INFO: VSS 5.0 Readme: Sec. 3, New Features in Visual SourceSafe

The Visual SourceSafe Readme.wri file should be located in the SourceSafe root directory. It contains important information, some of which is not available in the printed documentation or the Help files. This article covers Section 3, NEW FEATURES IN VISUAL SOURCESAFE 5.0. Please see REFERENCES below for more information on other sections.

The Readme.wri file includes:

1.0 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION INFORMATION

2.0 GENERAL NOTES AND TIPS

3.0 NEW FEATURES IN VISUAL SOURCESAFE 5.0

4.0 NOTES FOR USERS OF VISUAL SOURCESAFE 4.0

5.0 VISUAL SOURCESAFE HOME PAGE

3.0 NEW FEATURES IN VISUAL SOURCESAFE 5.0

Microsoft Visual SourceSafe 5.0 adds many new features. Some of the highlights include:

3.1 Archive Utility

The command-line utilities SSARC and SSRESTOR are the answers to the two most important features missing from SourceSafe 4.

• How to get rid of old versions of my project (without destroying the whole project)
• How to move projects from one SourceSafe database to another (while preserving histories)?

Note that the archive utility requires administrator-level privileges to run. If you do not give the "ADMIN" user a SourceSafe password, any user can run the archive utility.

3.2 Visual Merge

When you merge a file (due to multiple checkouts, or after a branch), what if there is a conflict: more than one user edited the same line of code? In Visual SourceSafe 4.0, you had to edit a text file and look for greater- than and less-than markers. In 5.0, the visual merge gives you point-and- click control over the merging and conflict resolution process.

3.3 Project Diff

Click on a project, and then click "Difference." The dialog shows you the differences between your current project in SourceSafe, and your working directory: nothing new there. But inside the dialog, you can now Get, Check Out, Check In, Add, Delete, and Diff files. In other words, project diff is now a whole new interface, designed to give you a graphical way of reconciling SourceSafe with your local directory.

3.4 "Edit" Command

You can now double-click on a file in the SourceSafe Explorer to edit that file in your working directory instead of just viewing the file in SourceSafe.

3.5 Open Databases

Inside the SourceSafe Explorer, choose "Open SourceSafe Database" from the file menu to change your view to another SourceSafe database.

3.6 Web Features

The new "Web" menu adds features specifically designed to help users who use Visual SourceSafe to manage HTML and other Web files.

3.7 Exclusive Check Out

If you configure SourceSafe to allow multiple checkouts in the Admin program, a user can still designate a particular checkout as "exclusive." An exclusive checkout is represented by a red border around the icon in the SourceSafe Explorer.

Note that when the administrator has disabled multiple checkouts, all checkouts are exclusive.

For more information about other sections of the SourceSafe 5.0 Readme.wri file, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: