Integration with Microsoft VSS

Use

BUGtrack’s integration with Microsoft Visual Source Safe includes the following actions:

1. When a user checks in a file in VSS, he or she adds a comment containing the number of the related bug at the very beginning of the comment or elsewhere in the text preceded with the pound sign. For instance, a user begins his or her comment with ‘123456’ string or includes ‘#123456’ in any other part of the text to show that the check-in is related to bug number 123456.

2. A task scheduled in the VSS server operating system runs periodically, say, every 10 minutes, checking the VSS log file for new check-ins and updates relevant records in BUGtrack for log records with valid bug IDs.

3. When users access these records in BUGtrack, they can see a separate Checkins section in each record with hyperlinks to each check-in. Clicking a link starts a locally installed VSS protocol handler and, if a user has access to the VSS database on his or her PC, VSS files version comparison view opens for the relevant file and version, so a user can see the differences.

Procedure – VSS server

Your VSS server must be configured in order to properly update your BUGtrack database.

Step one. In VSS Admin Console menu, go to Tools and select Options. In the log file field, specify the file ‘journal.txt’ with the path of the VSS Database directory. The system will then log all check-ins in this file.

Step two. Download the VSSupdate.zip file, extract and save ‘VSSupdate.wsf’ script file on the VSS server.

Step three. Open the saved script file for editing and:

• Set the License variable’s value to equal your BUGtrack license number.

• Set the JournalDir variable to equal the path of the journal.txt file you have specified in the VSS admin console settings in Step one above.

• In the Projects array variable’s value, list only those VSS projects in which you want the script to search for check-ins. By default, the script searches for check-ins in all of your VSS projects, and limiting the scope will speed up processing.

Step four. Use Windows scheduler to schedule a task for the adjusted VSSupdate.wsf file to run periodically, say, every 10 or 20 minutes. The task should be scheduled on behalf of a user who has the authorization to delete and rename files in the VSS database directory.

Procedure – Client

Every client machine on which users are supposed to view check-ins using hyperlinks in BUGtrack records should have VSS client and protocol handler installed, and the users should be authorized to access your VSS database.

Step one. Download the VSSViewer.exe file and save it locally.

Step two. Register the file using the command prompt (run VSSViewer.exe /register).

Step three. In some cases, depending on your Visual Studio installation, you might get errors when trying to view version differences using BUGtrack links to check-ins. In this case download the DiffMergeCtl.ocx file and save it in the same directory as the ssus.dll file (usually, \VSS\WIN32) and register it using RegSvr32.exe in the command prompt.

Next: CVS integration