Visual SourceSafe automation to get shared references

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Summary

This paper would provide a small code snippet which will report all the files from VSS (Visual SourceSafe 6.0) with shared reference instances. It will be useful for migrating files from VSS to TFS.

Target Audience

This paper is targeted at software developers with VB.NET and Visual SourceSafe 6.0 skills.

Introduction

VSS is one of the key Microsoft products as a source code repository. Though the later versions (Team Foundation Server) introduced on long back, still plenty of source codes exist in VSS. Organizations are trying to migrate these codes to TFS.

There are some core differences between VSS and TFS and one of them is shared references. VSS allows files that can be shared across different folders/hierarchies. Through this, a file can be shared between multiple folders/sub projects. So any changes to a file can be reflected to all the references.

But TFS does not allow direct shared (linked) references. Instead it suggests for a branching mechanism. In branching, each instance of the file will be moved to individual projects/folders. In order to move with branching for VSS codes, the old shared reference files in VSS needs to be identified and altered. So if a project contains multiple shared files with n number of references, it will be hard to keep track of all the shared references. However, VSS provides an automation mechanism through which the developer can identify all the shared references and plan for a better migration.

Code snippet to find out all the shared instances in VSS

The following code snippet is written in VB.NET and the targeted framework is .NET 2.0. It requires an interop library. The code uses Excel Interop for reporting purposes.

'Interop Libraries to be included:
Imports SourceSafeTypeLib
Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel
'Interop Libraries to be included
Public Class frm_vss_files

    Private Sub cmd_getdata_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles cmd_getdata.Click

        'inputs
        _vss_ini_path = txt_ini_path.Text (LIKE “C:\VSS CODE$\SRCSAFE.INI”)
        _input_path = txt_root_path.Text (LIKE “$/ROOT/ABC”)
        _uid = txt_uid.Text              (user name)
        _pwd = txt_pwd.Text              (password)
        _chk_linked_files = chk_get_linked_files.Checked      (Flag to identify shared files)

        _i_xl_rw_err = 2

        'VSS automation call
        obj_vss_db.Open(_vss_ini_path, _uid, _pwd)
        obj_vss_db.CurrentProject = _input_path

        Try
            obj_root = obj_vss_db.VSSItem(_input_path & "/", False)
        Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox("SourceSafe DB access error!" + vbCrLf + ex.Message)
        End Try

        obj_excel.Visible = True

        oWB = obj_excel.Workbooks.Add

        oWB.Sheets(1).Cells(1, COL_FILE_NAME).Value = "File "
        oWB.Sheets(1).Cells(1, COL_FOLDER_NAME).Value = "Folder"
        oWB.Sheets(1).Cells(1, COL_VSS_PATH).Value = "VSS PATH"
        oWB.Sheets(1).Cells(1, COL_SHARED).Value = "SHARED"
        oWB.Sheets(1).Cells(1, COL_LINKS).Value = "Shared Paths"

        oWB.Sheets(2).Cells(1, COL_ERR_FILE_NAME) = "File"
        oWB.Sheets(2).Cells(1, COL_ERR_FOLDER_NAME) = "Folder"
        oWB.Sheets(2).Cells(1, COL_ERR_VSS_PATH) = "VSS PATH"
        oWB.Sheets(2).Cells(1, COL_ERR_LINKED_PATH) = "SHARED FILE PATH"
        oWB.Sheets(2).Cells(1, COL_ERR_DESC) = "ERROR DESC"
        oWB.Sheets(2).Name = "Error Details"

        oWS = oWB.Worksheets(1)
        _i_xl_rw = 2

        Call get_sub_items(obj_root)

        MsgBox("Completed successfully!", vbInformation, "")

    End Sub


    '---------------- INPUT PARAMETERS ----------------       
    'VSS related declarations
    Private obj_vss_db As New VSSDatabase
    Private obj_root As VSSItem

    Private _vss_ini_path As String
    Private _input_path As String
    Private _uid As String
    Private _pwd As String
    Private _chk_linked_files As Boolean = False
    '---------------- INPUT PARAMETERS ENDS ----------------         

    'Excel related declarations are used only for reporting/displaying purpose.
    'The developers can ignore or change for any other reporting format like txt, csv etc,
    Private obj_excel As New Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application
    Private ows As New Worksheet
    Private owb As Workbook

    Private _i_xl_rw As Integer
    Private _i_xl_rw_err As Integer

    Const COL_FILE_NAME = 1
    Const COL_FOLDER_NAME = 2
    Const COL_VSS_PATH = 3
    Const COL_SHARED = 4
    Const COL_LINKS = 5
    Const COL_ERR_FILE_NAME = 1
    Const COL_ERR_FOLDER_NAME = 2
    Const COL_ERR_VSS_PATH = 3
    Const COL_ERR_LINKED_PATH = 4
    Const COL_ERR_DESC = 5

    Sub get_sub_items(root_item As VSSItem)

        Dim ProjectItem As VSSItem
        Dim strLinkList As String = ""        
        Dim sShared As Boolean

        If root_item.Type = VSSItemType.VSSITEM_PROJECT Then

            For Each ProjectItem In root_item.Items
                Call get_sub_items(ProjectItem)
            Next
        Else
            If root_item.Type = VSSItemType.VSSITEM_FILE Then

                Dim objVSSLinkItem As VSSItem
                Dim LinkCount As Integer

                strLinkList = ""
                LinkCount = 0
                sShared = False

                If _chk_linked_files = True Then
                    For Each objVSSLinkItem In root_item.Links
                        LinkCount = LinkCount + 1
                        If LinkCount = 2 Then sShared = True
                        On Error Resume Next

                        strLinkList = strLinkList + objVSSLinkItem.Parent.Spec + vbCrLf

                       If Err.Number = -2147166577 Then
                           owb.Sheets(2).Cells(_i_xl_rw_err, COL_ERR_FILE_NAME) = root_item.Name
                           owb.Sheets(2).Cells(_i_xl_rw_err, COL_ERR_FOLDER_NAME) = root_item.Parent.Name
                           owb.Sheets(2).Cells(_i_xl_rw_err, COL_ERR_VSS_PATH) = root_item.Spec
                           owb.Sheets(2).Cells(_i_xl_rw_err, COL_ERR_LINKED_PATH) = objVSSLinkItem.Spec
                           owb.Sheets(2).Cells(_i_xl_rw_err, COL_ERR_DESC) = Err.Description
                           _i_xl_rw_err = _i_xl_rw_err + 1
                        End If
                    Next
                End If
            End If

            On Error Resume Next

            ows.Cells(_i_xl_rw, COL_FILE_NAME).Value = root_item.Name
            ows.Cells(_i_xl_rw, COL_FOLDER_NAME).Value = root_item.Parent.Spec
            ows.Cells(_i_xl_rw, COL_VSS_PATH).Value = root_item.Spec

            If sShared = True Then
                ows.Cells(_i_xl_rw, COL_SHARED).Value = "SHARED"
                ows.Cells(_i_xl_rw, COL_LINKS).Value = strLinkList
            End If
            _i_xl_rw = _i_xl_rw + 1
        End If
    End Sub
End Class

Conclusion

This paper is intended to provide a basic automation call for VSS objects to get shared references. Through these automation calls, developers can save time and increase productivity.