on this product! Besides just documenting VSS, there is a fantastic overview of source control in general.Step 1. Configure Visual SourceSafe
Before anything else you'll need to have your local machine's Visual SourceSafe configured so that it points to the correct Visual SourceSafe database. The typical installation for Visual SourceSafe installs both the server and client components and that's what I'm basing this step on. If you installed Visual SourceSafe from the files on a VSS server (NETSETUP.EXE or something like that), you may have less steps to complete (it may have already done this stuff for you, for all I know).The first thing you have to do is strip your client's server identity. The API for Visual SourceSafe will not attempt to connect to a remote server by default unless it is configured to do so. Luckily the people who designed this program did not make any configuration utility so you get to do it by hand (yay!) by editing the
SRCSAFE.INI file in your Visual SourceSafe directory.
Open this file up and change the
Data_Path, Temp_Path, Users_Path, and Users_Txt to point to the correct places on your remote server using UNC paths. For example:
Data_Path = \\server\vssdatabase\data
Temp_Path = \\server\vssdatabase\temp
Users_Path = \\server\vssdatabase\users
Users_Txt = \\server\vssdatabase\users.txt
Technical Note: From reading the knowledge base docs (see References) there is at least one other way to configure VSS to connect to a remote server. What you do is point the "SSCServerPath" value in the registry (under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > SourceSafe") to the location of the "SSSCC.DLL" file on the server (using a UNC path). The API then realizes it's a remote server and accesses the "srcsafe.ini" in the parent directory of that path. Note that the "API Current Database" and "Current Database" values aren't consulted for this matter ... I've tried. I also wasn't able to test and verify this method because it requires direct access to the server on which the VSS database lives (and I didn't have that when writing this doc).
Step 2. Create Your Local Root
Copy the files in the Visual SourceSafe database to your local machine somewhere. You can do this through whatever file management software (Explorer) you want or use Visual SourceSafe: create a root folder somewhere, open Visual SourceSafe, connect to the server's database (should be able to by default), right click on the main project node in the database, select "Set Working Folder...", choose the folder you created, and lastly right-click and select "Get Latest Version" (make sure "recursive" and "build tree" options are checked).Step 2. Configure Internet Information Services (IIS)
Open up the properties for the Default Web Site. You can do this by right-clicking on it and selecting "Properties" from the context menu.
There are three things you now need to set here. First you need to set the home directory to the folder you put all of your web project files in (from the server's Visual SourceSafe database or shadow directory).
The second thing you need to do is select the "Server Extensions" tab. Here you will find a drop down for "Source control" which you should select "Use External..." from. If you do not see "Use External..." on the list then you haven't properly configured or installed Visual SourceSafe. After selecting this you will be prompted for a VSS path to specify the root project node.
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The last thing you need to do is enable Anonymous Access, Basic Authentication, and Integrated Windows authentication. These are check boxes that can be found by selecting the "Directory Security" tab and then clicking the "Edit..." button.
Step 3. Create a Web Project in InterDev
Open InterDev and create a new web project. Name it whatever you want. When prompted for the location of the web project, use your computer's name (since IIS should be running on it). Also select "Master Mode" and connect to the existing project "Root Web". After clicking "Finish" go grab something to drink because it sometimes takes a while to figure out which shoe is on which foot.
Step 4. Clean Up Mess
After the project is all opened up you are practically done. The first time you do all of these steps it will check out all the files under your name and yet won't let you edit them. If this happens open your VSS client and go to the project's root node and do an "Undo Checkout" with the "Recursive" option checked. After that you need to do a "Recalulate Links" in InterDev by right clicking the project node and selecting that option. That also takes a while so go grab yourself another cup of joe.
