Microsoft Visual SourceSafe

Introduction: Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (VSS) is a Source Control Software Package oriented towards small software development projects. Like most source control systems, SourceSafe creates a virtual library of computer files.

SourceSafe was originally created by a company called One Tree Software. The first published version of the product was 3.1, which was a 16-bit application. Microsoft at the time had a less powerful source code control system named Delta. In 1994, Microsoft bought One Tree Software and went on to modify the 16-bit version of SourceSafe 3.1. The result was version 4.0 of Visual SourceSafe (VSS), which was a 32-bit edition of the product. It was released sometime around 1995.

Components of VSS: Visual SourceSafe has three basic components that we need to know about to understand how it works to implement version control:

·         The Visual SourceSafe database. This is the repository for the various versions of source code and other files that Visual SourceSafe administers. The Visual SourceSafe database stores the files in a compressed, proprietary format. It must be visible to all developers and administrators who need to use Visual SourceSafe.

·         Visual SourceSafe Administrator. This application enables one or more administrators to manage the Visual SourceSafe database, to manage users of Visual SourceSafe, and to define the users’ rights in general and also for particular projects.

·         Visual SourceSafe Explorer. This application resides on each developer’s workstation. It is the main vehicle that developers use to manage the source code stored in the Visual SourceSafe database. Visual SourceSafe is typically installed as an option with VB or Visual Studio. You should make sure that the Visual SourceSafe database is installed in a location visible to all who will need to use it (probably on a network drive). The default name for the installed folder is VSS. The exact location of this folder will depend on the choices you make during Visual SourceSafe installation.

The Nature of a Visual SourceSafe Project: A Visual SourceSafe project typically corresponds to the physical files in a development project. Developers usually think of a Visual SourceSafe project as containing source-code files (in the case of a VB project, file types would include VBP, FRM, BAS, CTL, and so forth).

A Visual SourceSafe project can contain any files important to the project, however—such as email documents containing correspondence, design, specification, and project-management files in word processor format or in the formats of other software tools, as well as the latest compiled version of the executable files created from the source code.

VSS Database:  The Visual SourceSafe database contains all the files that Visual SourceSafe maintains. Visual SourceSafe stores the files in a proprietary, compressed format. We will find the Visual SourceSafe database under the main Visual  SourceSafe directory (usually named VSS) in a folder named Database. It is possible to have multiple Visual SourceSafe databases set up in the same environment.

VSS Administrator:When administrators or developers open the Visual SourceSafe Administrator or the Visual SourceSafe Explorer , they have a choice of Visual SourceSafe databases.We can use Visual SourceSafe Administrator to

• Set up and remove users of Visual SourceSafe and set their Visual SourceSafe passwords.
• Assign rights to users of Visual SourceSafe for specific projects or in general.
• Set options for Visual SourceSafe projects.
• Archive and restore Visual SourceSafe projects in specific Visual SourceSafe databases.
• Set options for the general behavior of Visual SourceSafe.

VSS Explorer: When we run Visual SourceSafe Explorer, the first thing that we see depends on how the administrator set up our Visual SourceSafe account:

·         If the Visual SourceSafe administrator set up a user with the same name and password as our Windows logon and password, VSS Explorer will proceed immediately to the main screen.

·         Otherwise, Visual SourceSafe Explorer will present us with the logon screen shown in fig. given below. In this case, we will need to supply a valid Visual SourceSafe logon/password combination as set up by the Visual SourceSafe administrator.

We can also click the Browse button on the logon screen to choose from all the Visual SourceSafe databases recognized by Visual SourceSafe on our system . We can also wait until we see the main VSS screen, and select the File, Open SourceSafe Database from the menu to choose a different database.

 

Advantages: Visual SourceSafe's advantages are

·         Relative ease of use

·         Some degree of integration with other Microsoft development solutions

·         Integration with Microsoft Visual Studio and the fact that it is included as part of most Visual Studio versions.

Disadvantages: Due to the nature of its design, the performance of SourceSafe is greatly affected by the type of environment in which it is deployed. The optimal environment is that in which a small team of developers is accessing repository content via a LAN. The criticism concerning instability stems largely from the manner in which Visual SourceSafe uses a direct, file-based access mechanism allowing any client to modify a file in the repository after locking it. If a client machine crashes in the middle of updating a file, it can leave that file in a corrupted state. Many users of Visual SourceSafe mitigate this risk by making use of a utility provided by Visual SourceSafe that checks the database for corruption and, when able, corrects errors that it finds.