Integrating FP2003 and SourceSafe 6.0

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Guest

Hi Folks,

We're trying to implement a site for our customer using FP2003. We'd like
some sort of real version control on it (with rollback capabilities) and we
have licenses for SourceSafe 6.0 for all of our writing staff (We already use
it for documentation control).

For the life of me I cannot figure out an easy way to integrat FP2003 with
SS. Since I'm not a developer, I'm not even sure if there's some sort of API
that could be implemented?

I originally came from a Dreamweaver shop where SS integrated easily. Kinda
surprises me that FP doesn't.

I've turned on the "version control" services in FP, but it is awfully
limited...basically the same as what's in Word when two people attempt to
open the same file. I'd like something a bit more robust, but mostly I need
the ability to track version history and provide "rollback" capability.

Is this possible?

I was able to bring my site into SS, but all of the links, theming, etc.
get's lost. It also broke all of my "breadcrumbs" (very important to this
user community).

I asked about turning on the Sharepoint services on the 2003 server, but
according to mgmt it's a no-go. They seem to have something against
Sharepoint portal, so the prejudice extends to the services as well.

Any and all help would be appreciated!
 
Putting the pages in VSS is not an issue, if you check out there and then
edit in FrontPage (at least from my experience). But, this is about as
non-integrated as you can go while still using both tools. It also requires
quite a bit of discipline.

I usually have the site open in Visual Studio .NET and check out there, edit
in FrontPage using the "edit in external" funcationality and check back in in
Visual Studio. This is not an option for anyone just using FrontPage,
however. It is a better option than check out in one program and edit in
another, as I can configure the project to automagically open HTML editing in
FP.

If you are using FrontPage server extensions, you are supposed to be able to
set up an external source control. I have not personally tried this, so I
cannot vouch for how successful it might be.


---

Gregory A. Beamer
MVP; MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

***************************
Think Outside the Box!
***************************
 
Hi Greg (Cowboy)!

Thanks for the input. We're not using .NET, so I can't go that route. The
server extensions is also an issue...we can't use them. We just received a
report (not about us!) that talked about a server with FP extensions being
"hacked" so we are not allowed to use them for the moment until the security
team can review what happened and see if they can setup roadblocks to ensure
it won't happen on our site.

They won't even let me turn on the Sharepoint services for goodness sake.

I think if they weigh the pros of the extensions and SP services versus the
likelihood of our being attacked it'd weigh in favor of turning these
on...we'd just need to be more careful about security (not my field - but we
have a few good folks in that arena).

Thanks again!
Mike
 
I'm looking for a source control solution myself. I have VSS but have never
installed it. I hear people claim it was developed in the pits of hell by
Satan himself ;-) Really. Too many developers claim to really hate VSS. I
have no reason why.

I've been reading a lot about Subversion. It is an open-source LAMP solution
that can be and is being hosted by various providers. They just won a Jolt
Award from Software Development Magazine. There is a free Windows client.

Comments?

<%= Clinton Gallagher
 
Mike -
The shop I just retired from was trying to make VSS the company standard. My group
used PVCS Version Manager. We found VSS to be flaky and a PITA to use. Using our
build program to check out source was inconsistant. Sometimes, for no reason we
could determine, we got the wrong version. PVCS is very expensive, but so is a
group of programmers time to trouble shoot errors a bad version control system can
give you.
Sorry I can't tell you how to integrate an IDE with a VCS, but I just had to rant
a bit ;-}
MikeR
 
Hi All!

Actually, we've had no issues or problems with Visual Sourcesafe whatsoever.
We're not doing any compiles with it, we're just versioning documents (and
hopefully) the website we're building. I've used PVCS, ClearCase, and VSS for
years (nearly 10 if you count their various forms/iterations) and by far the
easiest for us to use/implement has been SourceSafe.

I liked PVCS, hated ClearCase (vertical learning curve). The only one that
never gave us problems was SS (of course, we weren't doing lots of branching
and merging either).

What's frustrating to me is that there is no integration of FP with VSS. I
mean come'on, if Dreamweaver can do it, why can't FP?

Oh well.
 
You do not integrate VSS with FP directly but with the Web Server.

To set Source Control for a Web, use the IIS Management Console snap-in
on the Web server and select Properties for the folder that contains the
Web. You can do this by performing the following steps:
1. Opening the Internet Services Manager.
2. Select properties for the folder that contains the Web.
3. Click the Server Extensions tab and select the method of Version
Control.

VSS must be installed on the Server.

Regards Jens Peter Karlsen. Microsoft MVP - Frontpage.
 
Thanks Jens,

I'm trying that out now. Just so happens we had a couple of extra VSS
licenses so I was able to install it on the server.

My only problem at the moment is that it keeps locking up on the project
when attempting to "Use External" on the site $\project1. Admittedly it's
already over 1000 pages, but it's been taking over 10 minutes to "Apply" the
change when we attempt it. Is that normal behavior?

BTW, this is the simplest solution I've seen. Thanks for the input. Not sure
why my IIS guys weren't aware of this solution. They are NOW!

Will let you know how it goes!

Mike
 
OK.

Attempted the above. Seemed to be working, until I tried to check-in all my
files. I could see they were checked out when I opened FP. When attempting
to check them in, I received a "There is a problem with integration with your
webserver. Please contact your administrator" type message.

When I tried to open the VSS database associated, I saw no files.

Any idea how this is supposed to work? Do I need FP extensions on the
server? I downloaded the FP2002 extensions, installed them, and rebooted, but
I don't notice anything different in IIS (I'm running 5.1). Do I need to be
running IIS6?
 
Read this KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171116/EN-US/
You can ignore the parts specific to VID.

Regards Jens Peter Karlsen. Microsoft MVP - Frontpage.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike [mailto:[email protected]]
Posted At: 17. maj 2005 15:54
Posted To: microsoft.public.frontpage.client
Conversation: Integrating FP2003 and SourceSafe 6.0
Subject: Re: Integrating FP2003 and SourceSafe 6.0


OK.

Attempted the above. Seemed to be working, until I tried to
check-in all my files. I could see they were checked out when
I opened FP. When attempting to check them in, I received a
"There is a problem with integration with your webserver.
Please contact your administrator" type message.

When I tried to open the VSS database associated, I saw no files.

Any idea how this is supposed to work? Do I need FP
extensions on the server? I downloaded the FP2002 extensions,
installed them, and rebooted, but I don't notice anything
different in IIS (I'm running 5.1). Do I need to be running IIS6?

Mike said:
Thanks Jens,

I'm trying that out now. Just so happens we had a couple of extra VSS
licenses so I was able to install it on the server.

My only problem at the moment is that it keeps locking up on the
project when attempting to "Use External" on the site $\project1.
Admittedly it's already over 1000 pages, but it's been taking over 10
minutes to "Apply" the change when we attempt it. Is that normal behavior?

BTW, this is the simplest solution I've seen. Thanks for the input.
Not sure why my IIS guys weren't aware of this solution. They are NOW!

Will let you know how it goes!

Mike
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