Book Image

Visual SourceSafe 2005 Software Configuration Management in Practice

Book Image

Visual SourceSafe 2005 Software Configuration Management in Practice

Overview of this book

Why is Software Configuration Management important?Software Configuration Management (SCM) is the discipline of managing the building and modification of software through techniques including source-code control, revision control, object-build tracking, and release construction. SCM involves identifying the configuration of the software at given points in time, systematically controlling changes to the configuration, and maintaining the integrity and traceability of the configuration throughout the software development lifecycle.Software Configuration Management is one of the first skills a serious developer should master, after becoming proficient with his or her development tools of choice. Unfortunately, this does not always happen because the subject of SCM is not commonly taught in either academic or company training.When developing software, you need to have a manageable team development effort, track and maintain the history of your projects, sustain parallel development on multiple product versions, fix bugs, and release service packs while further developing the application. This is where the concepts of Software Configuration Management come into play; SCM is about getting the job done safer, faster, and better.Visual SourceSafe has a long history behind it. The previous versions were either loved for their ease of use and integration with other Microsoft products, or hated because the headaches caused by using them improperly. This book will help you to avoid such problems.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Visual SourceSafe 2005 Software Configuration Management in Practice
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Preface

Opening the Database


After adding a database to the database list, opening it is a straightforward operation. Using a LAN connection the database can be opened using:

  • Visual SourceSafe Explorer

  • Visual SourceSafe Administrator

  • Visual Studio with SourceSafe LAN plug-in

Using an internet connection the database is opened using Visual Studio with the SourceSafe internet plug-in.

Opening the database using Visual SourceSafe Administrator is identical to opening it using Visual SourceSafe Explorer, so I will only cover the later.

Using Visual SourceSafe Explorer

When starting, Visual SourceSafe Explorer will try to open the last accessed database and display the Log On to Visual SourceSafe Database dialog, asking for the User name and SourceSafe password for the database.

If you want to open the last accessed database highlighted in the Database field, you must enter your SourceSafe user name and password for the database and click OK.

To open another database, click Browse to activate the Open SourceSafe...