integration of Madcap Flare project into Vault

[peterbrown05]

Hello,
We are using Flare for our help authoring. It allows the projects to be bound to a source control system.
When I try to bind the project to Vault, I get several issues.

Looking in the flare user docs it states:

"
Flare uses the SCC API is an interface specification defined by Microsoft that defines the interface between an application (in this case, Flare) and a source control provider (e.g., Perforce, Subversion), providing hooks for a number of common source control operations (such as check out, check in, get latest, and so on).
"
My question is; does Vault adhere or support this SCC API format? and if so, how do I make Flare connect to vault using it?

looking forward to hearing from you
cheers
peteB

[lbauer]

We've never tested Vault with Flare and don't support it. Because we do use the Microsoft SCC API, integration with some unsupported IDE's might work. However even using the same API, our implementation may be different than other source control tools, which leads to errors like you're experiencing.

[peterbrown05]

understood...
if this was to be fixed - would it be Madcap who would have to fix their end to integrate properly with you --- or for whatever reason is it not something that is going to happen?

[im not expecting it to be fixed, but would like to understand whether applying pressure to madcap is the way to get it to resolved...]

thanks

[lbauer]

It's hard to say where the problem lies. It would take testing on our part, which we are unable to do at this time.

[IanG]

We also have run into this problem, is the any chance someone at source gear can have a look into and see what's going on, it's causing us a lot of extra work having to manage source control for our help projects manualy.
Rgrds Ian.

[Beth]

Even though we integrate with the Microsoft SCC API, different software implements it differently. For some cases we'd have to write a separate plugin.

What is the exact issue?

[IanG]

I have emailed you with a psr file of the problem.
Ian.

[lbauer]

Thanks, we'll take a look.

[lbauer]

I downloaded a trial version of Madcap Flare and was able to reproduce the problem reported in this Madcap forum thread and in the PSR you sent.

Source Control: CustomScc:AddFile - call failed with error code -2 (The project is unknown.)
http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... 75&p=93873

I then tried integration with Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, which worked, and noted the differences.

A Flare project creates a .flprj project file. It appears that Vault's Classic Client integration, based on the MSSCCI API, does not recognize this project type.

When I bound a Flare project to SourceSafe, a .vbproj file was created. This is a Microsoft Visual Studio project file for Visual Basic. It seems to be used as a proxy for the .flprj in source control integration.

We're fairly familiar with SourceSafe here at SourceGear, but I've never seen SourceSafe create a project file. So I'm guessing that's coming from MadCap Flare, as part of their integration. A .vbproj file is not created when trying to bind to Vault.

We do have feature request 15139 already logged for integration with MadCap Flare/Blaze. I've added your "vote."

This will probably involve contacting MadCap to see if they can generate the .vbproj file when a user chooses source control with Vault. You and other MadCap Flare users should also contact MadCap to ask for Vault source code control integration.

[IanG]

Hi Beth,
interesting, did you have a look at the content of the proxy vbproj file, would it be something we could create by hand or by modifying and existing one?
Rgrds Ian.

[lbauer]

Hi Beth,

It's Linda. : )

Well, I tried to reproduce what I had seen before, but now, using SourceSafe integration, I don't get a .vbproj file. In fact, I don't even see the mssccprj.scc files in C:\Users\<username>\My Documents\My Projects when I integrate with SourceSafe.

I did notice there is more than one way to add a project to source control in Flare, so it could be that I'm doing something different or perhaps the earlier interaction with Vault and trying to use Vault as a source control provider caused some of what I saw before.

So . . . I think we need MadCap to answer some of these questions. I did contact them, but haven't heard back yet.

[IanG]

Oh sorry I didn't notice you had taken over.
It would be great if you could get somewhere with madcap, judging by this:
http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... =68&t=9375
they seem to have their heads in the sand about it.
Rgrds Ian

[lbauer]

I finally did get a response from MadCap that they are taking a look at this.

[IanG]

Excellent news.
I'm sure there will be many Vault/MadCap Flare users who will be very happy when this is sorted out.

[IanG]

Hi,
Madcap have just released a new version of flare with many changes to Source Code Control integration however there doesn't seem to be a fix for integration with Vault, do you have any news on getting Flare to work with vault?

http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/flare ... Flare.htm#
Rgrds Ian