VS2008 + Vault 4.1.4.18402

[kjedrusiak]

I work in the local office, the Vault database machine is litterally in the next room.

Another programmer works at home, he is connected to out network via a VPN connection.

We've been working in the same general area of the code base right now.

Today he was able to check in a number of files, overwritting mine, without VS/Vault knowing he didn't have the latest version. (When I checked the prior version using the Vault UI I could see my changes in the prior version.)

It also happened in a second related solutuion we were working on at the same time.

Could it be a latency issue where his VS/Vault hasn't updated itself to know about my checkins due to him being on a VPN?

[Beth]

Did the user by any chance perform a Get and merge the changes from Vault at any time? If so, is it possible that he deleted what you added and checked in? Latency shouldn't matter, because the Vault server still knows that changes were put in.

[kjedrusiak]

Did the user by any chance perform a Get and merge the changes from Vault at any time? If so, is it possible that he deleted what you added and checked in? Latency shouldn't matter, because the Vault server still knows that changes were put in.

I forgot to mention we're using Edit/Merge/Commit style.

As to your question...aren't we SUPPOSED to be doing Get Latest/Attempt Merge when there are changes? Otherwise I'm very confused.

We're also having some issues because one of the programmers doesn't have VS SP1 installed so the Version Number and the item order in project files gets messed up.

[kjedrusiak]

OK, let me make some statements here and please validate that they are correct...

The solution and project files are not mergable because different instances of Visual Studio don't guarantee the save order of lines inside the file.

Therefore if the solution or individual project has a black flag icon, the user must manually check the differences and make those changes on their local machine.

This may involve running the VaultGUIClient, retrieving files that are not local and then manually adding the new files to the solution or project.

[Beth]

As to your question...aren't we SUPPOSED to be doing Get Latest/Attempt Merge when there are changes? Otherwise I'm very confused.

That makes sense, though if someone removes something after getting the changes, it will look like the user intended those changes to be removed, and when it gets checked in, they won't be there. This was one possible option of what could have happened. It would look like it's an overwrite.

Therefore if the solution or individual project has a black flag icon

That tells me that they are listed in the mergeable file list. You might be able to get away with merging a project file, but definitely not a solution file. It's best to not even allow it to be listed in the mergeable file list. That means that two people shouldn't be able to check that solution file out at the same time.

Is it just a proj file with the flag, or the solution file as well?

[kjedrusiak]

Therefore if the solution or individual project has a black flag icon

That tells me that they are listed in the mergeable file list. You might be able to get away with merging a project file, but definitely not a solution file. It's best to not even allow it to be listed in the mergeable file list. That means that two people shouldn't be able to check that solution file out at the same time.

Is it just a proj file with the flag, or the solution file as well?

I haven't seen it on a solution file, but probably because we haven't added any new projects to the solution.

Now...at one point I though solutions and project were mergeable and had added them to the list on the Vault server, but have since then removed them from the list...and I double checked that they are not listed.

Yet contrary to what you say above, the other person added a a new file to a project and I DID see the project marked with a black flag.

[kjedrusiak]

Just to continue the story, here's what I had to do today...

The other programmer added a number of files to a project.

I added a number of file to that same project.

In VS2008 the project was marked with a black flag icon.

I used "Show Differences" to see what files I was missing.

I then opened the VaultGUIClient, and did a Get Latest for each missing file.

Then back in VS2008, I used "Add Existing" to add each file to the same folder in the project as was shown in the Diff window.

When my changes were the only changes missing i was able to check in the project and it seems i have everything.

Beth....is the the way were are support to work using the Edit/Merge/Commit?

[Beth]

How often are you adding or removing files? If that is the bulk of your activity, then you may wish to just add the proj file to the list of mergeable files (still not the .sln) and just merge your proj files instead of fighting it. If you have multiple people adding files to a project at once, you are going to end up in a needs merge status on proj files, and there isn't a way around it. You would have to have your users not perform adds at the same time to not end up with the flag you see. If one user adds files, then the next user could perform a Get on the updated proj file and then add their files next. Doing it one at a time, but performing Get's in between should end the conflict.

[kjedrusiak]

I think we found our issue...pilot error.

One of the prgrammers saw the black flag and was selecting "Resolve Merge Status" thinking it was fixing the differences automatically, instead of manually fixing the merge themselves and checking in the changes.

Thanks

[Beth]

Thanks for the update.