: Working with Source Control


Label in Source Control Tab	Equivalent Item on Submenu	Description
Get	Get Latest Version ...	Updates selected files with their latest version from the source control system.
Check Out	Check Out ...	Checks out selected files from the source control system and opens them for editing.
Check In	Check In ...	Checks in selected files to the source control system, with a comment.
Check In, Locked	Check In ...	If you select the "Keep checked out" box, files remain checked out (locked) after changes are submitted.
Undo Check Out	Undo Check Out ...	Reverts the local version of selected files to the version in the source control system.
Add File	Add to Source Control ...	Adds files to the source control system.
Remove File	Remove from Source Control ...	Removes selected files from the source control system. Files are not removed from the project directory.
Show History	Show History ...	Displays revision history for selected files.
Start GUI	Source Control System ...	Displays the graphical user interface of the source control utility. This item is useful when you want to work directly with the utility.

Default Values for Command Lines
You can edit the command lines, or you can use the default values shown in the following table. A command is executed once for each of the selected files as if the command were run from the command line after making substitutions for macros. If you change a command line, the command line must conform the following conventions:

it cannot request input; for example, it cannot prompt for a value or option

it assumes that the command is run from the directory that contains the file

To debug your command line, you should check Netscape Application Builder's message window to view the macro substitution. If your command does not work, you should check it outside of Netscape Application Builder by attempting to execute the NAB-generatied command from the command line.

The following default commands are defined for CVS:


Label in Source Control Tab	CVS Command
Get	cvs co %r%e
Check Out	cvs co %r%e
Check In	cvs commit -m%Q %r%e
Check In, Locked
Undo Check Out
Add File	cvs add -m%Q %r%e
Remove File	cvs log %r%e
Show History
Start GUI

The following default commands are defined for PVCS:


Label in Source Control Tab	PVCS Command
Get	get -y %b%e
Check Out	get -y -l %b%e
Check In	put -n -M%Q %b%e
Check In, Locked	put -n -M%Q -l %b%e
Undo Check Out	vcs -y -u %b%e
Add File	vcs -i -n -t%Q %b%e
Remove File	del /f %b%e
Show History	vlog %b%e
Start GUI

The following default commands are defined for Visual Source Safe:


Label in Source Control Tab	Visual Source Safe Command
Get	ss GET -I- %r%e
Check Out	ss CHECKOUT -I- %r%e
Check In	ss UPDATE -I- -C%Q %r%e
Check In, Locked	ss UPDATE -I- -C%Q -K %r%e
Undo Check Out	ss UNCHECKOUT -I- -G- %r%e
Add File	ss ADD -I- -C%Q %r%e
Remove File	Remove="ss DELETE -I- %r%e
Show History	ss HISTORY -I- %r%e
Start GUI

Macro Definitions
You define source control commands using macros, which are substituted for actual values when the command is executed. You can choose from among the macros listed in the following table. Note that the examples provided are based on the following files:

Source file is c:\nab\apps\onlinebank\UpdateCust.java

Project file is c:\nab\apps\projects\OnlineBank.gxm


Macro	Substitution For	Example
${USER}	The value of the User Name field in the Source Control tab.
%b	Basename. The name of the working file, minus the suffix.	c:\nab\apps\onlinebank\UpdateCust
%d	Directory. The directory of the working file. It contains no filename and no drive letter. There is no trailing backslash.	\nab\apps\onlinebank
%e	Extension. The suffix of the working file. It begins with a dot (.), unless it is null.	.java
%p	Path. The directory path of the working file. Same as %d with a trailing backslash.	\nab\apps\onlinebank\
%Q	Text from the Comment box in the Check In dialog box. This macro is case-sensitive, so use an uppercase Q.
%r	Root. The name of the working file, minus the suffix.	UpdateCust
%v	Volume. The volume drive of the working file. A letter and a colon.	c:
%x	Project path. The path of the current .gxm file. Typically this is the project directory.	\nab\apps\projects\
%y	Project root. The name of the current .gxm file.	OnlineBank
%%	Percent sign. Use this for a literal % in the command.

Setting Up the CVS Environment
To use CVS commands from Netscape Application Builder, you must map your application source directory to a CVS archive. Typically, you manually copy the CVS directories and their contents from the client source tree to your application directory.

For example, to set up CVS source control for your Java code files, you would perform the following steps:

Set youir CVSROOT environment variable.

	set CVSROOT=:pserver:user@cvsserver:/m/src

Change to a directory in which CVS is already set up and add the application directory tree at each level.

	cd D:\cvssource

	mkdir Netscape

	cvs add Netscape

	cd Netscape

	mkdir Server4

	cvs add Server4

	cd Server4

	mkdir NAS

	cvs add NAS

	cd NAS

	mkdir cdx

	cvs add cdx

Note. If you use a FAT partitioned disk, you cannot use case-sensitive names because CVS is case sensitive but FAT directory names are not. In this case, you should use an NTFS partition.

From the command line, add a single file into your application directory.

	cd cdx

	cvs add dummy.txt

From the top-level, commit the file, which causes CVS to create a repository tree.

	cd D:\cvssource

	cvs commit

From your CVS client tree, such as D:\cvssource, copy the applications directory, such as Netscape (and includes the file you just added), to your server directory; for example, D:\Netscape.

Setting Up Visual SourceSafe
To create a Visual SourceSafe project and add a Netscape Application Builder project, perform the following tasks:

Launch the Visual SourceSafe Explorer.

Right-click on the root folder ($/) and select "Create Project."

Specify the name of your Visual SourceSafe project; for example, NABApps, and click OK.

Right click on "Set Working Folder."

Specify or navigate to the directory that contains your Netscape Application Builder projects; for example, D:\Netscape\Server4\NAS\Apps.

For each Netscape Application Builder project you want to place under source control, right-click on your Visual SourceSafe project, select "Create Project" and specify the name of the Netscape Application Builder project.

For example, if you specifed D:\Netscape\Server4\NAS\Apps in the previous step, when you specify cdx, D:\Netscape\Server4\NAS\Apps\cdx becomes the working folder.

You can add users for Visual SourceSafe using the Visual SourceSafe Admin program. The program creates an ss.ini file in the Users subdirectory in which Visual SourceSafe is installed. The file should contain at least the following entries:

; Your current SourceSafe project

Project = $NABApps

Force_Prj = Yes

...

[$/NABApps]

Dir (your_host_machine)=D:\Netscape\Server4\NAS\Apps

If you are creating multiple accounts, you can simply replace each user's ss.ini file with the one you created initially by copying it to their Users subdiretory.

Invoking Commands from the Main Menu

You invoke source control commands by pulling down the Tools menu, choosing the Source Control submenu, and then choosing one of its menu options. As shown in the following figure, you can select one or more files from the Project window first, but selecting files is optional.

When you invoke a source control command, a Select Files dialog box appears. For example, suppose you are working in the HelloWorld project. If you highlight index.html in the Project window and then choose Add to Source Control, the following dialog box appears:

The Selected Files window, on the right, lists the full path names of any files you had previously selected. The window on the left lists all other files in the project.

Using the Select Files dialog box, you can change the set of files that you want to affect. For example, if you want to add more files to the source control system, you can highlight other listed files and then click the right arrow button. When you press OK, you apply the source control command to whatever files are listed in the Selected Files window.

Sharing Settings Among Programmers

In many cases, several programmers work on the same project, but each programmer might be using a different source control configuration. It may be desirable for everyone to share the same configuration settings.

To share these settings, one programmer can export them from the registry to a file. Other programmers can then import the resulting file into their respective registries.

The following procedure describes how to export source control settings:

Open the Netscape registry editor by typing regedit from a DOS command prompt.

The registry editor appears, and it displays the keys and values that apply to the Netscape Application Server.

Locate the key denoted by the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Netscape\
Application Builder\4.0\SCCS

This key contains the command-line settings for source control in Netscape Application Builder.

Select the SCCS folder.

From the Registry menu, choose Export Registry File.

Specify the name and location of the file.

Do not specify a suffix. The .reg suffix is automatically appended to the file name.

Once the source control settings are exported, you can import them in either of the following ways:

Double-click the previously exported .reg file.

From a command prompt, run the command regedit filename, where filename is the previously exported .reg file.