Using Together with a Version Control System

Together delivers seamless integration with leading version control systems. Together comes with the CVS version control system. Two integrations are automatically installed: one works only on Windows, while another one - pure Java - works on any platform, but requires a CVS server running.

Together comes pre-configured for CVS LAN which only works under Windows. You should modify your configuration as described later in this section if you will use CVS Client-Server (see Setting up CVS below). If you use a SCC-compliant version control, you can change your configuration to use that system (see SCC systemsbelow).

Version control support is enabled in Together by default, version control is not automatically enabled for projects. You need to enable it and specify which version control system project/repository to use when you create the Together project (or later in Project Properties).

Basic version control configuration

Version control support is enabled in Together by default.

To enable or disable Together's version control support:

  1. Launch the Options dialog.

  2. Use Advanced to select the configuration level if necessary

  3. Select the Version control page.

  4. Check or clear the Enable version controlcheckbox.

  5. Set other version control options for the system you use as described later in this document.

Enabling version control in the Options dialog only activates version control integration. It does not set up version control interaction in new or existing projects.

New projects

To enable version control in a new project:

  1. Make sure your version control system is configured in the Options dialog as described later in this document

  2. Launch the the New Project dialog (File | New Project).

  3. Select Advanced mode.

  4. Check the Version Control checkbox and specify which project in your version control system the Together project should access.

Existing projects

To enable version control in a new project:

  1. Make sure your version control system is configured in the Options dialog as described later in this document. Launch the Project Properties dialog (File | Project Properties).

  2. Use Advanced mode.

  3. Check the Version Control option and specify which project in your version control system the Together project should access.

Together files to include in version control

To protect your visual modeling information you should place diagram and project files under source control in addition to your source code files. The following table describes the types of files you should look for and add to source control:

File(s)

Description

Where located

*.tpr

Together project file

Project primary root folder

*.df*

UML diagram files. .dfPackage is the default package view diagram generated by Together. All other diagrams are user-created.

There will be one .dfPackage file in every folder in the project that has been parsed. Other diagram files are wherever users have created them.

*.tws

User-specific desktop settings. Probably not a source-control item, especially in multi-user environments, but you can back it up in VCS if you want to.

Project primary root folder

Setting up CVS

Together comes preconfigured to work with CVS. Installations of CVS are included for Windows ($TOGETHER_HOME$\bin\Win32\cvs.exe) and SunOS ($TOGETHER_HOME$/bin/SunOS/sun4u-sparc/cvs.bin).

If you use CVS for version control, you will need to configure Version Control options to provide Together the information necessary to connect to and interact with your CVS server. You should do this before you try to work with any Together project.

You should think about what configuration level you want to use for Version Control options. For example, if your company has only one CVS host, you only use client-server, and everyone always connects by pserver, you could set those options at the Default level. But then if different projects have different CVS repositories or different release (branch) tags, you could set those options at the Project level overriding their global settings. (For information about configuration levels see Users Guide: Configuring Together: Multi-level Configuration.)

Setting CVS Version Control options

If you want to set global CVS options, you can do so with or without opening a project. To set CVS options for a project, you must first open it.

  1. Choose Options | Default to display the Default Options dialog.

  2. Click Advanced to display levels.

  3. As you work, if you will be setting some options to apply at different levels, click the desired level before setting the option.

  4. Expand the node for the option Version Control enabled (this option should be checked at Default level).

  5. Click on the Use option. On some systems you have the option to select CVS LAN or CVS Client-Server. Select the CVS version you use. Depending on your selection, you will expand either the CVS LAN option node or the CVS Client-Server option node and set those options for your system.

CVS LAN options

This node expands to display shared folder, tag, and message options for CVS LAN. These are standard CVS options... Together passes the values on to CVS when you use version control features as you work on projects. Note that CVS LAN is only for Windows systems.

CVS Client-Server options

This node expands to display options for using a remote CVS server: hostname, repository, connection method, user name, etc. These are all standard CVS options... Together passes the values on to CVS when you use version control features as you work on projects.

Set these options as appropriate for your CVS system.

CVS documentation

You can find documentation on CVS in the following files:

Setting up a SCC-compliant versioning system

Together provides support for SCC-compliant version control systems. This support is limited to Windows operating systems.

Together has been tuned and tested to support PVCS and Continuus version control systems. For specifics about these systems, see the readme files provided in $TOGETHER_HOME$/modules/com/togethersoft/modules/vcs.

Other SCC versioning systems may be used with Together, but only those mentioned are currently tested. Use the Generic SCC options to configure other version control products.

Coroutine classes

SCC version control support requires installation of Coroutine classes and dll libraries. The Together installation program for Windows automatically installs these files and updates the environment classpath.

Make sure you log on to your Windows computer with Administrator rights before installing.

After Together installation, you can check to confirm that Coroutine classes have been installed. Look for them in the directory: $TOGETHER_HOME$/lib/coroutine/com/neva/. Also check to be sure your classpath includes this path.

If, when using SCC version control feature, you get an error message that Coroutine can't be initialized, it means that Coroutine classes were not found where expected. If for some reason Coroutine is not installed you can install it separately by running: $TOGETHER_HOME$/bin/win32/jcinst.exe. If Coroutine is installed and the error message persists, check that your classpath points to the Coroutine directory.

Setting SCC Version Control options

If you want to set global SCC options, you can do so with or without opening a project. To set SCC options for a project, you must first open it.

  1. Choose Options | Default to display the Default Options dialog.

  2. Click Advanced to display levels.

  3. As you work, if you will be setting some options to apply at different levels, click the desired level before setting the option.

  4. Expand the node for the option Version Control enabled (this option should be checked at Default level).

  5. Click on the Use option and select SCC from the drop-down list.

To set SCC options:

  1. Make sure SCC is selected in the Use option.

  2. If using one of the tested versioning systems, expand the option node for your product.

  3. If using another SCC system, expand the Generic option node.

  4. Set the options of the selected node to conform to your version control system. Context-sensitive on-screen Help texts are provided.

Switching among different SCC providers

If you have several SCC providers installed on your system, for example SourceSafe and PVCS VM, you probably have to change registry entries in order to be able to work with specific source control system.

All SCC providers are listed in values of following key:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SourceCodeControlProvider\InstalledSCCProviders"

Using Copy and Paste commands, copy the value of your preferred SCC provider key to the following value:

The one that is stored in this value will be used by Together, as well as by the other tools, such as DevStudio

Tuning SCC support for Visual SourceSafe

Be sure you have installed VSS explorer. You must have SSSCC.DLL in order to use SCC. Check your SRCSAFE.INI file in the directory where you have VSS explorer installed. If you are using several SourceSafe databases you may want to select one of them to work from Together. If you are using only one database, you can skip this section.

SCC interface functions ignore the settings kept by VSS explorer in the registry and rather use the ones stored in this file. If you ever want to switch the default database used by the source safe SCC interface, you should modify values of following keys:

Each of these points to a directory where the SourceSafe database is located or to a file in this directory. You have to type the path to your preferred database in each of these keys in order to work with it.

Interacting with version control

After you set Version Control options and set up version control in project properties, you can use Together to interact with your system. You can add, get, check in, check out, etc.

To use version control in your project:

  1. Make sure that version control is enabled in the Options and Project properties.

  2. Select a source-generating diagram element in a diagram (Class or Interface for example), or...

  3. Select a source generating element or diagram in the Explorer.

  4. Right-click and choose Version Control from the speedmenu. This displays a submenu of the commands available for the currently configured VCS.

  5. Choose the desired action from the submenu./SPAN

You are now presented with a dialog that enables you to complete the chosen action. The layout and content of the dialog varies depending on the action selected and the version control system you are using. If you're experienced with your VCS, the dialog should be fairly self-explanatory. For information about the various dialogs for different systems, see Reference: Version control dialogs

See also:

Project basics
Project management