For someone coming from the manual SSIS package creation and modification paradigm using Visual Studio and TFVC, I'm struggling to 'grok' the BimlStudio and source control workflow.
I've got a BimlStudio project that emits SSIS projects (dtproj files) and associated packages, connections, etc. I want to put it all under source control (.biml and .dtsx files) using BimlStudio and TFVC.
How can I more precisely manage my source code changes than what I seem to be able to do currently.
Let's say I have a single package I need to change. The package (like all of my packages) is defined via external metadata (metadata that is not part of my BIML project). The only place I make a change is in that metadata.
After making the external meta-data change, I build my BIML project.
Since the entire project is re-built, it emits an updated package with the change from the external metadata included, and emits updated instances of packages where no change occurred.
I open up my updated project in Visual Studio.
Using a file "diff" tool, I compare any of the packages with their prior build version. Each "diff" shows that every package has all new GUIDs for all of it's various components.
Since all of the packages' internal GUIDs change with each BIML build, I get this insane amount of "noise" surrounding my one change. Yes, I could assign static package GUIDs via the package metadata, but I'm not going to do that for every sub-component in my package. Or am I? (Please say no)
One could argue that since I know what changed, I only check in the one package. But life happens. I leave my work on Friday, come back on Monday and be like, "What change did I make?" Or I hand over my work to another developer and they need to know what changed, etc.
How do I best work through this?
Additionally, are SSIS artifacts (and all other files in my BimlStudio project's output folder) even included under BimlStudio's source control or just the .biml, .bimlproj, .bspcap and .mst files?
If SSIS artifacts are not included in BimlStudio's version control, then they would be free to be added to TFVC via Visual Studio, correct?
This is the approach we've used:
Do not check in SSIS packages. In a BIML solution the SSIS packages could be considered build files. Use an ignore file to exclude them. Because they are dynamically created they will always change on re-create as you say.
(Assign static GUIDs to connections)
Related
I have a Visual Studio 2019 (16.4.2) solution with several projects and hundreds of subfolders that sometimes have files on disk that need to be "Included" in the projects. This most often occurs after Nuget upgrades of 3rd party CSS and JS libraries, but this may also include image and icon libraries that have been imported.
The most common occurrence is when a 3rd party library is upgraded via Nuget, it'll add new css, js, images, or other content files to disk (sometimes more than 100 new files in a single upgrade). But since I don't know they're there, after I deploy the upgrade via Devops, none of those new files will get deployed, which causes all sorts of obvious problems. Then I have to go back and open every folder and subfolder, manually locate the missing files, click "Include in Project" for each one, then re-deploy.
There has to be a better way.
I don't necessarily want to include all missing files, because there are some files--especially source control-related files--that should not be included in the projects and need to just be left on disk. So what I need is a way to see a list of all of the files that are on disk but not included in the projects, so I can choose which ones to include.
Also nice would be a warning by Nuget about new files being added, which is probably asking too much (even though this is a very obvious feature that Nuget should include without asking for it).
How do I see all of the “missing” files in a Visual Studio solution
that need to be included in the projects?
Usually, you can click the menu Show All Files from the solution explorer(Before that, you need to click on the specific item to see the hidden file). In this way, you should check every project and select which part to import based on your need.
So what I need is a way to see a list of all of the files that are on
disk but not included in the projects, so I can choose which ones to
include.
I am afraid that you cannot get what you want so far.
In VS IDE, there is no such function to obtain a list of all exclude files in your solution and then select which to import by default.
Also, there is no such vs extension to implement it.
So you should check every project and manually select the file to import by Show All Files Button.
Suggestion
If you still want this feature in VS IDE, you could suggest a feature on our User Voice Forum.
After that, you can share the link here with us and anyone who is interested in it including us will vote it to get more Microsoft's attention.
I am a Visual Studio noob. My background is more Unix-related and mostly used to building things via scons or make. I don't even have much Eclipse experience.
Anyway, I am frustrated how it seems very difficult to move files between projects in VS. (I am running Visual Studio 2013). For example, suppose I have a ProjectXRel (release) and I want a ProjectXDev (development). I want them both to be runnable, and the dev version might have just a few editing changes that differ it from the rel version.
The intuitive thought is to just copy the files from ProjectXRel to create ProjectXDev, but VS seems to fight me on that (it wants to rename all the namespaces to the title of the project).
Also, some of the files, like .cs files derived from .dbml via OR designer, seem uncopyable, and rely on one replicating the process of using the utility to having valid files. I'm used to a project being defined by its files, but that's not really the case in VS. Instead it seems defined by process steps used to create and organize the files.
Also, do serious developers just use command line calls and powershell? That's seems harder, but at least you know what the %#$$# is going on.....
So, the basic question is, how does one replicate an existing project to produce a similar one for development purposes? (I know source control such as git could help with that, but that's not an option for this situation.)
Thanks!
You should be using the same project for both Development and Release.
The things that are different between Development and Release should be stored in a config file (web.config or app.config, depending on what type of project).
You should then be using Configuration Transformations to transform that .config file into Development or Release.
In Visual Studio, right click on the project and click Add New Item, select "Application Configuration File".
In this file you can put connection strings or key/value pair settings in the AppSettings element (MSDN Link).
Once you have your basic settings defined, you can then right click on the config file and click Add Transformation. This will add transformations for each of the Project Configurations you have. (by default Debug and Release).
It will look like this:
Now you can build deployment packages.
Or install Slowchetah and then when you press F5 to debug it will run the selected project configuration with the configuration transformation applied.
(I no longer want an answer. OML, my English has surely improved...)
How to use assemblies in a VS solution under source control and keep assemblies updated?
(Source control is provided by the codeplex and VS default options for it.)
I mean,I have a project named HyperAero.
I have another project named TestAnimation.
TestAnimation is under source control and needs hyperaero.
When I check in,HyperAero.DLL will not be saved in server.Of course,I can add hyperaero.dll to my solution as a file but I want it to stay updated with my changes in HyperAero project automatically.
What should i do?
Answer (Got it myself):
command:
robocopy "E:\Documents\My VS\Fix soft HyperAero Form\Fix soft HyperAero\bin\Release" "E:\Documents\My VS\Fix soft Animation Maker\Test of Animation Maker\DLLs" "*.DLL"
set rce=%errorlevel%
if not %rce%==1 exit %rce% else exit 0
Similar Question (Remember that i want my assemblies to stay updated):
When using custom assemblies in a visual studio project. How does one check in those assemblies in source control with the project so that anyone can download the project and build right away.
There are two way to approach this:
1/ Don't put the assembly dependencies in source control and always include in your solution their Visual Studio project instead. In your case you'd have a solution with the Hyperaero project and TestAnimation project with a project dependency to the Hyperaero project.
This way you don't have to put the generated DLL in source control and keep it updated each time you change something in the code.
2/ If you really want to dissociate both projects, then I'll recommend you to use Nuget and build a Nuget package for the Hyperaero project and then reference the Nuget Package in you TestAnimation project. This approach is the cleanest one, but it may be overkill and at last it's not something you'll setup quickly (compared to 1/).
Put both projects in the same solution and add a project reference.
Use your source control's UI / command-line to add the DLL files.
What source control software do you use?
If you are using subversion:
ankhsvn (Visual Studio plugin) can handle multipe repositories in one solution.
I have the following structure.
- App1\
App1.sln
App1Forms\
App1Forms.csprj
- App2\
App2Dll\
App2Dll.csprj
Now If I open App1.sln and add App2Dll, which is outside the folder structure, as a project, the project gets linked as a relative path. I am fine, if I check out both sources to the same parent directory.
Ankh is aware of that and If I hit update both projects gets updated.
If I want to commit changes I am only allowed to commit to one repository at a time, but again, ankh informs me about that.
Another way is to use svn-externals http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.0/ch07s03.html
which will transparently include one repository inside another.
I'd like to use visual studio to store in source control xml files coming from a server.
I have a request like http://server/query.aspx?FILE_ID=1234 that allows me to download an xml file. Those file are part of our development activities, that's why I'm looking for a convenient way of integrating those file in source control.
I'd like to have a project containing all the xml files I want to check-in in source control and add a pre-build command allowing to download the files, but I did not find any convenient way of doing it.
People have a tendency to forgetting to do it manually, and we have already seen all the possible scenarios: lost files, released version without the ability to know the exact configuration used, ... I'd like to automated this step so that it does not happen again in the future.
I'm sure there is a simple and smart solution, but I could not find it. Any suggestion would be appreciated.
You should be able to use wget in a pre-build action to fetch the latest version of the files. I can't think of a reason why that wouldn't work.
Personally i would consider finding a way to automatically commit those files to source control whenever they change on the server. I've never used tfs, but I assume there is a commandline-client which allows you to commit files in a scripted way. If you don't have any control over when the files change you could do this every N minutes on a machine which is always on.
You can write a (powershell) script that does the fetching, and checkin of the file before your build starts. That's how we fetch external assemblies to be included in our build.
To get you started, take a look at these powershell functions for TFS interaction:
http://www.brokenwire.net/bw/Programming/73/ (TFS 2008)
I could use some advice.
I'm in the process of adopting subversion, and I'm trying to put some existing Visual Studio 2010 projects into a repository. I have the current version of AhnkSvn.
The projects I have are organised as;
VS2010_projects\Project_A
VS2010_projects\Project_B
VS2010_projects\Project_C
VS2010_projects\Common_code
Where Project_A, Project_B and Project_C may all refer to one or more files in "Common_Code"
In visual studio, these files will have been added using "add as link".
There is no actual project in "Common_code" just a collection of useful code files, which we're likely to re-use in different projects.
(If we have a module or class which is re-used in various projects, then we often keep a single master copy in 'common-code', and link to it.)
Visual Studio has no problem with this.
When I add any of the actual projects to subversion, all of their own files are added just fine, but the linked files are ignored.
(And as a consequence, if I then get a working copy of those files, then it's just the project files which get handled, I won't get a copy of the linked files.)
If I right click on any of the linked files, I the only subversion options I get are to refresh their status or to select the working folder.
I was wondering what the correct way to handle this situation was ?
Any advice would be much appreciated
Thanks !
Robert
if I understand your question correctly then I think SVN is acting in the desired way. A linked file is merely a reference to another file. That reference exists only in the .csproj file which is checked in. It would not make sense to have two copies of the same file in source control, and it could lead to versioning issues. The first time you checkout your repository doing a build on your projects should copy the files from Common_code to the places that they're linked.
As an aside we've had alot of random issues with .csproj linked files and SVN, and so try to avoid linked files where possible. A better way to re-use files across projects is obviously just to embed them in a library and then reference that library. This should work fine with the exception of certain files like Javascript/CSS.
Also you may want to check out SVN externals, a workmate mentioned this can be used to share common libraries between multiple projects, although as a disclaimer I haven't tried this myself and can't comment on the merits or drawbacks of the approach.
Thanks for the advice, I actually did something similar to your suggestion.
I didn't want to make a full blown library, but I did make up a dummy project, and put my shared files into that.
Then I added the dummy project to the repository.
AhnkSvn now seems to be satisfied that the linked files are under subversion control, and seems to handle them just fine.
(I haven't added any reference to the dummy project to my existing projects - they just use the linked files as before - but now AhnkSvn shows me their status, and allows me to get the latest version, and commit changes.)
I can see the case for having a proper library - but that would have meant modifying a large body of existing projects. This approach lets me get up and running with Subversion without requiring those changes first.