RE: MS Visual SourceSafe & binary files

["Zvi Gilbert" <zgilbert -at- aw -dot- sgi -dot- com>]

Hi Mats,

Mats Broberg wrote:
> 1. Can you store image files that are referenced to 
> Framemaker documents in
> VSS and still have Framemaker access them even when they are 
> checked in? 

Yes, you can (and should!) store the referenced image files in VSS, in a
structure that parallels the structure on the disk; for example, an images
folder within your Framemaker working directory should be reflected by a
images 'project' under your Framemaker 'project' (VSS calls these folder-like
constructs 'projects'). 

As to viewing the Framemaker file with referenced images when checked in,
there are two answers.

If you 'View' a frame file from within VSS (right-click and choose View), you
view a temporary copy of the file in a temp directory (I believe by default
it's on whatever server you have VSS on). So you may not see images in this
case as they're not necessarily in that temp directory.

However, you can easily see the file with referenced images when checked in
through Frame, simply by viewing the read-only files on your disk (your
working folder). The structure in VSS parallels the structure that the files
have in the working folders on your disk; therefore, you need only 'get
latest' in order to have the VSS database changes reflected on your disk, as
'read-only' files. 

You can view the FM file and any referenced image files just by opening it in
Frame. You would need to check them out to make any changes.

> 2. If not, how do you solve the problem of checking out 
> perhaps 50-100 image
> files when you need to work with the FM file? AFAIK there's no "batch
> checkout" function in VSS and that leaves you to checking 
> them out one by
> one, which would be extremely timeconsuming.

Well, you don't check out the files one-by-one, you check out the entire
'project'. 
Here's the structure in VSS; you see the projects/folders in the left-hand
pane of VSS and the files within those projects in the right-hand pane.

My Project (project/folder)
-frame1.fm
-frame2.fm
-frame3.fm
-images (project/folder)
 -image1.tiff
 -image2.tiff
 -image3.tiff

I don't have VSS on this machine, but checking out the entire project
including all sub-projects is as easy as right-clicking on 'My Project' in
the left-hand pane and choosing something like 'recursive' or 'all
sub-projects'. Then all of them are checked out; checking them in is just as
easy. If you want to check out just one file, go ahead, but what I've
described is the easy way to make an entire project/folder writeable so you
can work on it.

However, once the image files are on the disk (Get Latest Version), you don't
need to check them out every time; just when you need to change them
(remember that the read-only files are on the disk in the correct structure).

I hope this helps!

Best wishes,

--Zvi
---
Zvi Gilbert      Documentation Manager, Maya / New Products
zgilbert -at- aw -dot- sgi -dot- com | tel: 416-874-8507 | fax: 416-369-6151
Alias|Wavefront 210 King St. E., Toronto, ON Canada M5A 1J7



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