Question

Replacement for Visual Source Safe?

Asked by: venkitta

Hello,

I have a requirement where our project(consists of 50 members) would like to use a tool like VSS for checking OUT and checking IN documents from a shared folder. (We cannot buy VSS for all the 50 users due to cost!)

The user should be able to access the files in the folder by logging into the tool, checking out and IN the files.  The tool should behave exactly the same as VSS.

Initially I would like to try with VB and later with .NET.

Any tool currently available that would speed up my work.

Appreciate all your help

Regards
-Venkitta

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Asked On
2004-05-17 at 10:25:27ID20992136
Tags

check

,

out

,

replacement

,

safe

,

users

Topic

Visual Basic Programming

Participating Experts
4
Points
50
Comments
17

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Answers

 

by: leavinmatePosted on 2004-05-17 at 13:03:49ID: 11092388

I use Perforce, but this is only free up to 2 users (www.perforce.com)

Here is an open source one, but I haven't used it.  It looks like it should do what you are asking for.

 

by: leavinmatePosted on 2004-05-17 at 13:04:55ID: 11092395

Oops...sorry forgot the link:

http://www.freevcs.de/

 

by: leonstrykerPosted on 2004-05-17 at 13:05:15ID: 11092399

Look here, but I am not sure you will find anything cheaper for 50 developers.

http://codehistorian.com/?gadss

Leon

 

by: venkittaPosted on 2004-05-17 at 13:48:46ID: 11092834

Thanks for the prompt response.  I went through the sites.  I would like to see some more tools.

Any help?

 

by: leonstrykerPosted on 2004-05-17 at 13:55:20ID: 11092893

As far as i know, most people use either VSS or CVS.  

Leon

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2004-05-17 at 13:57:56ID: 11092913

How are you buying the VB licenses?  We bought a 5-seat license for VB Enterprise and it came with VSS licenses for 5 users.

mlmcc

 

by: venkittaPosted on 2004-05-17 at 14:03:26ID: 11092968

Due to cost cutting, I cannot buy VB licenses.  I am looking for remedy made VB tool with SQL server backend.

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2004-05-17 at 14:13:44ID: 11093059

I see.  You aren't trying to control a software development project but rather you are trying to control a set of files so they can only be updates by 1 person at a time.

Is it feasible to have 1 or 2 people acting as librarians.  They would do the check out and check in and control who has a document.  In that way you could use a single copy of VSS or Perforce as mentione dabove by leavinmate

mlmcc

 

by: venkittaPosted on 2004-05-17 at 14:35:11ID: 11093232

That's good idea. but i need to give access to all the 50 people and NOT just one or two.

Hope I'm clear.

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2004-05-17 at 18:05:33ID: 11094393

I realize what you want but an interim solution might be to have them check it out and copy the checked out file to a common directory where the desired or asking user can manipulate it.

mlmcc

 

by: daffyduck14milPosted on 2004-05-18 at 05:30:25ID: 11097437

Hi,

Sorry to say (and barge into the discussion) but the setup you are sugesting mlmcc is the road to disaster. I have seen this kind of controlled editing up close and personal and I have seen it fail. Unless you have strict disipline and severe punishment on failure (like being whiped on the public square in front of all your colleque's) to comply to the rules, it will not work. Mind you, this failed with only three people proding at the source, not 50.

In my humble opinion, any development team of more then 2 people should have a system like VSS or CVS in place. VSS being the expensive Microsoft server-side version, CVS being the free open-source local-side version. The difference is subtle but very distinct. With VSS you have a view on the file on the server, what ever happens to it, you will be notified. Unlike CVS, wich will copy the file to a local working directory and only sends back the changes that were made, merging them with changes others have made.

With both programs you can "lock" a file so it can't be edited by another person. VSS does it on it's own, CVS has to be told that it can't give out a certain file. The functionality is the same and would alow you to accomplish what you are trying to do here for the nominal fee of some set-up time and a low-performance server.

This does impose another set of rules though, but failure to adhere to them is not catastrophic as in the previous sugested setup. We have been running CVS for over 2 years now and it has performed supurbly. Not a single second of down-time, not more last minute changes being lost by someone accidently overwriting your changes, etc. Our repository contains the sourcecode of about 30 programs, on an very old server (predates '99). R&D, implementation and documentation of procedures took about three days. It has saved me ten times more time in repairing mistakes due to overwriting and accidental erasing of work.

The tools in order of appearence:
CVSNT: This is the server side deamon that facilitates the repository. It comes with full integration with SSPI authentication, which means you can protect the repository with ACL's on the directories. URL for more documentation and How-to's: http://www.cvsnt.org

WinCVS: This is the client that comunicates with the server to retrieve the files. It is a GUI windows program that is easy (in my humble opinion) to use once you get used to it. URL for more documentation and how-to's: http://cvsgui.sourceforge.net

Also, these two tools aren't the only two around but the are very near to the original UNIX scripts that date back to the early ages of programming.

In my closing argument, it may take a little time to get used to any version control system, but in the end it's worth the time and effort spend. It is no fun to see a day's work destroyed by a simple "Y" on the dumb question of overwriting. Any comments, questions, remarks, flames: happy to hear them ;)

Grtz.©

D.

 

by: mlmccPosted on 2004-05-23 at 21:04:48ID: 11140341

daffyduck14mil
I totally agree with you but he says there as no $ to purchase more.  If CVS is free for that many users, I agree he should use it.

As a caution, even with VSS or CVS in place you need strict adherence to the process and discipline to use it.  

mlmcc

 

by: daffyduck14milPosted on 2004-05-24 at 00:29:08ID: 11141072

mlmcc,

CVS has no cost what so ever in terms of the almighty hard-cash. It only takes a bit of time to install and configure it. At least we all agree that any versioning system needs a sound process and strict discipline.

At our company we have a big savings-pig where in case of failure to comply with the rules you need to deposit a certain amount. At the end of the year (or somewhere in between) we'll have a great time ;)

Grtz.©

D.

 

by: daffyduck14milPosted on 2004-06-29 at 00:25:53ID: 11423511

Dan,

More then one option was presented to Venkitta, but it seems none was validated by him. As far as I am concerned, do whatever you deem fit with this question.

Grtz.©

D.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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