Visual Source Safe or RoboHelp Source Control

I have never used VSS, but I have used RH Source Control. I can't find any clear cut answer to my current question. Do all the features like securing help based on security roles defined by the company, Merge Help and Multiple Authors per project/topic work the same in VSS or is this just a feature of RH Source Control?
My current client has VSS and I'm not sure they would want to purchase RH Source Control unless I come up with a really good reason for this.

Hi there
Many are confused by the subtle differences. You are absolutely correct in your statement of:
VSS and RH Source Control are just version control, nothing more, correct?
But your initial post comingled things by asking:
Do all the features like securing help based on security roles defined by the company, Merge Help and Multiple Authors per project/topic work the same in VSS or is this just a feature of RH Source Control?
The features you asked about apply to RoboHelp Server. RoboHelp Server is a product that is totally different from RoboSource Control or VSS.
I'm guessing here that maybe you unintentionally stated RoboSource Control and meant instead to say RoboHelp Server?
RoboSource Control = Source Control and is included with RoboHelp at no additional fee.
RoboHelp Server = Separately purchased Adobe software that must be installed on a computer that is also functioning as a Web Server.
RoboHelp Server provides merging. You just publish any number of outputs and the server handles merging things to present to the end user as a single, unified system. But keep in mind that basic RoboHelp is capable of creating a Merged output that will function in the same way.
RoboHelp Server 8 provides an ability to "secure" or restrict viewing of certain folders of content by restricting access to specific users. Keep in mind that the same thing is possible on any web server and has been for years. RoboHelp Server 8 probably provides some easy interface in the application that allows you to do it without getting a web developer involved. I'm not 100% sure on that. Hopefully my buddy John Daigle (the RoboHelp Server GuRu) will chime in here to clarify.
RoboHelp Server 8 also provides a search function that allows indexing and looking inside Word and PDF files. Then again, basic WebHelp output also offers this capability.
Reporting and tracking. RoboHelp Server 8 provides nice pretty graphs and charts so that you can see that topic A was opened 500 times and topic B was opened twice. Therefore topic B must not be useful so you can delete it. (just being silly here) Then again, you may also use Google Analytics to obtain the same information with a few lines of code.
The big question is to examine what RoboHelp Server brings to the game. If you need the features and are willing to pony up the additional cost involved and you are also willing to deal with the ensuing additional layer of complexity, by all means go for it. I'm not trying to sway you one way or the other. I'm only pointing out the possibilities here. Choosing is up to you.
Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form
Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7 or 8 within the day - $24.95!
Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training
SorcerStone Blog
RoboHelp eBooks

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Visual Source Safe and RoboHelp for HTML

Do you ever successfully use Visual Source Safe for RoboHelp
for HTML? I got error when I checked out the file, looks like file
format in RoboHelp is not supported in Visual Source Safe. Can
somebody share the experience? Thanks a lot!

Hey, Cathy!
The RoboSource Control in X5 was "adequate" in its day. But
remember, that was nearly 4 years ago
The problem was that the "free" Access database was not
really robust enough and to really make use of it, you need to use
MS SQL Server, which is expensive.
That was then. This is now. The RoboSource Control 3 that
comes with RoboHelp 6 is WAY more better
This is because, it allows you to use a free version of MS
SQL Server Express for a much more robust database.
So my advice would be to upgrade to RoboHelp 6 for sure. It's
not just hype. If for some reason you can't upgrade, then you might
be able to get away with the Access Database given that there are
only two of you. Since you already have it, you could create a
little test bed project and try it out. (I have a suggestion for
how to do that in my article. See link below)
For the lowdown on RoboSource Control 3 see this Matthew
Ellison's fine article
Getting
started with RoboSource Control 3 in RoboHelp 6
If you're interested in the "old" RoboSource Control that
comes with X5, you can check out my article to get you started.
Sharing
One RoboHelp Project Among Multiple Authors
Thanx,
john

RoboHelp 8 Visual Source Safe 8 - cannot upgrade projects to 8

We upgraded from Robohelp 7 to 8 on Friday. This morning when we attempted to upgrade our projects connected to Visual SourceSafe, some of the projects received the following error:
We verified in VSS that all files (including subfolders) were checked in. Initially we did have some files checked out, but checked those in and still received the error message. It seems that we are stuck receiving this message and cannot get past. We have checked out / in the entire folder to make sure all files are available.
Thank you,
Jennifer

Converting a project while it is still hooked up to VSS seems unnecessarily difficult and dangerous. Is it required?
I would take a copy of the RH7 project files out of source control, upgrade them to RH8, and check them in as an entirely new set of VSS8 files.
With, of course, plenty of backups along the way...

Why does LabVIEW8 popup error message after i use Visual Source Safe as its sourc control?

i'm trying LabVIEW8.0 trial version now. and i set Visual Source Safe as its sourc control, just setting like following picture.
but since then, LabVIEW8 always popups error message dialogue even when it starts up.
it confuses me, for it runs well while i use LabVIEW6.1 before.
following is some message dailogue.
帖子被longzhi在04-03-2006 07:36 AM时编辑过了
Too much works make Longzhi a Tom.
Thanks god, the weekend is coming.
And my lovers are always here with me.
Anything better? ^_^
Attachments:
bug20060403_002.JPG ‏70 KB
VSSConfig.JPG ‏82 KB
bug20060403_001.JPG ‏33 KB

hi, smercurio…
i've tried your way. but it doesn't work. :-(
but your idea helps me. i've tried some times and it's OK now. thank you. :-)
here are my steps. ( is it right? )
1. start LabVIEW.
2. Tools >> Options >> Source Control. select source control provider name as my microsoft VSS. no error message.
3. Then set my source control as None. a warning dialogue popup, "You have selected not to use any source control provider". Yes to continue.
4. exit LabVIEW
5. edit LabVIEW.INI. delete the part of source control. ( like the attached picture).
6. Start LabVIEW. and reset the source control as normal.
Bingo! it's OK. :-)
帖子被longzhi在04-03-2006 08:39 PM时编辑过了
Too much works make Longzhi a Tom.
Thanks god, the weekend is coming.
And my lovers are always here with me.
Anything better? ^_^
Attachments:
BugFix20060404_001.JPG ‏88 KB

RH8 with Visual Source Safe

My client is looking to pl
ace our RH8 project documentation on a visual source safe server. The documentation consists of restricted information.I've read some of the posts on RH with VSS but wonder how it's working today with RH8.

Hi Kutra
I'd like to preface that it's great RoboHelp has some ability to interface directly with source control systems.
However, having said that, I'd also like to say that I'm a pretty staunch advocate of the "KISS" approach with things. (KISS=Keep It Surprisingly Simple) What you are stating sort of underscores the reasoning for my approach.
By isolating the Source Control component and working with it separately, you typically don't encounter oddities such as the files disappearing from the FPJ. My own preferred way of working with source control is to open the source control interface, check out the project, open RoboHelp and make edits, close RoboHelp and the project, then use the source control interface to check the project back in.
Call me crazy if you like but I've never encountered an issue with working that way. And when things go wrong (as they often do) you don't have that added layer of uncertainty wondering things like "is RoboHelp possibly causing the issue here by taking actions I cannot see?".
Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
RoboHelp Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form
Begin learning RoboHelp HTML 7, 8 or 9 within the day!
Adobe Certified RoboHelp HTML Training
SorcerStone Blog
RoboHelp eBooks

Is there a plug-in to use Microsoft Visual Source Safe with JDeveloper?

Is there a plug-in available to allow me to use JDeveloper with my current source control software (Microsoft Visual Source Safe)?
Thanks,
Phil

Hi Phil,
Not that I'm aware of. We're adding support for visual sourcesafe in the next release of JDeveloper.
Thanks,
Brian

RoboHelp 6 Source Control Bindings

Without going into best practices about source control
methodology (we don't branch), I have a question about RoboHelp 6
and source control bindings with Visual SourceSafe.
We have a help project that is bound to a project in VSS. We
need to create a copy of the VSS project and work on that
separately. After creating the project in VSS with a copy of the
RoboHelp files, there seems to be no way to update the RoboHelp
project to point to the new location in VSS. We searched all the
property and settings boxes we could find to no avail.
In searching, the xpj file seemed to contain the only source
control binding information. We went so far as to change this file
in a text editor to update the new project and even point at the
correct file it references in VSS for the new VSS project. This is
in the vc::cookie setting under misc properties in the file. When
opening this file RoboHelp updates it back to the original somehow
even when the correct one is in SourceSafe.
So, please tell us how to update the bindings for source
control.
An aside. Recently our help files were moved to a new VSS
database. The old one was taken offline. In this case when Robohelp
saw that the old database was no longer there, it prompted us with
a dialog to correct the binding. Now that we need to point Robohelp
at a new VSS project in the same VSS database, while the original
still exists, we can find no way to change the settings.
Thanks...

There are several things to do to remove a copy of a project
from VSS:
1. Make a backup, as always.
2. Copy the RH project to your new location.
3. Set all the files as writable.
4. As you've discovered, you need to remove the contents of
the miscproperties tag.
5. Delete the cpd and sss files, and maybe the pss file (I'm
not sure of this one, but I'm fairly sure it gets recreated when
you re-open the project).
6. Open the project in RH and add to VSS from within RH. (I
recommend using RH to add into VSS, as this will re-populate the
miscproperties section of the xpj file. If you don't, you have to
manually "open from source control" each time you open the
project.)
You should now have a new project in VSS. And you have
backups, right? (not that I'm paranoid or anything...)
HTH
Amber

Correct use of LabVIEW 8 with Visual Source Safe

I have LabVIEW 8.0 and Microsoft Visual Source Safe 6 (VSS) installed and was looking for help with the correct way to integrate the two environments. This will be used in a team environment and code modules will be shared between team members. I have used and understand the new project manager with it's virtual directory structure. I have also used and understand VSS and its abilities to share and branch vis or project folders.
When you share an item in VSS, the vi is available for use in both projects and physically resides in both projects within your working directory. If I were just using VSS, this is the method I would use (and what is recommended in the VSS documentation). This way an entire project contains all the files and can be retrieved all at once.
When you use the LabVIEW 8 project manager, it appears that the intent is to only have the code in one location and share it through virtual folders. This makes sense and works fine until LabVIEW 8 and VSS are both used. LabVIEW 8 can handle check in/out and adding files to VSS. A LabVIEW project can even use vis that belong to other LabVIEW projects and other VSS projects.
My concern with all this is what happens when a team member wants to bring down code to their working directory or rebuilding my own working directory. LabVIEW's project manager does not appear to provide a direct view to the VSS database. I can go into VSS and pull down a LabVIEW project file (lvproj file only) and open it up. All appears to be fine and all VSS information is intact. What is not there is any indication of which files actually exist in my working directory or any way to perform a "bulk" retrieval of all the files required in my project. If all the files reside in a virtual directory, I don't even know where to go get them from. One solution could be to follow the VSS style and ensure everything is native to a project or at least shared with a project (within VSS). This may be cumbersome and would not follow the LabVIEW project philosophy. I may also miss something since LabVIEW "remembers" where stuff is for you. Following the LabVIEW project method could make it difficult to bring a project back to life and also has the potential to leave some vis out of source code control (sub vis don't have to belong to a LabVIEW project).
Does anyone have thoughts on this subject? What is the most efficient way to ensure that all project items are in source code control and that all projects are retrievable and functional?
Thanks,
Greg Cloutier

Greg,
I'm not a VSS guru but I do know that currently there is no automatic functionality for checking in\out a project and all associated files from LabVIEW.
As for finding the location of the vis that have been checked out, LabVIEW can display the full path of a vi from the project explorer. If you right click on a vi and then select properties, the General category will show the full path.
There are a number of papers that do relate to using SCC with LabVIEW 8. check out Using Source Control Software with LabVIEW and that will link you to other documents as well.
Chris C
Applications Engineering
National Instruments
Chris Cilino
National Instruments
LabVIEW Product Marketing Manager
Certified LabVIEW Architect

Visual Source Safe w/ JDeveloper

I stumbled on a couple of posts relating to this with a search but I just wanted some more clarification.
Is there a plugin for Jdeveloper that would allow me to use the built-in source control with a MS Visual Source Safe repository?
TIA!
-jay

Unfortunately there is not an extension to do this automatically.
You could add to the external tools menu items to call ss.exe to checkout and checkin files.
It's something we are trying to schedule for a future release, but no commitments yet.
Thanks,
Rob

Will Visual Source Safe work for non-Microsoft software as well as documents?

We have software that was made by a subcontractor. It is used to control a machine with proprietary syntax. Will VSS archive it as well as Visual Studio things?

Hi OilMan545,
If you mean to use Visual Source Safe as a source control tool and use funtions that VSS provided, the answer is yes. You can use VSS to manage your source files. And it's recommended to use TFS since it's more powerful and in the spoort scope of MSDN forums.
If you want to do the integration for the software and VSS, that depends on the functions that the software provided and whehter it has interfaces/plugin to interact with VSS.
Best regards,
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XCode Integration With VSS (Visual Source Safe)

We have recently start developing for iPhone using XCode. We already have Visual Source Safe in place as our source control and I want to give it a try (integrate with XCode) before thinking of using CVS or SVN.
Sometime back TheSilverHammer talk about VSS integration with XCode in his post "Two questions: Xcode 2.4 (reloading a source file) and endianness ...", however it was not clear how he did that? This post is now archived and is no longer available for replies. TheSilverHammer can you, or anyone else please tell how is it possible?

I don't really know about VSS/XCode integration but I have to make a comment. Dump VSS. Pour gasoline on it, light a match and run.
There are so many issues with VSS I'm not sure where to begin. No scalability, terrible stability, proprietary, etc.
You mentioned CVS and SVN. In the long run you'll be way better off with either of those. Personally I prefer SVN.
Just my 2 cents

VISUAL SOURCE SAFE

Im trying to use Visual Source safe as a source control with Oracle Forms. Can anyone tell me what registry entries , ect. I have to change in order to get forms to work with it.
Thanks

I don't think you can do it with VSS.
Those entry are currently for Oracle SCM (a.k.a Oracle Repository), PVCS and Clearcase.
I would suggest you take a look at Otacle SCM
Whic you allready own (part of the Oracle developer suite that forms is a part of).
You will get a lot more functionality for Version control including diffing of fmb's etc from this tool.
Check out the demo at : http://www.oracle.com/ip/develop/ids/index.html?repository1.html
http://www.oracle.com/ip/develop/ids/forms_docs/formscm_viewlet.htm

Does Captivate 3 play well with Visual Source Safe?

I am using Captivate 3 at my company. Is it safe for two of us, both with licensed versions of Captivate 3, to check files into Visual Source Safe so we can each check them out to make changes? The subject matter experts (SMEs) want to be able to make changes to content. Our output is Flash/HTML.
SAM

Hi Sam
I don't mean to sound snarky here, but if you already knew the answer, why did you bother to ask?
VSS is something known as a Source Control system. This normally means you check SOURCE files in only. In Captivate, there is a single source file. That file is the .CP file.
The other files you referenced (.SWF / .HTM / etc.) wouldn't typically be added to VSS.
However, I am aware that some folks prefer to use VSS as a repository for their developers to also use when they build output. So in some cases I do understand that folks add their output files to Source Control. If this is the case for you, certainly you would want to include the output files.
Cheers... Rick
Helpful and Handy Links
Captivate Wish Form/Bug Reporting Form
Adobe Certified Captivate Training
SorcerStone Blog
Captivate eBooks

Visual Source safe XML corruption

Hello Eveyone,
I'm using visual source safe 6.0 to tie up the project.When i get the latest version,XML gets corrupted ie it has chinese characters.And when i load the screen,error occurs as "Data at root level is invalid".Has anybody experienced this problem.What is the solution,i didnt have this problem before source safe.But i definitely need to use source safe.
Thanks in advance.

How to do that,When i see the properties of XML, it gives the encoding as Unicode.In source safe there is no option to give it as unicode only text or binary.
Where in sourcesafe should i mention it as Unicode because i add the whle solution to source control not on file to file basis. Is this a known issue with Visual Source Safe.

Visual Source Safe AddIn for JDeveloper

Hi All,
Is there an addin available for JDeveloper
somewhere for Visual Source Safe ? I know there's one available for JBuilder 4 ...
Thanks.

See the following discussion group post for information on the custom addins:
http://technet.oracle.com:89/ubb/Forum86/HTML/000174.html
You could also use Oracle's own source control system (Oracle Repository) rather than Visual Source Safe. This has a much tighter level of integration with JDeveloper. See
http://otn.oracle.com/products/repository/demos/jdevviewlets_viewlet.html
for a demo.
Thanks,
Brian
JDeveloper Team (SCM Integration)

Visual Source Safe or RoboHelp Source Control

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