QVCS-Enterprise 2.1.21 bug fix update now available

I just uploaded a maintenance release for QVCS-Enterprise. It fixes several problems that have turned up since the 2.1.20.2 release described here. 

The one new feature in this release provides a rudimentary hilighting of the changes on a 'replacement' line in the built-in visual compare tool. I say rudimentary because the algorithm for finding the beginning and ending of the highlight region is as simple as it gets: it compares the two lines character by character and begins the highlighting at the first characters that differ. The end of the highlight region is determined in a similarly simple way -- it starts at the end of each respective replacement line and defines the end of the highlight region to be the last matching character of each respective line. The goal is to provide some simple visual queue so your eye is drawn to where on the replacement line the lines differ. It usually works in a useful way, but it's not bullet proof and seems to occasionally produce inaccurate highlighting.... but it's better than nothing.

On a separate note, I'm continuing to make slow progress on what I'm thinking will be either the 2.2 or 3.0 release of the Enterprise product. The end is still a number of months away -- as in, the end is not yet in sight.

QVCS-Enterprise 2.1.20.2 now available

Oops. I introduced a major defect (a.k.a. bug) in the 2.1.20 release that is now fixed in the 2.1.20.2 release. If you downloaded the 2.1.20 or 2.1.20.1 builds, you'll need to update to the 2.1.20.2 build in order to be able to define new projects. The downloads are available from the usual location. 

QVCS-Enterprise 2.1.20.1 now available

Oops. I forgot to make a change in an ant build script which means the 2.1.20 build does not include the new client API classes.... So there is now a 2.1.20.1 release that does include the client API classes (in the gui_out.jar jar file). You can download it from the usual www.qumasoft.com/downloads.html download page.

QVCS-Enterprise 2.1.20 Release now available

I just posted the 2.1.20 release. You can read more about the changes here. This is the first release to include support for a client API -- which allows you to write a Java program that can query the QVCS-Enterprise server for information about the projects and files that are version controlled by the server. The client API javadocs can be seen here. 

Another QVCS-Enterprise beta...

I just posted another beta (2.1.19.2). You can download it here. This build fixes some issues I found in 2.1.19.1 -- in particular in the SCC IDE integration .dll. I've now tested this IDE integration with Visual Studio 2003, 2005, 2008, and Altova's UModel product. Things are looking good for the 'official' release on February 28.

Just posted a beta for an upcoming QVCS-Enterprise release

I just posted a beta release (2.1.19.1). You can download it here. The beta is a preview of what will be in the 'official' 2.1.20 release which should be out at the end of February.

This is sort of a maintainance release -- though it includes one fairly major addition: support for a client API. The client API allows a vanilla Java client to access information from the QVCS-Enterprise server so that you can create your own application to display information about the files that are version controlled by the QVCS-Enterprise server. This first release of the client API is just a 'look don't touch' kind of API -- the user of the API can look at what's on the server, but they cannot make any changes to what's there.... so it's a read-only kind of interface.

The other 'feature' in this build is support in the SCC (SCC IDE integration) .dll for the 'get all' and 'get recursive' area of the Microsoft SCC spec.

All the other changes are bug fixes:

• Rework of the checkin dialog so it displays correctly in non-US locales.
• Fix the view revision feature so it works correctly for workfiles larger than 10 megabytes.
• Fix the SCC visual compare command line so it works correctly on Vista and XP machines.
• Fix an SCC thread exit issue.

The beta is pretty high quality -- I'm using it here, so feel free to give it a spin. The simplest way to do that is to shut down your server, then just replace your existing server_out.jar jar file with the server_out.jar jar file contained in the beta .zip file.... then just restart your server. Switching back to an earlier build works the same way -- just replace your server_out.jar with the one associated with the build that you want to use.

In the pipeline after the 2.1.20 release (barring some emergency release) will be the 2.2 (though I may rename it to 3.0) release. The 2.2 release will have much improved view/branch support. It's been in progress for a while, and I can't predict its release date. I'll definitely have a beta period for it, as it includes a lot of new code and functionality.

QVCS-Enterprise 2.1.18 Release now available

I just uploaded the bits for the 2.1.18 release of QVCS-Enterprise. Find out more here. 

Year-end QVCS-Enterprise release

I'll be publishing a year-end release of QVCS-Enterprise in a couple of days.

This release adds a several usability improvements:

• You'll be able to change the font size used in the client application (within reason).
• You'll be able to skip the login dialog. The paranoid should not use this option, since it stores your password on the client hard drive, but for many users, this will be a handy way to improve the startup experience.
• The client will now automatically 'naviagate' to the directory that was last selected when you exited the client application.

The current plan is to publish this 2.1.18 release on December 28.

QVCS-Enterprise 2.1.16 Release now available

I just posted the QVCS-Enterprise 2.1.16 release. Details are available here. 

Next QVCS-Enterprise release (2.1.16) coming soon...

The current plan is to publish the 2.1.16 QVCS-Enterprise release on September 28.

The main focus, as noted earlier, is improved ant support. I've gone ahead and added support for most other operations so that you'll be able to get, label, checkout, checkin, lock, and unlock files at the project level, the directory level, and the individual file level. You'll also be able to restrict the operations to only those files that match a given file extension. You won't be able to add any files to version control, nor will you be able to perform administrative operations -- like change a file's attributes, or modify a revision description, etc. But with these added operations, you should be able to script most of those kinds of things you need to do for automating your builds.

This build will also have some bug fixes, and some cosmetic usability improvements.

Work in progress for next QVCS-Enterprise release...

I'm wrapping up work on the next QVCS-Enterprise release. It will have a few fixes and a few new features. The bug fixes are for corner cases -- for example, the client application has a bug where it will show an enduring hour glass if a user who lacks the privilege attempts to set the attributes on a file.

On the feature front, the main focus in the upcoming release is improvements in the ant task, including support for checkins. Along the way, I added the ability to limit the operation to a single directory, or a single file. As a result, the ant task provides the ability to do most of the things you need to do... The only big thing missing is support for the checkout operation. I may go ahead and add that just to make things more coherent and complete.

This next release will also include a minor change in the SCC implementation that will make things easier for PowerBuilder users.

I don't have a prospective release date for this one yet, but it will be sooner rather than later -- my guess is it will be out before the end of September.

QVCS-Enterprise 2.1.14 Release now available

I just posted the 2.1.14 release. As noted before, the 'big' feature add in this release is integrated support for merge.

Merging is useful in the concurrent edits style of version control -- where you don't lock a file, but just begin to edit it, and assume that (usually) no one else will edit the same file at the same time. If someone else does happen to edit the file, the first one to check in their changes wins -- er, I mean, the first person to check in their changes won't have to bother with a merge.... but the 2nd (or subsequent) person to checkin their changes will have to merge their edits with those of the first user before QVCS-Enterprise will allow you to check in your changes.

I've tried to make it easy to use -- but suggestions for improvement are welcome.

This is a free update for users whose license is less than 1 year old. Others with older licenses will have to purchase a license update in order to use this release.

Enjoy.

Upcoming QVCS-Enterprise release

I'm putting the finishing touches on the next QVCS-Enterprise release. The 'big' feature is added support for merging files. The build includes a non-visual merge that will silently merge the two separate edit streams into a common ancestor file and a visual merge tool that gives you finer control of the merge. The latter visual merge tool must be used if there turn out to be any collisions between the respective edits. (A collision occurs if both decendent files try to alter the same line(s) of the common ancestor file).

The build also includes change bar indicators on the visual compare tool (and the visual merge tool). The change bar shows a quick summary of where the changes in a file are located, and is pretty common in visual compare and visual merge tools.

The release date is June 30 so I'll probably have time to put in a few other minor changes.

Merge and visual merge

I'm getting around to adding the file level merge feature to QVCS-Enterprise. The goal is to make it drop-dead easy to use -- which can be a challenge for merge, especially when there are collisions... and I guess that's one of the things that has led me to put it off.

In any case, I've decided to go ahead, and already have a non-visual merge working. The non-visual merge works silently in the case where there are no overlaps, and fails (as it is supposed to!) in the case where there are any overlaps. The idea is that a visual merge will be required in the case where there are overlaps. A merge will only be attempted on a file that has a status of 'Merge Required'.

No predictions yet on how long it will take to complete... The non-visual merge went faster than I thought it might. I expect the visual merge will take a while longer, if only because it will require some usability after I get things roughed in.

QVCS-Enterprise 2.1.12 now available

I just posted the 2.1.12 release of QVCS-Enterprise. This release cleans up a few bugs, and adds one nice little feature -- a 'Show in containing directory' menu option on the file context menu. When you have recursion enabled and have lots of files, it is sometimes difficult to see exactly where in the project directory hierarchy a given file might be located. With this new feature, all you have to do is select the file (with recursion enabled), then select the 'Show in containing directory' context menu, and the client will automatically navigate to the specific directory that contains the file... a nice little usability touch.

Details on the fixed bugs are available here. 

Enjoy.

QVCS-Enterprise 2.1.11 now available

I just posted the 2.1.11 release. You can download the bits here. 

Details on the changes in this release are here. 

UPDATE: Fix link typo.

QVCS-Enterprise 2.1.11 to be published on Nov. 30.

I'll be publishing a 2.1.11 QVCS-Enterprise release this Friday (November 30).

This is a mainly a 'bug fix' release to clean up some issues discovered in the 2.1.10 release:

• Fix problem with 'checked in before' and 'checked in after' file filters.
• In built-in visual compare tool, pay attention to the 'ignore case' setting.
• Fix bug that prevented the deletion of a project that only had the 'Trunk' view.
• Fix a null pointer exception that occurs when trying to apply or remove a label from a file in a project that has just the 'Trunk' view.
• In the IDE integration .dll, make sure to delete the workfile at checkin time if the 'delete workfile' QVCS attribute is enabled.

The one 'feature' change for this release:

• Add the module description to the beginning of the information displayed in the 'Revision and Label Info' pane.

It always happens with a new release...

Whenever I publish a new product release, I get bug reports that point out problems that have existed for a long time. I suppose this is partly due to the closer scrutiny that a new release gets as users test it to evaluate whether it's worth their time or not. In any case, there are 2 problems that the new 2.1.10 release of QVCS-Enterprise has brought to light:

• In the 'checked in before' and 'checked in after' file filters, things work fine immediately after defining a filter collection that uses either of these two filter types; but fails with a null pointer exception if you try to use that filter collection after restarting the client application.
• In the built-in visual compare tool, the 'ignore case' flag was always ignored... i.e. while you could request that the visual compare ignore case in the compare, it would never ignore case.

Both of these bugs are now fixed in the code base, and the fixes will appear in the next build.

QVCS-Enterprise 2.1.10 Release Available

I just posted the first 'official' QVCS-Enterprise 2.1 release. You can download it from here. 

It has just a few cleanup changes since the 2.1.9.4 Release Candidate:

• I finally got the code in to put up a busy indicator when you change the column sort order.
• Changed the sort order for the revision information shown for the Read-Only label based view so that the revision information is displayed (like the Read-Write label based view) so that the view's tip revision sorts to the top of the list of revision information. This change is more important in those cases where the view's tip is on a branch instead of the Trunk.

For those of you paying attention, this release has been under contruction for a long time. It represents a lot of work -- 1577 changes across 559 different files. The source and documentation for this release is composed of 1126 separate files.

Upgrading to this release is pretty simple: Just shutdown your server application, and replace your existing server_out.jar file with the one found in the new qvcse.zip file. Restart the server, and you should be good to go... clients will get updated 'automatically' as they login to the new server.

The server does have to generate some meta-data the first time it runs -- so this could make startup the first time slower than usual -- but after that meta-data has been created, startup performance should be similar to what you've seen in earlier releases.

QVCS-Enterprise 2.1.9.4 Release Candidate Available

I just posted the 2.1.9.4 build.... It's good enough to be a release candidate -- it has some fixes for upgrading from QVCS/QVCS-Pro archives, as well as some other bug fixes related to the new view support, etc. You can download it from here. 

I have some minor documentation changes that didn't make it into this build, but it is otherwise 'code complete' and in pretty good shape. Please give it a try.