When you run Visual SourceSafe
Explorer, the first thing that you see depends
on how the administrator set up your Visual SourceSafe
account:
- If the Visual SourceSafe administrator set
up a user with the same name and password as
your Windows logon and password, Visual SourceSafe
Explorer will proceed immediately to the main
screen.
- Otherwise, Visual SourceSafe Explorer will
present you with the logon screen. In this case,
you will need to supply a valid Visual SourceSafe
logon/password combination as set up by the
Visual SourceSafe administrator.
You can also click the Browse
button on the logon screen to choose from all
the Visual SourceSafe databases recognized by
Visual SourceSafe on your system (see Figure 2.10).
You can also wait until you see the main Visual
SourceSafe screen, and select the File, Open SourceSafe
Database from the menu to choose a different database.
FIGURE 2.10 - Choosing a Visual SourceSafe
database.
Following is a list of some of
the things that you can do with a project's
files in Visual SourceSafe Explorer:
-
Set working folder. You can specify the physical location
on your system where you want to put a project's files when you view them or work
with them.
-
Check out. You can get a writable copy of a file from the
SourceSafe database. Normally, only one developer at a time can check out a given
file.
-
Check in. You can return a modified copy of a file to the
SourceSafe database. The modified file is now available for other developers to
check out.
-
Get working copy. You can get a read-only copy of a file from
the Visual SourceSafe database. Anyone can get working copies of a file, even
if someone else currently has it checked out.
-
Label. You can designate versions of one or more files in
a project with a label of your choosing. You can get copies of all the files designated
with a single label and thus reproduce a particular version of a project.
-
Share. You can share the same copy of one or more files between
various projects.
-
Branch. You can break the link between shared copies of the
same file so that you can then develop the copies independently.
-
Pin. You can freeze a particular version of a file or project
so that no more changes can be made to it.
-
Difference. You can view the differences between two different
versions of a file.
-
Merge. You can merge two different versions of a file together.
You can view each difference and decide how to merge.
The following sections discuss
many of these activities.
