MadCap Software Forums

Hi,

I have integrated VSS and Flare Project. By default, when i checkin the project file, entire project structure gets checked in.
My questions are as per below observations:

1. What do i do, if i have multiple users working on different topics in the same project?

In total there are 10 topics in a project. I have three different users working on three different topic. In such a case, what shall i do to prevent overlapping results. How best we can use VSS in this, if at all we can?

2. How will the style guide be affected in case of one styleguide in use?

Thank you.
Hemal Patel.

When a user checks out a topic from VSS that file is locked for the other users, sort of. Other users can still edit their copy of a file, but that edit can do two things: either be useless as they cannot check the changes in or the user can forcefully override the previous checkin and overwrite it with the own edit. That all comes down to project management and team discipline. Part of that discipline is also to only check out those files that are needed for editing. So if one user only needs two topics then only those two topics should be checked out, whereas all other files should be retrieved via "get latest version". Same applies for the style sheet, which likely will see changes only at the beginning of the project. I hope I answered what you wanted to know.

...and welcome to the forums.

RamonS is correct - source control (no matter whose) is only as good as the discipline of your development team. If someone 'books out' the entire project it becomes a hinderence to productivity.

If you can get everyone to book out the topic they're working on, make the changes, and book it back in straight away you will find source control quite handy.

I do topic checkouts when i am doing minor edits and another junior techwriter is making maintenance updates.

I do full project checkouts from source control (Team Foundation), and inform the team about this, when i am doing major changes like renaming the entire folder structures or image structures for revised standardization best practices...especially when it comes to global project linking.

Then when i am ready, i must always remember to check it all in...quite often i forget to check in one or two files...since you also need to select the Add file button in Source Control > Add as well. And my team has to remind me.