Visual Studio, solutions, and branching

[steve]

We use Visual Studio .Net, solution files for building and debugging, and branching (pretty common stuff).

When we branch off mainline, all of our .Net projects, and one product solution file, gets copied to a parallel branch, where work can continue on one or both of the branches.

However, when we branch, we found that you cannot simply change the solution's IIS VDirs to the branch location, and open up the product solution file. It complains that it cant find your source, and wont load the projects. Also, there are SCC location issues, as these are hardcoded in the solution file.

How does everyone deal with these issues? Does this make you not use solution files for building? Or, do you always create a separate solution file for each branch?

It was our hope that we could simply change the IIS vdirs for our web projects, and that the solution would "magically" correct itself and work in the branch. But, alas, this isnt the case.

I would love to hear other's experiences.

[Tonya]

Steve,

The following KB articles are related to your concerns and should provide beneficial information:

http://support.sourcegear.com/viewtopic ... b+projects

http://support.sourcegear.com/viewtopic.php?t=194

Please let me know if this information doesn't resolve your issues.

Thanks,

Tonya Nunn
SourceGear Support

[steve]

Thanks Tonya,

This seems logical, and I have tried this, but it doesnt work as smooth as you'd expect.

When i change the physical location of the IIS VDIR to the new branched location, and open up the **same** Visual Studio .Net solution, VS still complains that the IIS URL doesnt match the right location (VS thinks the location is still the old location).

[Tonya]

I found out some more information regarding this issue and have discovered that you need to delete the "c:\documents and settings\USER.DOMAIN\vswebcache" directory. VS.Net keeps a cache file in regards to where your vdir is stored. By deleting this directory you will clear out the cache file and then the solution should open appropriately.

Thanks,

Tonya