[SourceJammer-users] Re: Starting with sourcejammer archives

[Robert M. <rob...@ya...>]

Hi Daniele.

I'm glad you are able to start using SourceJammer.
I'll try to answer your question by explaining what
happens when you add files to sourcejammer and then
check them in and out.

Let's say you have a SourceJammer archive called
"MyArchive". 

You have a directory on your local drive at
/home/me/website. You want to put the contents of this
directory into sourcejammer so you can have some
source code control and work on these files with other
people.

Let's say you decide to put the contents of this
directory into a SourceJammer project at
/MyArchive/files/website.

You use the "Set Default Directory" function on the
GUI to set /home/me/website as the default directory
for /MyArchive/files/website.

Now you can add the files. You use Add File to add all
the files in this directory to SourceJammer. Here's
what happens as each file is added.

1. The SJ Client reads the file.
2. The client sends the file to the server.
3. The server adds the file to the project and creates
some other files to help track this file and all of
its version history.
4. The client gets a confirm message from the server
saying that the file has been added.
5. The client sets the local copy of the file (on you
local hard drive) to read-only to let you know that
this file is in SourceJammer and you should check it
out if you want to modify it.
6. The client stores some information about what it
just did on your local drive so it knows what
"version" of the file you have on your local drive.
This way, it will only download the file from the
server if the version you requested does not match the
version on your local hard drive (more on this in a
minute).

So, when you add a file to SourceJammer, the file now
exists in two places: a local copy on your computer
and the SJ copy in SourceJammer. It's best to think of
the copy in SourceJammer as the "real" copy, though.
That's the whole point of a source code control
system.

If you want to work on any file in /home/me/website,
you first need to check the file out of SourceJammer.
Here's what happens when you do that:

1. The client gets the unique ID of the latest version
of the file you want to check out from the server.
2. The client then compares this ID with the
information it stored on your computer about what
version of the file you have on your local drive.
3. The client sends a "check out" request to the
server.
4. The server marks the file as "checked out" to you
and, if necessary (if the copy on your drive is
different from the latest version in SourceJammer)
sends the file to your local machine.
4. If necessary, the local information about the file
is updated.
5. The client sets the local copy of the file to
writable so you can modify it.

After you make changes to the file you need to check
it back in to SourceJammer. This makes the version you
have just created by  modifying the file the latest
version and allows other SJ users to check out and
modify the file. Here's what happens when you do a
check in.

1. The client reads the file and sends it, along with
a check in request, to the server.
2. The server makes the version you  just checked in
the "latest version" and saves the previous version as
part of the file's version history.
3. The server marks the file as checked in.
4. The server sends a confirmation message to the
client.
5. The client updates it's  local information about
the copy on your local hard drive.
6. The client sets the local copy of the file to
read-only.

If you just want to retrieve the latest version (or in
fact, any previous version) of a file from
SourceJammer, you can use File | Get Files for this.
This simply downloads the file to the directory where
you want the file to go without checking it out.

To clarify, the only way to change a file in
SourceJammer is to check it out, modify it locally,
and check it back in again. Once a file is in
SourceJammer, you can use Get Files (or Get Project)
to retrieve one or more files from SourceJammer to
whatever local directory you want.

I hope this answers your question.

--Rob


--- "dan...@a-..." <dan...@a-...>
wrote:
> Hello Robert.
> 
> I'm starting to use SourceJammer at last, but I
> still have doubts about
> it.
> The biggest one is as follows:
> I have an archive on the server, and added one file
> to it.
> I can get it to local site, work on it and then
> check it in, but where
> is the actual file?
> I say it in other words.
> Let's say that I add files to the archive from the
> directory /home/html/mywebpage/...
> If I change this file through SJ, I guess the source
> code (in
> the /mywebpage/... dir) won't be changed, since all
> the changes exist
> inside SourceJammer.
> So, how can I push these changes into the source
> directory?
> If, for example, that dir is visible from the web,
> I'd like my changes
> to be visible from the web as well, and this means
> to push the new
> version of the file into the original one.
> I hope I was clear enough.
> Thanks.Best.
> 
> Daniele
> 


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