Does Sourcesafe really work with Labview 8.0 ??????

[shazbot]

Hi,

I am trying to use Visual Source Safe 6.0 with Labview 8.0....  I had no trouble getting it to work with labview 7.1....

Starting with a fresh-instlal of Win2k, I installed Labview 8.0, the 8.0.1 update,  mass-compiled everything, and then installed Visual SourceSafe.

In Labview 8, I can select SourceSafe from the list of providers [it is the only one].  However, after I configure it, nothing happens.   When I go back to the "Source Control" menu, the only non-greyed option is "Configure".    No matter how many times I configure it, it remains the only option.     NOTE: I am trying this with a local SourceSafe database.

According to the NI license manager, I have Labview Professional w/ Mathscript.


I couldn't find anyone having a similar problem here....  Any suggestions?

[gmart]

When you say that after you configure it, "nothing happens", what actually occurs? Also, how did you get to the options page, via Tools>>Options or Tools>>Source Control>>Configure Source Control? Were you using a LabVIEW project? The menu that does not update, is this from a VI that is already in memory before you configure? Finally, if you restart LabVIEW, do the menus update correctly?

[shazbot]

Thanks for the reply....   I just realized the problem.

I was operating under the mistaken believe that I should be able to download/"get the latest version" of a project without having already downloaded it out.  I guess not.  I had to get a read-only copy of everything using the Visual SourceSafe app.

For the "Tools->Source Control Control Menu"
1. Start Labview 8.0 --  Only the "Configure Source Control..." option is enabled
2. Open Project file  --  Only the "Configure Source Control..." option is enabled
3. Open an included VI --  Only the "Configure Source Control..." option is enabled!!!!

However,
2. Upon opening a project file, right-clicking on the project file brings up some Source Control commands -- which are ENABLED.
3. And right-clicking on an included VI brings up some Source Control commands also...

And under some strange sequence of steps, I was able to get the "Tools->Source Control" menu to have the other commands enabled.  It didn't last very long.   I am quite convinced now there are multiple bugs....   Something as simple as switching and returning between the Front Panel and Block Diagram of a VI appeared to affect things!

Am I just being really silly and missing something obvious?  Compared to version 7.1,   the way this works in 8.0 seems highly counter-intuitive.   I'm truly shocked considering that NI seems to advertise interoperability with SourceSafe so much....

Does anyone at NI care?  Can  I report a bug without having a service contract?  Can I expect an answer from them?

[shazbot]

Also strange is when I view the  Source Control projectn name in "Tools-Source Control->Configure", it shows up as something like ""$/newnew", IAAAAAAA" .....  (and that first letter of "IAAAA...." seems to change)

[gmart]

LabVIEW's source control integration is intended to be used as a "window" to your source control project. It is not a replacement for the provider's client app, so not all functionality is present. The case you specified of getting the latest version of a VSS project is one example. There is not a way from LabVIEW to initially pull down all the files associated with a VSS project. This needs to be done from the VSS client. Once the files are on the local machine, you can then perform the basis source control operations (check in/out).

Regarding the menu issues. There have been reports of menus not updating correctly. This can happen if VIs are open before you configure source control. Once it is configured, any Vis that are open should have updated menus. In LabVIEW 7.1, the menus were statis and not dynamic as they are in 8.0. So in 7.1, if you selected to check out a file, the check out option would still be enabled. You could select it again, but you would get an error since the operation wasn't valid for the file's state. I can understand why the menus not updating properly would give you the impression that the mechanism is counter-intuitive, but once configured properly, the integration should work better than it did in 7.1. The main issue I have seen with VSS is when a project is configured and then it gets deleted or changed.

The project name ("$/newnew", IAAAAAAA") is how VSS labels their projects. This information is displayed as returned by VSS. I believe the second string corresponds to their database naming convention.

I think the correct process would be to call in and get a service request. I'd try to give as much information about your setup so the problem can be reproduced.