Qs About SQL Server and RoboSource Control

[hermi14]

Hi. I have two questions:

(1) Will the SQL Server Compact edition work as the db used for RoboSource Control? I know that it has a limit of 4 GB.

(2) Do I have to install a copy of RoboHelp (and, thus, of the RoboSource Server Configuration Utility) onto the network server where my SQL database is located, or can I configure the SQL database remotely from one of the client machines?

Thanks!

[hermi14]

It does have a limit of 4 GB.

[Gravenstein]

My *guess* on number one is "yes," but I don't know.

For number two, let me break it down into two parts. I don't think that RH is required on your RSC server. You should be able to install just the RSC part. In fact, I'm not sure that RH7 *will* run on a server. Also, your RSC server can be an entirely separate machine from your SQL server.

G

[hermi14]

Hi. Yes, you are correct that the "RSC Server" is really just a SQL db that you have modified using the RSC Database Configuration tool.

We are working on a client project from several locations--some people are at the client site sometimes, some people are at home sometimes, and some people are at our company site sometimes. The client software that we are documenting requires us to be connected to the client VPN if we are not at the client site. However, we would like to store the RH files on our company server, which can be VPN'd into from either our client site or from home.

Apparently the VPNs will pass the IP/HTTP protocols that SQL/RSC uses. What we'd have to do is log into the company VPN (if necessary) at the beg of the day, use the "offline" feature of RSC to check out the documents, and then log off the company VPN and onto the client VPN to access the software we are documenting. Then reverse the process at the end of the day or whenever.

However, our company doesn't want to install SQL on our storage machine which is just a file server. And we don't want to store it on the client site, either. (We're just documentation and training, after all, not real software developers.)

One alternative to using RSC is to use merged projects, since each tech writer will only be working on one section of the documentation at a time. However, I'm concerned about context sensitivity and merged projects. I found a good discussion where one of the Peters (the two gurus on here who are named Peter) gave an extensive description of how to do CS with merged projects. However, someone reported that they couldn't get it to work using RH7.

As a relatively novice (though technically inclined) user, I would like to avoid the issues with merged projects and CS. Therefore, I think what I'm going to do is store the RSC server on my local machine and check out the documents for tech writers myself, then check them back in when the writer is done.

I'm testing today and I will report back on my results.

Thanks for your responsiveness and let me know if you have any opinions on this!

HKB

[hermi14]

OK, I have another question. Suppose a user is checking out files for the very first time (for offline or oneline editing). The user knows s/he needs to work on a certain set of files and s/he selects and checks them out. Does RSC automatically create/download supporting files for the project so that she can work on those files on her machine? I'm confused about that. Then when she's checking them back in, how does she need to distinguish those supporting files from the actual files she edited? I'm confused about that.

[Guest]

Yes, RSC downloads everything in source control you need to work in your project. When the user is done working, if you use the "Check In All" button, or if you have the option set up to "check in all when closing" everything that has changed gets updated.

.MW