[AccessD] Access source control

Michael Bahr jedi at charm.net
Fri Jul 16 10:53:44 CDT 2010


John here is an example from another SCM that we were using where I made a
program so users can use the same format to populate code files with the
header information:

######################################################################
# Start Header Info
######################################################################
#$Workfile: $
#$Revision: $
#$Author:   $
#$Date:   $
#$Modtime: $
######################################################################
# End Header Info
######################################################################
0000:://Hello World--This is test of the Emergency Broadcast System!!
0001:://PROC WAIT3000
0002:://\\
0003::LOOP::
0004::WAIT 3000

and this is the result

######################################################################
# Start Header Info
######################################################################
#$Workfile:   WAIT300.SCP  $
#$Revision:   1.0  $
#$Author:   mbahr  $
#$Date:   Mar 24 2006 14:34:56  $
#$Modtime:   Mar 24 2006 13:23:52  $
######################################################################
# End Header Info
######################################################################
0000:://Hello World--This is test of the Emergency Broadcast System!!
0001:://PROC WAIT3000
0002:://\\
0003::LOOP::
0004::WAIT 3000

in this example the keywords are encased in dollar-signs and get modified
everytime the file is checked-in.  Now you have traceability with files
either doing a GET or Check-out.

If you have not found yet then it is buried somewhere.

Mike...

>  >What needs to be done is you must add a header in the form of comments
> that use the keywords or
> artifacts I believe, then SVN will use the keywords with the appropriate
> information.
>
> Ohhhh.  I haven't found anything that says that.
>
> John W. Colby
> www.ColbyConsulting.com
>
>
> Michael Bahr wrote:
>> Yes you are correct, SVN does not implicitely add anything.  What needs
>> to
>> be done is you must add a header in the form of comments that use the
>> keywords or artifacts I beleive, then SVN will use the keywords with the
>> appropriate information.
>>
>> Mike...
>>
>>> Michael,
>>>
>>> I mostly understand all of that.  I use SVN with Visual Studio here in
>>> my
>>> office.  I have a
>>> programmer that comes in and works and I do C# coding.  We both check
>>> out
>>> / in pretty much daily.  I
>>> have had to reconcile differences a couple of times.  I don't do
>>> anything
>>> fancy with it though.
>>>
>>> AFAICT SVN does not add anything into the file itself - author, date
>>> etc.
>>> Given that it could
>>> corrupt a file structure (word or excel) I doubt that it can do that.
>>> I
>>> think the header info is
>>> kept in the repository somewhere.  We shall see.
>>>
>>> I exported a FE to text files and checked them in, then checked them
>>> back
>>> out.  I then made a simple
>>> edit to the code behind form for one form and reexported / checked in
>>> that
>>> one form.  Basically I
>>> did exactly that, export over the top of an existing text file.
>>>
>>> SVN tags files on disk with icons and the icon changed from a green
>>> check
>>> to a red ! until I checked
>>> the change in.  Unfortunately I it appears that Tortoise doesn't use
>>> the
>>> same property to find the
>>> repository for the diff application because when i tried to use that
>>> widget it says it can't find
>>> the repository.  Sigh.
>>>
>>> But the concept seems sound.  Really the hardest part seems like it
>>> would
>>> be getting the file back
>>> in to the MDB.  That is probably not difficult, it would just have to
>>> be
>>> deleted and then the text
>>> file sucked in and saved.
>>>
>>> John W. Colby
>>> www.ColbyConsulting.com
>>>
>>>
>>> Michael Bahr wrote:
>>>> John, SVN works the same way as VSS, ClearCase, PVCS, etc.  You add
>>>> your
>>>> files or project the first time, this is the base line revision.  This
>>>> revision is annotated like 0.001 or something like that.
>>>>
>>>> Then you do a "Checkout" which should add a marker in SVN to indicate
>>>> that
>>>> those files have been checked-out.  By checking out you are allowed to
>>>> "Check-In" the files.  This does not overwrite or destroy the previous
>>>> file, just adds another copy to the revisioning process.  This
>>>> increases
>>>> the revision by one like 0.002.  Now you can do a differential between
>>>> 0.001 and 0.002.  BTW, differentials only work on text file, not
>>>> binary.
>>>> If you do a "Get" and you make changes you can not do a check-in, you
>>>> must
>>>> do a "Check-Out" first.   So over time you will have many revisions of
>>>> files and at some point you will want to "release" the files or
>>>> project
>>>> as
>>>> Version 1.000.  Eveything before version 1.000 would be your
>>>> developement
>>>> work for example.  Now you have version control.
>>>>
>>>> Then you continue with your developement with revisions (check-out,
>>>> make
>>>> changes, check-in) until you do another release, for example Ver
>>>> 1.100.
>>>> Here is where you can do differentials between the various releases.
>>>>
>>>> Now SVN has (should) features that you would really want like header
>>>> information in the files.  This is important information like date,
>>>> time,
>>>> author, description, revision number, and possibly version number.
>>>> SVN
>>>> probrably uses some keywords to that you must place in the header the
>>>> first time (the baseline) and SVN will automatically update these
>>>> keywords
>>>> everytime you do a check-in.  The most important items in the header
>>>> are
>>>> the date and revision.  So if you were to make a hard copy or have
>>>> several
>>>> soft copies hanging around of the source code you can easily identify
>>>> the
>>>> revision, otherwise it would be very difficult.  Doing things your way
>>>> of
>>>> sucking out the objects each time I think would eliminate the header
>>>> information thus rendering the check-out files difficult to track.
>>>>
>>>> So I hope you understand the process of revision and version.  Your
>>>> can
>>>> be
>>>> be done but I think it is a lot of work dealing with Access objects.
>>>> Using SVN for .Net projects should be very easy to use and very
>>>> beneficial.
>>>>
>>>> On another note, I would suggest that you come up with a plan for
>>>> version
>>>> control, or SCM (Software Configuration Management).  This is for you
>>>> and
>>>> your customers.
>>>>
>>>> Mike...
>>>>
>>>>> Yea, but I want source control.
>>>>>
>>>>> John W. Colby
>>>>> www.ColbyConsulting.com
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Dan Waters wrote:
>>>>>> <I am currently faced with a set of FEs that I need to see the
>>>>>> differentials
>>>>>> of.>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> FMS has a utility you can purchase called Access Detective.  It's
>>>>>> about
>>>>>> a
>>>>>> couple hundred dollars, and you'd quickly get that back in time
>>>>>> saved.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> HTH,
>>>>>> Dan
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Charlotte Foust wrote:
>>>>>>> I guess the success will depend on what you hope to gain.  Without
>>>>>>> a
>>>>>>> checkin/out from within Access, any changes to a database will have
>>>>>>> to
>>>>>>> be manually exported and then imported to subversion, right?  I'm
>>>>>>> not
>>>>>>> familiar with the product, so how do you keep versions of the
>>>>>>> objects
>>>>>>> rather than overwriting, or does it matter?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Charlotte
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 4:21 PM, jwcolby
>>>>>>> <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>> I am trying a workaround.  Max has written code that exports all
>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>> objects in an access database
>>>>>>>> to text files.  It seems a short step to using that to get them
>>>>>>>> into
>>>>>> subversion.
>>>>>>>> John W. Colby
>>>>>>>> www.ColbyConsulting.com
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Charlotte Foust wrote:
>>>>>>>>> How would you move items in an out of Access?  Source Safe uses
>>>>>>>>> an
>>>>>>>>> Access add-in to handle source control at the object level.  Is
>>>>>>>>> there
>>>>>>>>> something similar for subversion, or are you trying a workaround?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Charlotte
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 1:35 PM, jwcolby
>>>>>>>>> <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> I am wondering whether we could put together subversion and
>>>>>>>>>> Access
>>>>>>>>>> to
>>>>>> do source control.
>>>>>>>>>> Max's eatbloat will export and import most things Access into a
>>>>>> directory structure.  Subversion
>>>>>>>>>> could be used to move that stuff into version control.  Once in
>>>>>> subversion, we might be able to do
>>>>>>>>>> differencing etc.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Whaddayathink?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>> John W. Colby
>>>>>>>>>> www.ColbyConsulting.com
>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>> AccessD mailing list
>>>>>>>>>> AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
>>>>>>>>>> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
>>>>>>>>>> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> --
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>>>>>>>> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>>
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