A presentation about the benefits of source code control for Microsoft Access developers. Covers Add-Ins for Access to deal with the issues of managing Access projects in version control.

1. SOURCE CODE CONTROL
For Microsoft Access Developers
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2. BENEFITS OF SOURCE CODE
CONTROL
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3. SPEAKINGVERSION HISTORY
 Defined state
 Atomic, consistent change sets
 Comment for changes
 (Optional) link to work items / tasks in ALM-System
 Label /Tag significant versions
 Search the history
 Easily compare individual files from any label / tag
 Automatic backup of AccessObjects with comments and context
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4. CENTRAL CODE REPOSITORY
“SINGLE SOURCE OFTRUTH”
 Defined, central storage of the source code*
 Optionally accessible globally
 Independent of file shares and local storage
 Permission management for authenticated users
 Any write access is logged by definition
*= Requires additional work with DVCs
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5. “GATED COMMITS”
ENFORCEMENT OF RULES, AUTOMATICTESTS
 Depend on features of your SCC-System
 Validate comments
 Check work item-/task-linked
 Validate formal coding standard
 Force code review
 Automatic build after each commit
 Run tests automatically after each build
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6. BASE FOR AUTOMATIC BUILDS
 Automatic builds based on the repository files
 Independent of the local developer computer
 After Commit or time controlled
 Continuous Delivery
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7. SUPPORT FOR PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT LINES
 Tools for parallel development lines
 Branch & Merge
 Diff & History
 Parallel development lines will be less painful, but they will not be
pleasant
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ANY BENEFIT I DID
NOT
MENTION?

9. COORDINATION OF MULTIPLE DEVELOPERS
 All previously mentioned arguments are even more important
 Exclusive Check-Outs
 Display of SCC-Status (Checked-out / Out-of-date / Modified)
 Diff & Merge help to resolve conflicts
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10. WORKFLOW WITH SOURCE CODE CONTROL
1. Either A) Create project in repository and add current version of
all files
or B) Get current version of files
2. Optional: Check-Out files for editing, optionally lock them
3. Edit files
4. Optional: Merge the changes of other developers with your own.
5. Check-In / Commit – Add the new version of files into the repository
6. Optional: Label /Tag the version in repository
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FILES! - ?

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WELL, OK, ACCESS IS A FILE BASED
DATABASE

13. ACCESS IS FILE BASED, BUT…
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14. ACCESS-SCC-ADD-INS
 Microsoft Access 2010 Source Code Control – Add-In
 Ivercy
 OASIS
 Several open source projects
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15. ACCESS-SCC-ADD-INS
 Export Access-Objects as text files
 Integrate Commands / Control the SCC-Clients
 Display SCC-Status (Exclusive to Ivercy + MS-SCC-Add-In)
 Checked-In, Checked-Out (Exclusive), New (Not controlled)
 Extended status information (Exclusive to Ivercy!)
 Out-of-Date, Modified (locally), Pinned, Deleted
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16. INDIVIDUAL ACCESS OBJECTS
 Access.Application.SaveAsText
 Forms, Reports, Queries, Modules and Macros in text format
 „Data and Misc Objects“
 Binary file
 Tables, Database properties,VBA-Project-Properties, References, and
Commandbars
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17. ACCESS SCC INTEGRATION
VISUALIZED
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23. IVERCY DEMO
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24. FURTHER READING / LINKS
 Ivercy - Seamless source code control integration for Microsoft Access
http://www.ivercy.com/
 The 10 commandments of good source control management
https://www.troyhunt.com/10-commandments-of-good-source-control/
 7 reasons to use source code control for Microsoft Access development
http://codekabinett.com/rdumps.php?Lang=2&targetDoc=reasons-source-code-control-microsoft-access
 Single User Source Control
http://ericsink.com/item_10134.html
 Version Control by Example
http://ericsink.com/vcbe/index.html
 Martin Fowler – Various texts on version control
https://www.martinfowler.com/tags/version%20control.html
 How to choose a source code control system for Access development
http://codekabinett.com/rdumps.php?Lang=2&targetDoc=choose-source-code-control-microsoft-access
 „Pro Git“ – E-Book
https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2
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25. GLOSSARY
 SCC – Source Code Control
 VCS –Version Control System
 DVCS – DistributedVersion Control System
 Repository – Storage unit for different projects, their versions, source code and
history
 SCC-System /VCS – Software for version control (z.B.TFS, SVN, Git, etc.)
 SCC-Client – Client Software for your SCC-System
 MSSCCI – MicroSoft Source Code Control Integration – API-Specification von MS for
SCC Clients
 CheckOut-Edit-CheckIn – SCC workflow paradigm, shaped by MSVisual SourceSafe
 Edit-Merge-Commit – SCC workflow paradigm, shaped by Subversion
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