StarTeam 2009 Release 2 Visual Studio Integration Release Notes

Last updated: May 27, 2010

Thanks for choosing the StarTeam 2009 Release 2 Visual Studio Integration! It can be installed for use with Visual Studio 2008 and 2010.

This file contains important information that might not appear in the documentation. Read this file in its entirety.

What's New

The StarTeam Visual Studio integration includes the following new features:

• MS Help Viewer 1.0 support
• Copy and Paste Items in Item Pane within the Same View or from Server to Server
• External Linking
• EOL Improvements
• "Me" Queries
• Alternate Folder Icon

MS Help Viewer 1.0 Support

Visual Studio 2010 incorporates a new help viewer, which associates with the MSDN Library. MS Help Viewer 1.0 replaces Help 2 from previous version of Visual Studio. With the new help system, you can view help in any installed Web Browser. Microsoft Document Explorer is no longer necessary.

Copy and Paste Items in Item Pane within the Same View or from Server to Server

You can copy all items, except Files and Folders, in the Items pane from one server to another. You can also make multiple copies of an item within a given view. When you want the same item in multiple views or projects on the same server, you must share instead of copy. Use the context menu for each Item Pane to copy and paste. When pasting the StarTeam Item, a new Item is created with the same values as the copied Item. You can only make a copy if the Source Item is on a StarTeam 2009 (or later) Server.

To copy an item:

1. From the Visual Studio Integration toolbar select  StarTeam > View Client.
2. Right-click the source item and select  Copy.
3. To select a target item on a different server, go to the StarTeam Folders window.
4. Click the Star button and log on to the other server.
5. Right-click in the Item Pane and select Paste.

External Linking

A new external linking feature provides the ability to link items on different StarTeam Servers. The process for creating external links is similar to the process for creating links between items on the same Server. However, an external link has a decoration that clearly shows it is an external link rather than a regular link, and there is a new check box on the Link tab that enables you to show or hide external links in the display.

• All the same linking operations are available for external links that are available for standard links, such as Create Link and Complete Link operations.

• When you create an external link, the item details for the external link on the Link pane are represented by a URL so you know how to find that item.
• External link options are the same as standard links, such as being able to view the link properties. However, floating and pinning external links are not available.
• External links have direction, so whether you are viewing the external link from the source Item of the link, such as a CR, or the Item on the external Server, such as the file being linked to from the CR, the source and target information will always remain the same and does not change based on the item you have selected.
• You can create external links only if the Source Item of the external link is on a StarTeam 2009 (or later) Server.
• You cannot create external links to or between Change Packages.
• Some information which is available for standard links is not available for external links because not all of the information from the external object is available, such as file status, who has the file locked on the external Server, what the object's folder path is, and the folder in which the object actually exists.

To create external links:

1. From the Visual Studio Integration toolbar select  StarTeam > View Client.
2. Right-click the source item and select Links > Create Link.
3. To select a target item on a different server, go to the StarTeam Folders window.
4. Click the Star button and log on to the other server.
5. Right-click the item to be linked and select Links > Complete Link.

EOL Improvements

If your StarTeam Server is 2009 or later, EOL improvements result in better support for fixed EOL conversion files. For example, EOL conversion now works correctly for unicode files which previously could be corrupted on check-in. Files can be checked out in LF format on every platform, regardless of specific options. Also, Update Status works for all text files once EOL Format is defined, regardless of what EOL format was used when they were checked-out.

For compatibility with older Clients, if check-out "EOL conversion" is not requested, and EOL Format is Undefined, files are still checked out with the EOL conversion with which they were added to the Server.

StarTeam 2009 provides the following new EOL handling:

• The property is still displayed as "EOL Character" in file details.
• The EOL Format property is only meaningful for text files during the check-out operation. The EOL Property values are:
• Undefined (null in the SDK): Used for files added before StarTeam 2009.
• Client Defined: Causes workstation default or per-checkout EOL conversion option to be used.
• Fixed CR, Fixed LF, and Fixed CRLF: Causes this EOL format to be used always; the work station/checkout conversion option is ignored.
• The EOL Format property can be set in the Add/Check-in and File Properties dialog boxes.
• The Automatic EOL conversion for the add/check-in operations check box has been removed from the Personal Options dialog box's File tab.
• By default, the SDK will compute the EOL Format under the following conditions:
• When a new text file is added or a new revision is checked in for a text file whose EOL Format is Undefined, the file's EOL convention matches the platform default, EOL Format is set to Client Defined. Otherwise, EOL Format is set to the convention found: Fixed LF, Fixed CR, or Fixed CRLF.
• The user can change EOL Format to any value (other than Undefined) at any time.
• Regardless of their EOL Format setting, text files added or checked in use a canonical (CRLF) format in the vault.

Note: The default for automatic EOL conversion for check-out operations has been changed to “checked” if the user does not have that option defined already. Users that upgrade to 2009 should check that option to be sure they have it set correctly given the new EOL Format changes.

"Me" Queries

If your StarTeam Server is 2009 (or later), you can create "Me" queries, queries that are evaluated against the currently logged in user ("Me"), rather than having to specify a specific username at the time of query creation.

Alternate Folder Icon

If your StarTeam Server is 2009 (or later), folder icons in the Folder Tree have a new decorator to signify that a folder is using an alternate path for the working folder rather than the default working path.

System Requirements/Prerequisites

The StarTeam 2009 Release 2 Visual Studio Integration should run on any platform on which Visual Studio 2008 or 2010 is supported.

This integration was tested with the following platforms, Visual Studio releases, and StarTeam Server releases.:

Note: The StarTeam 2009 Release 2 Visual Studio Integration was compiled with the StarTeam 11.0 SDK.

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Known Issues

The following are known issues in StarTeam 2009 Release 2 Visual Studio Integration.

• The Visual Studio 2009 Release 2 Integration does not support source code operations on Web Site projects that use a local IIS server. This is a known bug. There is no workaround other than using the embedded client and pointing it to the local files in the IIS server.
• When changing the source code provider for a solution from StarTeam SCC ( or any SCC provider ) to the StarTeam 2009 Release 2 Visual Studio Integration you must unbind the SCC integration using the File/Source Control/Change Source Control menu, then set StarTeam 2009 Release 2 Visual Studio Integration (Tools/Options/Source Control) as your source control provider. The system displays the File/Source Control/Change Source Control menu only if you have a solution that is bound to an SCC provider.
• The StarTeam 2009 Release 2 Visual Studio Integration uses InstallAnywhere for installation. If you encounter the following error when uninstalling this integration:
  "Can't launch executable. Could not find a suitable Java Virtual Machine on your system…." you may need to install JRE 1.6.0_02 or earlier from http://java.sun.com/products/archive/index.html.
• When the connection to StarTeamMPX has been broken for solutions or projects placed into StarTeam Server with StarTeamMPX enabled, using the integration Update Solution or Refresh commands does not work. As a workaround for this issue, you can either:
  • Log off and log on to the Server; or
  • Perform a manual refresh using the StarTeam Refresh command or the Refresh button in the StarTeam Items or StarTeam Folders pane.
• Rich text support appears to be in place when copying and pasting text, images, or hyperlinks into text-based fields for a Change Request, Task, Topic, or Requirement. Once the item is saved to the Server, the formatting and images are removed.
• When upgrading projects from the StarTeam Visual Studio 2005 integration to this integration, one person needs to migrate the project and check in the changes. That user must have the project and solution files current on disk so that they have the StarTeam sync records and no Unknown file statuses. After that, all users must pull the project or solution to their workspace for use in Visual Studio 2008 or 2010. You will get an error message if you try converting your Visual Studio 2005 project to a Visual Studio 2008 or 2010 project by using the StarTeam > Pull Solution (or Pull Project) commands in Visual Studio 2008 or 2010. Perform the steps in the following example instead.
  For example:
  1. Open the StarTeam Cross-Platform client (or Windows client) and open the Visual Studio 2005 project. Make sure that none of the files have an Unknown status. If any files have this status, select them, and choose File > Update Status from the main menu. If the files are not in your workspace, you will see a Missing status. In this case, you must check them out.
  2. Open the Visual Studio 2005 .sln file in Visual Studio 2008 or 2010. Doing so automatically opens the Conversion wizard which converts the Visual Studio 2005 solution and project files so that they can be used in Visual Studio 2008 or 2010.
  3. After completing the steps in the wizard, the solution and project files are marked as Modified by StarTeam. Choose StarTeam > Pending Checkins Window to check in the files.
  4. Advise other users to open Visual Studio, and choose StarTeam > Pull Solution (or Pull Project) to bring the files to their own respective workspaces for use in Visual Studio.
• If you have a locally-modified file open and another user renames that same file and checks in the changes (including the solution file) and then you update the solution, you must manually merge the file from your local workspace with the renamed file to make sure that all of your changes are preserved. Additionally, you will no longer see the file by its original name in the Solution Explorer (your original file with its changes still exists in your local workspace), and you might see an error message if you have the file open in the Designer.
• Unlike Visual SourceSafe, you must save your files so that changes are recognized by the integration before accessing most StarTeam file commands. However, changes are automatically saved when using the StarTeam Place Solution, Place Project, Update Solution, Update Project, or Commit Project commands.
• If you use the options to either exclusively or non-exclusively lock files on check-out (found in the File tab of the StarTeam Personal Options dialog), and you check out but do not modify files or if you modify files and revert your changes, the files will not appear in the StarTeam Pending Checkins dialog. In this case, the files remained locked until you manually unlock them. This behavior differs from Visual SourceSafe where the check in dialog displays locked files and the check in operation unlocks unmodified files.
• Sometimes the Project Load Failure dialog box displays when you pull the project, but it can be ignored. The solution opens anyway.

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Limitations

The following are limitations in StarTeam 2009 Release 2 Visual Studio Integration.

• The StarTeam Client is optional software, but you cannot use the "Launch Client" menu item from the StarTeam menu if it is not installed. If the menu item is selected, but the StarTeam Client is not installed, StarTeam generates an appropriate error message.
• Changing the working folder in the StarTeam Visual Studio Integration does not change the alternate working folder in the Cross-Platform client.
• On Vista and Windows 7 only, the default installation folder for the File Compare/Merge component is “C:\ Users\Public\Borland\File Compare Merge”. If you change that location during installation, you must select a folder that all users can write to.
  

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Getting Help

Borland/Micro Focus Technical Support

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Installation Instructions

Important: If you plan to install the StarTeam 2009 Release 2 Visual Studio Integration as a replacement for a previous release of this integration, you must first uninstall the pre-existing integration. This release is not an upgrade installation. It is a replacement installation.

1. Close all running applications after saving all modified files.
2. Launch the executable (.exe) file.
3. Follow the installation instructions provided by the install wizard.

Installing StarTeam Visual Studio Integration 2009 Release 2 help in Visual Studio 2010

Prior to installing the integration executable:

1. Open Visual Studio 2010
2. Chose Manage Help Settings from the Help menu. The Help Library Manager opens.
3. Set the default library location.
4. Choose Manage Help Settings from the Help menu. The Help Library Manager opens.
5. Click Choose online or local help.
6. Click I want to use local help.

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Installing StarTeam Visual Studio Integration 2009 Release 2 help in Visual Studio 2008

StarTeam Visual Studio Integration help attaches to Visual Studio 2008 help files. You must at least install the minimal installation of Visual Studio help files locally in order to access the StarTeam Visual Studio Integration help files.

Prior to installing the integration executable:

1. Install Visual Studio 2008.
2. Install MSDN Library from the Visual Studio 2008 installation media.

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