Modifying source-controlled targets and objects
Objects in targets under source control must be managed differently
than the same objects in targets that are not under source control.
Effects of source control on object management
You must check out a target file from source control before
you can modify its properties. If objects in a source-controlled
target are not themselves registered in source control, you can
add them to or delete them from the local target without checking
out the target. However, you must remove a source-controlled
object from the source control system before you can delete the
same object from the local copy of the target (whether or not the
target itself is under source control).
Although you can add objects to a source-controlled target
without checking out the target from source control, you cannot
add existing libraries to the library list of a source-controlled
PowerScript target unless the target is checked out.
For information on removing an object from source control,
see “Removing objects from source
control”.
Copy and move operations on source-controlled objects
You cannot copy a source-controlled object to a destination
PBL in the same directory as the source PBL. Generally when you
work with source control, objects with the same name should not
exist in more than one PBL in the same directory.
Moving an object that is not under source control to a destination
PBL having a source-controlled object with the same name is permitted
only when the second object is checked out of source control.
You cannot move an object from a source PBL if the object
is under source control, even when the object has been checked out.
The right way to move an object under source control is described
below.
To move an object under source control from one
PBL to another:
-
Export the object from the first PBL.
-
Remove the object from source control.
-
Delete the object from the first PBL.
-
Import the object into the second PBL.
-
Register the object in source control once again.
Editing the PBG file for a source-controlled target
PowerBuilder creates and uses PBG files to determine if any
objects present on a source control server are missing from local
PowerScript targets. Up-to-date PBG files insure that the latest
objects in source control are available to all developers on a project,
and that the objects are associated with a named PBL file.
PBG files and Web targets PowerBuilder also creates PBG files for Web targets, but these
list only the directory structure for the targets, not the individual
files. Since Web Target files are flat files, you can check them
out (or get the latest versions) directly from source control without
having to compile them into PBLs.
If you do not have all the files on your local machine–and
your source control system supports the SCCPopulateList call–you
may still be able to check out or get the latest versions of these
files through the PowerBuilder SCC API. In this case, you may still
need to force a status refresh in order to view the new objects
in the System Tree or the Library painter.
Ideally, PBG files are not necessary. If the source control
system exposes the latest additions of objects in a project through
its SCC interface, PowerBuilder can obtain the list of all objects
added to a project since the last status refresh. However, many
source control systems do not support this, so PowerBuilder uses
the PBG files to make sure it has an up-to-date list of objects
under source control.
PBG files are registered and checked in to source control
separately from all other objects in PowerBuilder. They are automatically
updated to include new objects that are added to source control,
but they can easily get out of sync when multiple users simultaneously
register objects to (or delete objects from) the same source control
project. For example, it is possible to add an object to source
control successfully yet have the check-in of the PBG file fail
because it is locked by another user.
You cannot see the PBG files in the System Tree or Library
painter, unless you set the root for these views to the file system.
To edit PBG files manually, you should check them out of source
control using the source control manager and open them in a text
editor. (If you are using PBNative, you can edit PBG files directly
in the server storage location, without checking them out of source control.)
You can manually add objects to the PBG file for a PowerBuilder
library by including a new line for each object after the @begin
Objects line. The following is an example of
the contents of a PBG file for a PBL that is saved to a subdirectory
(target1) of the workspace associated with
the source control project:
