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  • XPages series #3: How to use version control systems in DDE

    Karsten Lehmann  15 July 2009 18:02:40
    Ok, in my previous posting of the XPages series, I said I'm going to talk about faces-config.xml next, but I just wanted to add a side note, because the topic "Version Control in Domino Designer on Eclipse" seems to be quite interesting for the developer community.

    As you might know, DDE 8.5 is not able to do proper version control for your Notes database, because the CVS/SVN plugins of the underlying Eclipse platform do not support a virtual filesystem (like DDE uses it).
    But there is a workaround, at least for the Java code that will contain our application backend logic.

    In my posting, I showed how to add a folder to the classpath of the NSF project. The Java content was stored in the "WebContent/WEB-INF/source" folder of the database project.

    Actually, there were two buttons to add content to the build path in the project properties dialog:

    Image:XPages series #3: How to use version control systems in DDE

    One is "Add Folder" to add a folder of the NSF project. Now we click on the other button "Link Source" instead:

    Image:XPages series #3: How to use version control systems in DDE

    You can use this "Link Source" feature of Eclipse to include external folders to your project. The external folders can then be part of any version control system you like.

    Simply press "Refresh" on that folder in DDE to let it catch any changes you make in external editors. DDE will also notice changes automatically when a Java file is already open in the editor.

    Comments

    1John  20.07.2009 19:54:06  XPages series #3: How to use version control systems in DDE

    When you suggest that the external resource can be part of any version control system, do we have to interact with SVN or CVS through tortoise or some other client and not Notes?

    Since Notes is built on top of eclipse, is it possible to use subclipse and directly work with SVN

    2Karsten Lehmann  20.07.2009 20:28:23  XPages series #3: How to use version control systems in DDE

    Because DDE is based on Eclipse, you can also create normal none-NSF projects within DDE, if you leave the Designer perspective (e.g. in the Java perspective).

    You can then create a Link Source from your NSF project to this new project.

    But please note that Eclipse stores absolute paths for the Link Sources, I think in the .project file, which is part of the NSF.

    So I would suggest you use the DOS command Subst.exe or another tool to create a new drive letter for your sources, e.g. p:\, and tell DDE/Eclipse that your new project is located there (or in a subfolder).

    That way all your team members should be able to find the sources when they access the NSF.