Visual Studio IDE Clients (Vault 4.x/Fortress 1.x and later)

[jclausius]

With the advent of Vault 4.x and Fortress 1.x, SourceGear introduced a new integrated client for Visual Studio 2005. This client is written entirely in C# using Microsoft's Visual Studio SDK provided through the Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP) program. Within Visual Studio, you will notice this as the SourceGear Vault/Fortress Visual Studio 2005 Client. This is also referred to as the Vault/Fortress VSIP client.

For integration with existing Visual Studio 2005 projects as well as earlier releases of Visual Studio, Developer Studio, and Visual Basic, we provide the SourceGear Vault/Fortress VS2003 Compatible Client. This client is written in C++ in adherence to the Microsoft Source Code Control API, and is sometimes called the Vault/Fortress MSSCCI client.

For Visual Studio 2005 users, these two clients differ in many ways. The maturity of the product, the architecture, ways of invoking commands differ between the two.


When deciding on a client, you will need to evaluate your needs, and choose which IDE client makes sense in your configuration.

VSIP Client
While still in its early stages, the VSIP client promises to allow tighter integration between source control and the code. Currently, the VSIP client offers basic Source Code operations as well as some additional features. Fortress users can use the Work Item View to track their work, and both Fortress and Vault users work from the familiar Change Set View. Additionally, the VSIP client allows users to work in either "Lock, Edit, Commit" or "Edit, Merge, Commit" concurrency development style.

As the VSIP IDE client matures, the Visual Studio SDK will allow tighter integration with Vault/Fortress, and open up new avenues of functionality with the entire array of Source Code operations. Tighter integration with Work Items (Fortress), History, and Labels are planned for future versions.


MSSCCI Client
In regards to the MSSCCI client, we will continue supporting and improving this client. The MSSCCI API is a "least common denominator" approach to version control, so there are limits on how the client can integrate with Vault/Fortress. For example, the MSSCCI client only works in the "Lock, Edit, Commit" development style.

However, the MSSCCI client still offers all the same behavior you've used in the earlier releases of Vault's IDE clients. The MSSCCI client can invoke Automatic GETs when opening a project or solution, Checking in all changes when closing a project or solution, as well as presenting pending changes in a tree view.

Heterogeneous IDE clients
One final note, within Visual Studio 2005 you can use different IDE client bindings per project without hassle. You should be able to get the best of both worlds if you want to mix and match your IDE clients. For example, one solution and its projects can be bound to the VSIP client, while another solution and its projects (which are all different projects) can be bound to the MSSCCI client. Opening each distinct solution and project will work under Visual Studio 2005. The choice of IDE client is up to you.