10.5 Source control with Visual SourceSafe

10.5.3 Using the editor's source control interface

The first time you choose one of the SourceSafe menu items, the editor prompts you for the name of the SourceSafe database, as shown in Figure 10.3.

Figure 10.3 The Select Database dialog.

Your site's Visual SourceSafe administrator supplies the name of your SourceSafe database. (The Functional Developer interface offers the name of the last database used in the Visual SourceSafe explorer as the default.)

The editor then requests the identity of the file (or files) to be manipulated by a source control operation, as shown in Figure 10.4.

Figure 10.4 The Select Project and File dialog.

SourceSafe organizes its database into a hierarchical collection of projects. Each project can hold both files and projects (in other words, subprojects). The project named $/ refers to the root of the SourceSafe database. In Figure 10.4 the developer has selected a project three levels below the root.

When using Visual SourceSafe, you may omit the file name in all operations (except for SourceSafe > Add to Source Control... and Remove from Source Control...) to cause the operation to be performed on all files in the project. For instance, to check out all the files in a project, leave the File field empty in the Select Project and File dialog.

The Reason field is provided mainly as a convenience. Not all operations prompt you for a Reason; in such cases the dialog only asks for the project and file names. When a Reason is requested, it is optional and may be left blank.