Setting Up Visual SourceSafe

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Getting started with Microsoft® Visual SourceSafe™ begins with setting up and connecting to a Visual SourceSafe project. When you use Visual SourceSafe, your files are stored in a project, providing safe storage, important historical information, and version tracking. With the source control add-ins, you do not have to run Visual SourceSafe separately to realize the advantages of source code control.

The steps to integrating Visual SourceSafe into your Microsoft® Office XP development environment include:

Installing the Visual SourceSafe Application

Generally, your Visual SourceSafe administrator installs Visual SourceSafe on a network server for you and then adds your name to the database user list. Simply run the setup program, and select the option to install Visual SourceSafe.

There are three Visual SourceSafe setup options:

  • **Shared Database Server  ** Installs a database and the necessary software on a network server (used by Administrators). Individual users then install the Visual SourceSafe client from the network server using Netsetup.
  • **Custom   **Makes it possible for you to choose which components to install.
  • **Stand-alone   **Installs the components necessary to create and access a private database on your machine. In addition, you can connect to existing databases on a network server.

Assigning User Permissions

Before you can access the database, you must assign the appropriate permissions. In addition, you can assign user permissions to other team members who want to share the files in your database. Use the Visual SourceSafe Administrator to add, change, or delete user permissions and passwords for your database.

Connecting to a Visual SourceSafe Database

You can connect to the database using either the Visual SourceSafe application or the source control add-in.

To connect to a Visual SourceSafe database from the Visual SourceSafe application

  1. Start the Visual SourceSafe application.
  2. From the File menu, click Open SourceSafe Database, and select one of the databases in the list box.

You can use this command to select an existing database from a Visual SourceSafe project that someone else has already created. This is how you enlist in a multi-developer project that someone has set up already.

To connect to a Visual SourceSafe database from the Source Control add-in

  1. For the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) Source Control add-in, in the Visual Basic Editor, select the VBA Source Control add-in from the Add-Ins menu.

    For the Access Source Control add-in, select SourceSafe from the Tools menu.

  2. The first time you access Source Control, a logon box appears. Fill in the appropriate information for your database.

  3. The Source Control options change on the menu.

You can now place items in your project under source control.

See Also

Using Source Code Control | Choosing the Right Source Code Control Add-In | Using the Visual SourceSafe Add-In with the Visual Basic Environment | Using Visual SourceSafe with Documents and VBA Code | Using Source Control with Access