[AccessD] Access source control

jwcolby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Fri Jul 16 12:12:56 CDT 2010


Michael,

Very cool and I want to use this.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com


Michael Bahr wrote:
> 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
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>> 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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