Did v9 break connection w/ Perforce?

[chuck_aruba]

Managing to limp along using the add-on to allow Flare 8 to work internally with Perforce, I find out of the box that Flare 9 has an significant issue.

In Flare 8, when I open a topic file, make changes, and then save the file, the file is automatically checked out and then saved.

In Flare 9, when I open a topic file, make changes, and then save the file, I get an error message:

Failed to write file [pathname].

[Access to the path {pathname] is denied.]

The only information about source control in the What's New guide is some new options for the integrated source control functionality.

[ToddPh]

What happens if you run Flare 9 as administrator?

[chuck_aruba]

What happens if you run Flare 9 as administrator?

The same thing.

[ToddPh]

I really don't have anything to offer, I'm sorry to say. From bits and pieces in another discussion (http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... 68&t=16660) it sounds as though Madcap changed the way they integrate with source control. If that applies also to the way they connect through the API it may have broken the addon you're using to operate with Perforce. If it were me, I would check with whomever made the connector that lates you use Flare with POerforce and see if they are aware of the problem and have a fix.

[chuck_aruba]

Flare uses the SCC plug-in for Perforce available somewhere at http://www.perforce.com/downloads/complete_list. (I can't find it now, but I did when I installed Flare 8 last year.)

When you open the project in Flare 9, you still get asked if you want to open the connection to Perforce (as with v8--and you also get asked if you want to build the cache and get the most recent files). But Flare seems to no longer recognize that the files in the project are in source control. In fact, when you right-click on a file in the project and select Source Control, the Check In and Check out options, as well as most other source control options, are grayed out. The only option available is Add.

As I understand it, the SCC plug-in is a generic add-on that allows communication between development tools and Perforce for those tools that don't have integration built in. It (mostly) worked in v8, but it looks like it's pretty clear MadCap broke it somehow when it "improved" its built-in integration with other source control tools, and it's pretty clear that MadCap's QA doesn't include testing with Perforce as part of its testing suite, because this is a ridiculously easy catch.

[chuck_aruba]

I may have found a workaround.

I tried unbinding the project (in the Source Control tab of the Project Properties dialog box), then binding it again. This seems to make integration work again as it did before.

However, this seems to have the side effect of checking out the project file itself. A simple check in resolves this. And it looks like all the files in the project were added to Perforce, but in/from a different, folder names Temporary. Not sure what's going on here, but I am guessing that if I investigate further, I'll probably find I can safely delete these files if they do indeed exist in parallel with my actual project files.

Of course, you still can't allow Flare to build its cache, lest you risk locking up the entire program.

And I would like an answer from MadCap why this happened. The project "recognizes" that its bound to source control when it is opened, but then doesn't perform or allow source control functions without this workaround. We deserve to know: Was this tested? Was this found? Why was it released in this state?

[RamonS]

IAnd I would like an answer from MadCap why this happened. The project "recognizes" that its bound to source control when it is opened, but then doesn't perform or allow source control functions without this workaround. We deserve to know: Was this tested? Was this found? Why was it released in this state?

This is a peer to peer forum. Contact MadCap support to get an official answer.

[chuck_aruba]

IAnd I would like an answer from MadCap why this happened. The project "recognizes" that its bound to source control when it is opened, but then doesn't perform or allow source control functions without this workaround. We deserve to know: Was this tested? Was this found? Why was it released in this state?

This is a peer to peer forum. Contact MadCap support to get an official answer.

If MadCap personnel don't read and participate in these forums, they are not doing their job. Meanwhile, responses such as this clutter up the threads.

[chuck_aruba]

...and still more in the saga.

It's becoming pretty clear that MadCap QA didn't test this. These issues are right in front of your face.

Yes, you can unbind and rebind a project. But doing so does not lock (make read only) the local files.

Yes, you can now just save a topic file and Flare will first check it out and save it, but it takes significant;y longer than in v8, and during that time, a "Not Responding" message is added for a short time to the title bar of the Progress dialog box.

The messaging to Perforce and the perforce client that a file has been checked out takes quite a bit longer too.,

But here's the kicker: When you check a file in, you initially get the Progress dialog box, and then the error message "The method or operator is not implemented."

The final nail in the "We didn't test this" coffin.

As a side note, this is why we don't want to let programmers write error messages, or just let them bubble up messages from the framework.

It's clear that in "improving" Flare's integrated source control functionality, they broke the functionality that works with other source control systems. And this isn't a subtle, obscure issue. Perforce is not a little known, little used source control programs. It's one of the big players in the industry. That MadCap released the product without doing this testing is shameful.

[RamonS]

IAnd I would like an answer from MadCap why this happened. The project "recognizes" that its bound to source control when it is opened, but then doesn't perform or allow source control functions without this workaround. We deserve to know: Was this tested? Was this found? Why was it released in this state?

This is a peer to peer forum. Contact MadCap support to get an official answer.

If MadCap personnel don't read and participate in these forums, they are not doing their job. Meanwhile, responses such as this clutter up the threads.

Sorry, but in the page header is states "Peer-to-Peer Support". This is not a company support forum although support reps do check on posts and respond to posts once in a while. I can only repeat my advice to contact MadCap support directly.

[JasonSTI]

But here's the kicker: When you check a file in, you initially get the Progress dialog box, and then the error message "The method or operator is not implemented."

The final nail in the "We didn't test this" coffin.

As a side note, this is why we don't want to let programmers write error messages, or just let them bubble up messages from the framework.

I believe that this error is a generic .NET Framework error that Flare is passing (just based on Google results). This also leads me to believe it is the change from .NET Framework 3.5 to 4.0 in Flare 9 that is the underlying cause of this problem. We are having a similar problem with our source control software with 9, but it works fine in 8. They are both installed on the same workstation.

I will be contacting our source control provider to see if there is a better MSCC interface for .NET 4, but I'm sure they will tell me that it is how the program is passing the call to the framework that is the problem.

[Msquared]

I've reported several new Flare 9/Perforce errors to MadCap support.

Response "Perforce is not natively supported by Flare. I have been doing some research on this and found that there is an issue with perforce integration and Flare V9. Our development team is aware of this and are currently looking to address this in the update of V9. "

I'm also trying to persuade MadCap that

this isn't a subtle, obscure issue. Perforce is not a little known, little used source control programs. It's one of the big players in the industry.

in the hope that they will get themselves a Perforce test installation (which they haven't had up until now) and test and support Perforce properly. I know some other people are trying to do this too. Let's see what happens.