SSAnalyzer for SourceSafe by TSASG

News Release - 2005.09.10

TSA Software Group (TSASG) announces the release of SSAnalyzer 1.0.

SSAnalyzer is a unique tool for Visual SourceSafe that will identify and assist the user in correcting improperly branched or duplicated files.

Using advanced text algorithms to identify non-effective file differences (formatting, comments, etc), SSAnalyzer displays effective vs. non-effective changes for closely matching files, making it much easier for the user to find those few REAL differences among thousands of lines of code.

Typical file and code redundancy can be reduced by an average of 20%, greatly reducing maintenance problems, increasing the speed of SourceSafe, and enhancing the accuracy of third-party source code reporting packages.

Less-than-best practices, problems they cause and how SSAnalyzer helps

The routine use of some less-than-best practices may cause one or more of the following difficult-to-detect conditions:

Unintentionally duplicated files (Evil twins)
Unintentionally branched files

By identifying the cause of these practices, you will be able to conduct some quick and easy Team Training Opportunities

This table provides details:

Practice	Problems Caused	Solution
User rollback of a shared file	Causes a new branch of the file, thereby ending the shared-ness of the file and causing several problems: Many users do not understand this side-effect of doing a rollback on a shared file. Minor training is required but it must first be identified. Immediate increased maintenance costs because now both files must be maintained. On-going increases in maintenance costs because now the branched file may very well be shared into future projects. Third-party reporting packages are less accurate. They are reporting this branched file as being created by this user, when in fact it was just branched. Should credit be assigned for that? SourceSafe response time gets worse just because of the number of files used.	SSAnalyzer provides an integrated GUI of all branched files, indicating: date branch occurred user causing the branch action that caused the branch (rollback or branch) active and deleted link counts degree of difference between branches recommended action Screenshot
User builds a new project by getting the needed files from SourceSafe, then checks in the project and those files as if they all were new files	Causes duplication of files that should have been shared. This causes numerous problems: Many novice users do not understand the impact of this practice. Minor training is required but it must first be identified. Immediate increased maintenance costs because now both files must be maintained. On-going increases in maintenance costs because now the duplicated file may very well be shared into future projects. Third-party reporting packages are less accurate. They are reporting this duplicated file as being created by this user, when in fact it was just copied. Should credit be assigned for that? SourceSafe response time gets worse just because of the number of files used.	SSAnalyzer provides an integrated GUI of all duplicate file names, indicating: date file was created user causing the creation action that caused the new file ( create, rollback or branch) active and deleted link counts degree of difference between like-named files recommended action Screenshot
Deleting, but not destroying/purging, files and projects	This is a common practice. We want to be sure we can recover the file/project if something goes wrong. However, this is only valid for a reasonable period of time, typically 30-90 days. Be assured that your repository has files/projects that were deleted long ago. These unnecessary files: Increase SourceSafe response time, impacting daily activity. Could be incorrectly recovered and sneak back into your code base. They were deleted for a reason.	SSAnalyzer provides separate GUIs for all deleted files and projects, indicating: date file/project deleted user performing the delete active and deleted link counts version info (count, min/max dates) days file/project existed before deletion Files Screenshot Projects Screenshot

Download a free trial version now.

CM, testing, dupe, purged, enhancement, support, expert, QA, reseller

Privacy