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Using Visual SourceSafe in Microsoft Visual Studio

Visual SourceSafe is used within Visual Studio in the form of two plug-ins that are compatible with the Visual Studio IDE. These SourceSafe plug-ins run in the source control portion of the IDE, using the source control adapter package of Visual Studio. For more about Visual Studio source control, see "Source Control in Visual Studio" in the Visual Studio Help.

SourceSafe Plug-ins for Visual Studio Image

About the SourceSafe Plug-ins

The Visual SourceSafe plug-ins for Visual Studio are:

  • SourceSafe LAN.   This plug-in has operated in earlier versions of Visual Studio. It presently provides the same basic source control functionality that it has always furnished, but is capable of using an optional LAN booster service for improved performance.

  • SourceSafe Internet.   This new plug-in supports database access via Internet. It communicates with a server-side ASP.NET Web service (SourceSafe Internet service) to enable remote access to a database.

Installation of SourceSafe Plug-ins for Visual Studio

Your SourceSafe plug-ins are made available within Visual Studio when you install Visual SourceSafe and Visual Studio on your client and server machines. The plug-in LAN and Internet services must both be configured by the database administrator to enable communication with the database. See Getting Started with Visual SourceSafe in the Visual SourceSafe Help.

Files Created for SourceSafe Plug-ins for Visual Studio

When you are using one of the SourceSafe plug-ins in Visual Studio, Visual SourceSafe creates a special file called Mssccprj.scc in your working folder for your Visual Studio projects and solutions. The following table defines the possible file extensions for projects created in Visual Studio. The default file extensions are *.vbp, *.mak, and *.dsp.

  • .actproj
    ACT project.
  • .atp
    ACT project.
  • .csproj
    C# project.
  • .dbp
    Database project.
  • .dmp
    Crash Dump project.
  • .dsp
    Project Converter.
  • .dsw
    Visual Studio Workspace.
  • .etp
    Enterprise Template project.
  • .exe
    EXE project.
  • .hwproj
    Microsoft Help project.
  • .mdmp
    Crash Dump project.
  • .mdp
    Project Converter (VC 4.x).
  • .sln
    Solution.
  • .vbproj
    VB project.
  • .vcproj
    VC project.
  • .vdp
    Setup and Deployment project.
  • .vdproj
    Setup and Deployment project.
  • .vsmacros
    Binary based macro project.
  • .vsmproj
    Unicode based macro project.

Operations Supported by the SourceSafe Plug-ins

Source control in Visual Studio provides basic functionality to support many types of source control packages, including the SourceSafe plug-ins. An example is the source control options functionality furnished in the Tools menu.

Most basic source control commands, for example, Check Out and Add to Source Control, are available in the File menu of Visual Studio, and are activated after you have chosen the SourceSafe plug-in that you want to use. Commands are enabled/disabled depending on the current selection in the project window.

The procedures that are general to source control in Visual Studio are described in the "Source Control in Visual Studio" topic in the Visual Studio Help. The SourceSafe plug-ins themselves support a number of operations by sharing functionality with standalone Visual SourceSafe, or by using a subset of that functionality with some UI elements tailored for Visual Studio source control The procedural topics included in this section are specific to the SourceSafe plug-ins.

In This Section

See Also

Other Resources

Performing Basic Visual SourceSafe Tasks
Using Visual SourceSafe with Other Products