About source control systems
Contents
This section provides an overview of source control systems and
describes how PowerBuilder integrates with these systems’
interfaces.
What source control systems
do
Source control systems (version control systems) track and store
the evolutionary history of software components. They are particularly
useful if you are working with other developers on a large application,
in that they can prevent multiple developers from modifying the same
component at the same time. You can make sure you are working with the
latest version of a component or object by synchronizing the copy of the
object you are working on with the last version of the object checked
into the source control system.
Why use a source control
system
Most source control systems provide disaster recovery protection
and functions to help manage complex development processes. With a
source control system, you can track the development history of objects
in your PowerBuilder workspace, maintain archives, and restore previous
revisions of objects if necessary.
Source control interfaces
You work with a source control system through a source control
interface in the following ways.
-
PowerBuilder supports working with Subversion (SVN) and Git
source control systems through proprietary interfaces provided by
source control vendors in the PowerBuilder IDE. -
PowerBuilder also provides a standard application programming
interface to any source control interfaces based on the Microsoft
Common Source Code Control Interface Specification, Version
0.99.0823, which means, you can use the PowerBuilder SCC API with
any source control system that implements features defined in the
Microsoft specification. -
PowerBuilder also provides a basic check in/check out utility
(PBNative) that installs with the product.
PowerBuilder institutes source control at the object level. This
gives you a finer grain of control than if you copied your PBLs directly
to source control outside of the PowerBuilder SCC API.