Hey guys,

>>1) How can each of us refresh our projects to get the new files that other developers have created? (I know we can get latest from source safe and then add them manually into the project, but maybe there's an automatic way).
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>AFAIK, there is no automatic way to do this.
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>The main difficulty I encountered was with new files - it seems they have to be added manually by each programmer. I do hope somebody can correct me, and point out the correct way to do this. But I didn't figure it out.

What about Project | Source Control... | Update Project List? This will reconcile your local PJM file (VSS's version of the project file, text-based) with what is up on VSS. So, you will see this a lot:

- Another developer adds a new file. He/She checks in the new file. Yells over the cubicle to grab the latest.
- You grab the latest by updating the project list and getting latest on all files. You do not see the new file.
- Developer 1 smacks his/her head because he/she forgot to update project list on his/her machine (which is necessary for you to seee the new stuff...the command is a two-way street). Developer 1 updates project list.
- You update your project list again and now see the new file.

In other words, Update Project List needs to be used profusely to send up new files and then bring them down again. Update Project List updates the PJM, as I said, and then displays a Get Latest Version screen where you can grab all the newly listed files.

Same goes for removing files...until someone removes it locally and then Updates Project List, it will still be up there. Even if it gets gone, if someone else (who still has that file) updates project list, viola, it will re-appear. You really need to have good communication amongst everyone to know when everyone needs to do a refresh and get a consistent snapshot of the project.

>>2) What is the best setup when creating an executable to put into production?
>>I have tought of maybe having a spare machine to compile. Basically all the developers check in their changes. Go to the spare computer, open the project and get latest files (if need to add new files manually then do that, related to question 1) create the executable and create a "label" on source safe to freeze the code for that version.

Yes, this works well, especially if you use shadow folders in VSS (sometimes they work well for people, other times they can cause problems with incomplete or inconsistent code.). Shadow Folders are a mirrored folder anywhere on the network that shows the latest version of all files. Once everyone has checked everything in, that folder can be used to build from and test, deploy, etc.

Then labelling the code in VSS is a good idea.

>One option is to have one programmer responsible for compilation. You can also have a special folder for this purpose - I don't think you need a spare machine for this purpose. VSS has options specifically for this, but I don't have it here now. Nor do I know whether this will offer you any advantages over just compiling, say, on your machine.

The advantage of having a single build area is that you are at least getting consistent builds then. At my last job we had code flying everywhere, all different versions. A client would call and I would do a build with a fix and e-mail it to them. They would call the next day with a new problem and someone else would build locally on their machine and send and the old problem would reappear. Running everything through VSS and building on one machine accures that the build environment remains consistent and that the source files are good to go.

Hope this helps!

JoeK