Can Perforce and SourceSafe coexist in Visual Studio?

Question

Visual Studio 2008, to be more specific. We are testing the switch to Perforce for version control, so I would like to install the P4SCC plugin for monkeys. However, I would also like to continue using the IDS SourceSafe features for projects that have not yet been ported. Can they coexist peacefully, or is it one or the other for a particular VS installation?

Answer 1

Yes, Visual Studio supports several providers. The entire VS architecture is plug-in-based, and SCC providers are another kind of plug-in (usually implemented as a “package” in VS terminology).

You can only have one SCC provider at a time. Thus, you cannot have different projects related to different providers within the same solution.

The active SCC provider can be switched:

• Go to Tools → Options → Source Control (present on VS 2005) - or -
• Using a tool such as SccSwitcher to modify the registry directly (required on VS 2003 and earlier)
• Opening a solution in which SCC bindings are already written

You cannot change the provider from the Bind dialog box (File → Source Control → Change SCC). All you can do is bind / unbind, or in the case of several odd providers like SourceSafe, edit the server path.

To change the provider of an existing solution, you must use the Bind dialog box to remove the existing bindings, change the active provider from Tools → Options (or SCCSwitcher, if necessary), then run the Add Solution to Source Control wizard from Solution Explorer.

Answer 2

Visual Studio can handle several plugins / version control systems, but you must be sure that your projects are tied to the correct provider (File-> Source Control-> Change Source Control).

Answer 3

I use:

SCC switcher

to help me with this. This is convenient as it gives you the taskbar icon for switching.

Answer 4

I would also recommend TraySource just like SCC Switcher

I have to constantly switch between Perforce and Source Safe, and I think this is ideal for him.