SourceSafe audit trail(journal) - data structure, sample?

Question

Hello,

I am an Phd student at the University of Technology in Eindhoven, The Netherlands and together with a master student we are conducting research in the area of using software configuration tools or other software development support tools as a data source for software process mining. Nowadays, such software tools record a considerable amount of data creating logs of events. We investigate whether these logs fullfil process mining data requirements. Process mining techniques allow for extracting non-trivial information from these logs - e.g. discovering the ‘real’ process model. Such process model could be further used as a starting point for process assessment and improvement. More about process mining could be found at the website: www.processmining.org

We included Microsoft VSS in our research and we ask someone for cooperation. We would like to obtain more information on event logging (journal file) in the tool, its data structure, configurability of logging. An excerpt (10-20 events) from such log would be very appreciated. We intend to publish our research results as a journal paper.

Thank you in advance and we hope to get the information about event logging in VSS from someone soon.

J.Samalikova (at) tue.nl

Answer 1

Hello JSamalik,

 

Thank you for your question.

 

I am trying to involve someone familiar with this topic to further look at this issue. There might be some time delay. Appreciate your patience.

 

Thank you for your understanding and support.

 

 

Best Regards,

Ziwei Chen

 

 

 

 

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Ziwei Chen [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
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Answer 2

Hi,

 

The journal file is a simple text file. Once it is created, use Notepad or any text editor to open it.  In Visual SourceSafe it only records changes to the VSS database. For example, if you add a project or a file, add a label, or check in something, the action is recorded.  However, it does not record activities that do not change the database, like a check out or merely opening a project. 

 

Here is some information on the journal file:

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181070(VS.80).aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa289175(v=vs.71).aspx

 

This is an example of a journal file from my machine. The two users are Admin and Bob.

 

$/Alex/WindowsApplication1/WindowsApplication1/My Project/Application.Designer.vb

Version: 2

User: Admin           Date:  2/01/11  Time: 11:27a

Checked in

 

$/Alex/WindowsApplication1/WindowsApplication1/My Project/Application.myapp

Version: 2

User: Admin           Date:  2/01/11  Time: 11:27a

Checked in

 

$/Alex/WindowsApplication1/WindowsApplication1/My Project/AssemblyInfo.vb

Version: 2

User: Admin           Date:  2/01/11  Time: 11:27a

Checked in

 

$/Alex/WindowsApplication1/WindowsApplication1/My Project/Resources.Designer.vb

Version: 2

User: Admin           Date:  2/01/11  Time: 11:27a

Checked in

 

$/Alex/WindowsApplication1/WindowsApplication1/My Project/Resources.resx

Version: 2

User: Admin           Date:  2/01/11  Time: 11:27a

Checked in

 

$/Alex/WindowsApplication1/WindowsApplication1/My Project/Settings.Designer.vb

Version: 2

User: Admin           Date:  2/01/11  Time: 11:27a

Checked in

 

$/Alex/WindowsApplication1/WindowsApplication1/My Project/Settings.settings

Version: 2

User: Admin           Date:  2/01/11  Time: 11:27a

Checked in

 

$/ECCInformation/_derived/search1.htm0.htx

Version: 2

User: Bob             Date:  2/01/11  Time: 11:28a

Checked in

 

$/ECCInformation/_derived

Version: 4

User: Bob             Date:  2/01/11  Time: 11:31a

Labeled Test

Comment: This is a test

 

$/Conduit/football.txt

Version: 10

User: Admin           Date:  2/01/11  Time: 11:32a

Labeled This is a file label

Comment: File label

 

$/

Version: 44

User: Bob             Date:  2/01/11  Time: 11:33a

Test Project created

Comment: Test project for journal file

 

 

I hope this helps.

Thanks!

 

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bill boyce

Answer 3

thank you!!!! your help is very appreciated