Plastic SCM 4.1.10.372 Release is out!!

Monday, November 26, 2012 Amalia 0 Comments

A new week, a new release: this time we're announcing 4.1.10.372 (Build 372 as we name it internally). It is a new release of the 4.1 version, including a big number of bug fixes and new features!!

While you can read the detailed release notes, this blogpost will highlight the most relevant features and bugfixes.

Remember you can find the latest installer here

Features

Visual Studio Package: Create a Visual Studio toolbar

Now the Visual Studio plugin includes Toolbar showing the most common views available in Plastic SCM GUI: Pending changes under solution, Branches, Branch Explorer, Labels, Changesets, Repositories,Synchronization, Workspace explorer, and Pending changes in the workspace., Repositories,Synchronization, Workspace explorer, Pending changes in the workspace.

By clicking on these buttons the corresponding Plastic SCM view will appear, the same behavior as clicking on View -> Plastic SCM menu.

Visual Studio Toolbar

In addition to that, shortcuts have been added to open these views:

• Pending changes view -> Alt+Shift+P
• Branches view -> Alt+Shift+B
• Branch Explorer view -> Alt+Shift+E
• Labels view -> Alt+Shift+L
• Changesets view -> Alt+Shift+C
• Repositories view -> Alt+Shift+R
• Synchronization view -> Alt+Shift+S
• Workspace Explorer view -> Alt+Shift+I (Items)
• Pending changes on workspace view -> Alt+Shift+W (Workspace)

Notes:

• From VS2005 to VS2008, toolbar can float, but in VS2010 and VS2012 toolbar appear docked in the main toolbar section.
• The first time that the plugin is loaded (open a project in Visual Studio) after Plastic SCM installation the toolbar will appear automatically, so that users will notice it. Then you can dock it somewhere or hide it.
• You can customize the toolbar to show only the buttons that you prefer, as usual with other toolbars.

Thanks all for suggest this new feature in Plastic SCM user voice. Enjoy it!

Bugs

Diff View

The Diff View was suddenly closed issuing the following commands: --showbranch=full_branch_spec --showchangeset=full_changeset_spec

Show changeset example, “Show Diff View of changeset number 7”

'plastic.exe -- changeset =cs:7@tools@localhost:8087

After you enter the command, the below figure will show up:

Diff View of changesets

Show changeset example, “Show Diff View of branch SCM001”

'plastic.exe -showbranch=br:/main/SCM001@tools@localhost:8087'

Diff View of branch SCM001

GUI: increase the progress dialog size

GUI: Update progress dialog size increased to avoid cut texts.

Eclipse plugin

Eclipse plugin: localization issue in the changesets view fixed.

Web UI (beta version): empty branches and changesets view

On the web client, the Branches View and the Changesets View were not showing information due to the regional settings. Fixed!

Web UI(beta version): show information with special characters

On the web client the Charts didn't show because the repository name contained some speciall characters. Fixed.

Remind Plastic SCM Web UI is a beta version. In Plastic SCM forum, brave testers share their experience with us: Web UI client set up problems. Thanks all

Enjoy it!!

Migrate database backend

Thursday, November 22, 2012 Ma Nu migration 0 Comments

As you may know Plastic SCM is deployed with a nice SqlServer CE backend. Although it performs great, it has a database size limitation, you can't have a database file bigger than 4GB.

So, what can you do when you reach the size limit or you simply want to go into production with a faster backend? Easy, migrate the repositories to a different database engine.

Plastic SCM is flexible and it supports a great number of database engines.

• Firebird
• SQLite
• PostgreSQL
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Microsoft SQL Server CE
• MySQL
• Oracle

Some of them are embedded systems which means that you don't need anything external to start working with them. Firebird, SQLite and MS SQL Server CE belong to this group.

On the other hand, you will need to install external software to use PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server, MySQL or Oracle. This group performs better in a high demand environment.

Admin tool

You will be able to find the Admin tool inside the Plastic SCM server components .

Admin tool

This tool will allow us to migrate all the repositories from one database system to a new one in a few clicks. In this example we will migrate "Microsoft SQL Server CE" repositories into a MySQL instance, which is also free.

We'll open the Admin tool and we'll click in the "Database" section, as you might see there're two options, click in "Migrate database backend" button to start the process.

Database section

As you can see in the figure below all the supported backends are available except the one you are already using, as I said before, we will choose MySQL.

MySQL as the new backend

MySQL needs some extra parameters, like the server address, the DB user name and finally the password. The "Start migration" button will remain disabled until the information provided is verified by the "Test connection" check. Optionally you can specify a database suffix, prefix and a custom database path in order to store the database files.

MySQL custom information

Note: If the target database system already contains Plastic SCM databases you will need to specify a prefix or suffix. Otherwise the process will not continue.

Now, all we have to do is wait until the process ends. The repositories are going to be migrated into the new database backend one by one.

Repositories conversion

Once the process is finished you will notice that you have a brand new db.conf , automatically created and working with the destination database engine, if you start the Plastic SCM server service everything will be working with your new backend.

New db.conf working with MySQL

Migrating repositories is a hard task made easy by the Admin tool.

Manuel Lucio

I'm in charge of the Customer Support area.
I deal with complex setups, policies and working methodologies on a daily basis.
Prior to taking full responsibility of support, I worked as software engineer. I have been in charge of load testing for quite some time, so if you want to know how well Plastic compares to SVN or P4 under a really heavy load, I'm your guy.
I like to play with Arduino GPS devices, mountain biking and playing tennis.
You can find me hooked to my iPhone, skate-boarding or learning Korean... and also here @mrcatacroquer.

Plastic SCM Release 4.1.10.369 is out!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012 Amalia 0 Comments

Plastic SCM team is glad to announce that the Plastic SCM External Release 4.1.10.369 is available.

This post documents all feature enhancements and bug fixes included in the Plastic SCM 4.1.10.369 update.

Check out what’s new and known issues for this version in our release notes. You can download the last version on plasticsc.com

Bugs

Findchanged Command

If you issued a "cm fc" conmmand and you had locally remove items in the workspace you got a null reference error. Fixed: the list of changed files in the workspace is displayed.

The Preferences Window: Comments

The preferences window has an option to set up comments. The numeric updown control did not fit correctly when the Windows Classic theme or High Contrast theme family were selected. Fixed!

DiffControl lost the vertical synchronization

On the DiffControl, the search lost the vertical synchronization between textboxes. Now it was fixed, the scrolls are updated correctly after finding a text in the textbox.

Plastic SCM Documentation

We supply documentation for the latest version and previous versions of Plastic SCM, in both online and offline (downloadable) form. This page provides links to all our documentation. The following online guides has been updated:

Admin Guide

Active Directory Integrated Security (Chapter3): Active Directory authentication can be used in single- or multi-domain environments.

Enjoy it !!

Change merge preferences when a merge is in progress

Tuesday, November 13, 2012 Ma Nu merging 0 Comments

It's Friday, 5:45 pm.

You are almost ready to get out from work and start the weekend, your last week task involves the merge of two pals branches and leave the integration tests running all over the weekend, no big deal.

You start with the first branch, the merge tool finds over 150 "Changes only in source contributor" merge candidates, easy so far. Your friends just sent you a message, they've arrived to the bar.

The first merge is committed, let's jump to integrate the last branch, you find that the merge detects more than one hundred "Changes in both contributors" merges candidates. More than 100 manual resolution conflicts!!?? In less than 10 minutes!!?? What the hell your pal was working on!!?? He didn't mention rocket science in the scrum meeting!! Good bye weekend.

Keep calm.

You start the merge, first file with manual resolution:

Manuel Lucio

I'm in charge of the Customer Support area.
I deal with complex setups, policies and working methodologies on a daily basis.
Prior to taking full responsibility of support, I worked as software engineer. I have been in charge of load testing for quite some time, so if you want to know how well Plastic compares to SVN or P4 under a really heavy load, I'm your guy.
I like to play with Arduino GPS devices, mountain biking and playing tennis.
You can find me hooked to my iPhone, skate-boarding or learning Korean... and also here @mrcatacroquer.

Plastic SCM Release 4.1.10.366 is out!

Monday, November 12, 2012 Amalia news 0 Comments

A new week, a new release: this time we're annoncing 4.1.10.366!. It is a new release of the 4.1 version, including a number of bug fixes and new features!!

While you can read the detailed release notes,this blogpost will highlight the most relevant features and bugfixes.

Remember you can find the latest installer here

Features

Annotate View

The Annotate view displays the complete contents of a revision, with annotations automatically displayed for each text line.

Until now, the annotate view can be opened only from the Items view. Annotate view available from the History view and the Repository browser view.

It was not possible to annotate a locally deleted item; the item was not found. Now,this case is supported

Message in the Installation process

Installer: Removed the "migration from version 3 to 4" message, as it is not useful anymore.

Bugs

The update merge operation

The update merge operation was updating wrongly the revisions of the xlinked repositories. This scenario led to weird results when trying a merge operation (with changes inside these xlinked repositories) afterwards. Fixed!

The Items View Mode

The items view mode (list, tree) was changed in an items view instance: if you changed the items view mode A in other items view B instance and then refreshed A. Fixed.

Wrong conflicts protection when renaming items

Now, the merge process, on a case-insensitive filesystem, supports case-rename operations (when the name is changed only from lower-case to upper-case or vice versa). Great!

Replica Progress Dialog

Replica progress dialog aesthetic issue regarding a cut label fixed.

Plastic SCM Documentation

We supply documentation for the latest version and previous versions of Plastic SCM, in both online and offline (downloadable) form. This page provides links to all our documentation.

The following online guides has been updated:

Admin Guide

• Configuring Exclusive Checkout (lock) (Chapter 6)
• Server configuration wizard allows you to go through a database configuration wizard. (Chapter 3)

Xlinks Guide

• Creating an Xlink in the GUI client (Chapter 2)

GUI Guide

• The Diff View: The “Clean Differences” button (Chapter 14)

Enjoy it!!

Plastic SCM Release 4.1.10.364 is out!

Monday, November 05, 2012 Amalia news 0 Comments

Plastic SCM 4.1.10.364 has been released
The features of each Plastic SCM release, up to and including the latest version, can be found in the release notes page.
As you know we're releasing a new version weekly (in fact we produce new versions on a daily basis). The last one we made public includes a few bug fixes you might be interested in:

Features

Pending changes with merge info

The "pending changes" view adds more information about the merges in progress. Each file in Pending Changes coming from a merge is decorated with merge source information.

For instance, if a file "/src/foo.txt" is added on branch "main/task001" and later "main/task001 merged to main", the info in the pending changes view will be:

/src/foo.txt - Copied / Merged from 2

Where "2" is the number of source changeset.

This way, when you have several merges in progress, it is possible to know which files come from which merge.

Let's remember, the column status on a Merge can have the following values:

• Replaced: means that a file was modified on the branch and, during merge, it simply replaces the old one being loaded on destination (there's no merge as such)
• Copied: means that the file was added on the branch, so it is just "copied" into the destination.
• Checked-out: when a file is checkedout and it comes from a merge, it means it has been merged (it was modified in parallel on both source and destination)

"Go to line” feature

Implemented a go to line (Shortcut: Ctrl+G) in the textbox, so that users can scroll directly to a certain line when working with Differences, Mergetool and Annotate.

This feature is only available from the textbox with numbered lines, and it works the same way as it works in Visual Studio or Notepad.

Let’s see an example:

User opens the Diff with previous view, for a certain item. Then he selects the textbox to search in: left one (parent revision) or right one (current revision). Now, right click and select "Go to line..." action or select the short cut “Crtl-G”. A windows dialog will show like in the following figure:

Let’s type a number between 1 and the total number of lines of the revision. Otherwise a warning message will show:

Now, you are going to click “OK” or press “Enter”. The textbox is automatically scrolled up or down to the desired line and the text is selected.

Bugs

Review comments

There may be review comments or attribute realizations that are lost during the replication process, on some special bidirectional replications or replications that involve more than two repositories. Fixed!!

Merge-to: duplicated child with a moved on source

MergeTo can't use the TreeOperations because it doesn't support the changed nodes. If we used changed nodes we can have multiple nodes for the same item and we need to preserve multiple changes on the same item. So, the mergeTo issue "Can't add an entry with the same name." was related with multiple changes on the same item. Now, it has been fixed.

Undo change

The operation undo changes failed on a locally changed item or locally moved item:

• With less than 100% of similarity
• It's locked

Now, it's fixed.

Exclusive Checkout

Now the locked items inside a deleted item are properly released. Fixed!

Undo changed dialog before merge not refreshing

During merge, if the option "Find changed files in workspace before merge" is set, and there are changed files in the workspace, a dialog shows up warning about the situation. Now the dialog is properly refreshed if a subset of changes is undone.

Enjoy it!!