Chapter 4
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET

This screen illustrations in this chapter shows Visual C++, but the same dialogs are displayed regardless of which Visual Studio IDE you use.

Configuring Visual Studio .NET with Perforce

When you create a project you intend to manage with Perforce, specify a location that resides within the root folder of the workspace you intend to use as illustrated in the following figure.

Basic SCM tasks

• "Adding a project to the depot" on page 36.

• "Checking files out" on page 38

• "Retrieving files from the depot" on page 39

• "Checking files in" on page 40

• "Resolving file conflicts" on page 40

• "Diffing files" on page 41

• "Reverting files" on page 42

• "Miscellaneous tasks" on page 42

Adding a project to the depot

If you are adding a solution that contains a large number of projects, you can avoid specifying settings manually for every project by choosing the Options > Connection tab setting Bind to the workspace that matches your Perforce environment settings and setting P4CLIENT and P4PORT to the desired server and workspace.

To add a Visual Studio .NET project to your depot, perform the following steps:

1. In the Solution Explorer, right-click the project and choose Source Control>Add Solution to Source Control. If you enabled the Show the Perforce Connections option on the Preferences > Connection tab, the Open Connection dialog is displayed, as shown in the following figure.

   

2. On the Open Connection dialog, enter the required settings as follows:
   • Server: the name of the host computer running the Perforce server in which you want to store the project.

   • Port: the port number on which the specified Perforce Server accepts commands.

   • User: the Perforce user name you want associated with the SCM operations you perform on the project. To choose from a list of users defined for the specified server, click Browse.

   • Password: the user's password, if any.

   • Workspace: the Perforce workspace associated with the SCM operations you perform on the project. You must save the project in a folder under the workspace root. To choose from a list of workspaces defined for the specified server, click Browse...

3. Click OK to dismiss the dialog.

4. In the Solution Explorer, right-click the solution and choose Check In.

5. The Submit Changelist dialog, listing files, is displayed.

6. Enter a description in the description field and click Submit. Your files are added to the depot. (Using Perforce, you can verify that the default changelist has been submitted and the files are now in the depot.)

Checking files out

1. In the Solution Explorer pane, right-click the desired file (or the project, if you want to check out all its files) and choose Check Out... The Check Out dialog is displayed.

2. Click OK. In the Solution Explorer pane, files are displayed with a check mark, as shown in the following figure.

If you branch a project using Perforce, the Visual Studio bindings must be corrected to correspond to the project's new location. To correct bindings for a branched solution, you must perform the following steps the first time you check out the branched project.

To check out a newly-branched project (first time only):

1. Choose File> Source Control > Open from Source Control.... The Open Connection dialog is displayed.

2. Specify connection settings for the server that contains the project you want to check out and click OK. The Open Project dialog is displayed.

3. Browse to the branched project you want to open and double-click its .sln file.

4. If the newly-branched files are present in your workspace, Visual Studio displays the following dialog:

5. Click Overwrite. Visual Studio displays the Open Solution dialog.

6. Double-click the .sln file. Visual Studio displays the following dialog.

7. Click OK.

Retrieving files from the depot

To retrieve revisions prior to the head (latest) revision, you can sync from the Revision History dialog or perform the following steps:

1. In the Solution Explorer pane, click the file.

2. Choose File > Source Control > History. The History dialog is displayed, listing the revisions in the depot.

3. Right-click the desired revision and choose Get Revision.

   Note	If you retrieve a file that you already have checked out, for example, to obtain changes checked in by another user, Perforce requires you to resolve the file, to ensure that you don't inadvertently overwrite other users' changes.

1. Choose File > Source Control > Open from Source Control... The Open Connection dialog is displayed.

2. Enter the settings that specify the server where the project is stored and the client workspace and user with which you want to check the project files out, and click OK. The Perforce Open Project dialog is displayed.

3. Browse to the .sln file for the project you want to sync and click OK. The project files are synced to your workspace.

Checking files in

To check in files, perform the following steps:

1. In the Solution Explorer pane, right-click the file and choose Check In Now. The Submit Changelist dialog is displayed.

2. Enter a description of your changes and click Submit.

To view all your pending changelists, click the Manage Changelists button on the Submit Changelist form. P4SCC displays a dialog listing your pending changelists. In this dialog, you can move files among changelists by dragging and dropping them.

Resolving file conflicts

To resolve file conflicts:

1. Right-click the file that has conflicts and choose Get Latest Revision.

   The file is now scheduled for resolve, indicated by the message "Resolve this file before submitting."

2. Right-click the file and choose Resolve Files... The resolve dialog is displayed, describing the extent of the file differences and listing the following options:
   • Accept Merge: merge both files and accept the result, including both the changes you made and the changes made by other users.
   • Accept Yours: check your changes in, overwriting the most recently checked-in version.
   • Accept Theirs: discard your changes and preserve the other user's changes.
   • Run Merge Tool: launch the merge utility so you can view the differences between your version and the most recently checked-in version. Using the merge utility, you can select individual passages or enter new changes to create the final version that you check in.
   • Other choices: you can view either file (Open File...), diff your file with the conflicting file, display the file's revision history either textually or graphically. After you choose how the files are resolved, the Submit Changelist dialog is redisplayed.

3. Enter a description of your changes and click Submit. Your changes are checked in.

Diffing files

To diff two revisions of a file, perform the following steps:

1. In the Solution Explorer pane, right-click the file and choose File > History. The History dialog is displayed, listing the revisions in the depot.

2. To diff two revisions drag one revision to the other.

Reverting files

1. In the Solution Explorer pane, right-click the file and choose Undo Check Out... The Undo Check Out dialog is displayed, listing the files to be reverted.

2. Check the files you want to revert and click Undo Checkout.

You can also revert unchanged files from the Pending Changelist dialog.

Which files do I put in the depot?

Put .sln files in the depot. Do not put the following files in the depot. .

• .idb

• .ncb

• .obj

• .opt

• .pch

• .plg

Miscellaneous tasks