemented in Vault 3.1. We may consider it for a future release, if it's possibe to do this. There are limitations in what we can do in the IDE.

[rjmphd]

We do have this logged to our feature enhancements database, but it has not been implemented in Vault 3.1. We may consider it for a future release, if it's possibe to do this. There are limitations in what we can do in the IDE.

Is there a way to tag a file as one that should be explicitly (and always) excluded from source control within the client or server itself?

[lbauer]

The Vault 3.1 Admin Tool has an option to exclude certain file types, but not specific files.

[rjmphd]

The Vault 3.1 Admin Tool has an option to exclude certain file types, but not specific files.

Bummer. I can't be the only one who wants this feature.

Perhaps I can force the generated file to have a compound file extension, such as *.autogen.vb. Would the file type exclusion work in this case?

[lbauer]

Yes, that might work. You'd add *.autogen.vb to the list of Excluded files in Vault 3.0.7 or Vault 3.1.

I tried it with the GUI Client and files with that extension were not checked in the "Add" dialog, and so would not be added.

[rjmphd]

Yes, that might work. You'd add *.autogen.vb to the list of Excluded files in Vault 3.0.7 or Vault 3.1.

I tried it with the GUI Client and files with that extension were not checked in the "Add" dialog, and so would not be added.

This seems to only work with the GUI client 'Add' dialog. Visual studio still goes ahead and adds the files, even though the server says to ignore *.autogen.vb files. Is there NO way to do this?

[lbauer]

Probably not in the current release. We don't always have control over how VS.NET handles files.

[dan]

We probably won't ever do this. It is generally a bad idea to try to second guess which files Visual Studio wants to be in source control. If the file is sent from VS to be added, Vaut has to try to honor the request.

[rjmphd]

We probably won't ever do this. It is generally a bad idea to try to second guess which files Visual Studio wants to be in source control. If the file is sent from VS to be added, Vaut has to try to honor the request.

Okay, then that workaround is not an option then. Please recall that all I want to do is exclude certain (hidden) files from source control, just as I can do with non-hidden files.

[dan]

I don't think there is much we can do on this - Visual Studio controls its source control interface, and our only interaction with it is through APIs. There is no mechanism for us to tell Visual Studio to not include certain files in source code. The only control we have over this is through our own GUI client.

Sorry there isn't a better answer here - you might try to find out how other CodeSmith/VS users have dealt with the problem.

[rjmphd]

I don't think there is much we can do on this - Visual Studio controls its source control interface, and our only interaction with it is through APIs. There is no mechanism for us to tell Visual Studio to not include certain files in source code. The only control we have over this is through our own GUI client.

Sorry there isn't a better answer here - you might try to find out how other CodeSmith/VS users have dealt with the problem.

Okay, thank you. This at least explains why it's not possible. I take it that this particular exclusion flag lives on the VS side rather than the SourceGear side.