continuing a local copy of project without the need for checking in same files

Question

hi,

our programmers-due to circumstances-prefer not to check in to TFS from internet and they give me a copy of project folder (source code) so i should check in them into our Team foundation server,but the problem is that because i want to have the features and benefits of TFS,whenever i receive a new project folder i want to check in that folder into TFS in a way that i can see the changes and also i can review the changes and do source management in future.how can i do that?

I would be thankful if you give me an answer.

by the way,i'm using TFS 2010 and VS2010.

Answer 1

It is not recommended. I'd very much like to know which circumstances are keeping your programmers from working with TFS. I suspect that the reasons they have are driven by their own comfort with the tool, or the fact that this way they don't need to really work together as they're not in each others files. Giving you all the issues at merge time.

Please do explain the reasons they might have, as we might have some pointers to make their life easier and thus let them use the tool as intended.

That said, you can re-integrated changed sources from outside of TFS back into TFS and still have some idea of who did what, but it's going to be very tricky. The process would go something like this:

1. A developer wants a fresh copy of the sources
2. They (or you) perform a get latest version and note the workspace version (the latest Changeset checked in would work) or create a label.
3. They work on the sources
4. They give you a copy for re-integration and give you the changeset number or label used to get the sources from source control
5. You create a temporary workspace on your machine
6. You perform get specific version (force) and get the original version used to create the sources
7. You check out all files (easiest to do from the Source Control window)
8. Copy the changed sources over the ones in your workspace
9. Add any newly added files from the Source Control window
10. Click the "Undo Unchanged" option in the Pending Changes window to undo any files that were unchanged
11. Try to check in the files
12. Solve any merge conflicts
13. Check in the files.
14. You can now throw away the workspace.

A lot of these steps can also be performed from the command line to make your life a little easier.

The more developers that use this trick, the more issues you're going to get with merging the changes. So make sure that your developers work in isolated parts of the application by splitting up tasks accordingly. Also let them regularly work together to identify who is working where.

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My blog: blog.jessehouwing.nl

Answer 2

Dear jesse,

Thanks for the reply,though Mr.John Qiao marked your reply as an answer,i would appreciate if you give me additional information about this matter.

I did as you suggested,and now one of my programmers checked in his last version of source code from his laptop to my TFS via local network,and from now on every solution he has is connected to TFS,please notice he is somehow versioning his own work and makes a copy of the folder of solution everytime he makes a change to a part of application,but from now on when he comes to company once a week,he checks in every folder he has because they are all connected to TFS.

my question is that can i manually connect a solution to my TFS by editing Solution files or properties? for example i have a series of previous versions of source codes which are not connected to TFS but all of them are from one project,can i skip the procedure you mentioned by editing the solution file itself and replace it in every project so i can check in them one after another?

regards,

Answer 3

He should not create new copies of the files. that won't work. He should edit the files in place for this to work. Your workflow is already very complicated as is, and creating copies of files isn't a good idea. If he wants to store backups, let him zip up the solution twice a day or something as a backup, but don't let him make copies of the files.

Isn't there a way you can give him remote access to TFS? Through VPN? Through a public IP address on your TFS Server? Can you use the TFS Service Preview to let him work on a shared environment?

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My blog: blog.jessehouwing.nl