Lightweight methods for storing work in progress in a source code control system

• US 20050193374A1
• Filed: 03/01/2004
• Published: 09/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Neumann, Douglas T., Harry, Brian D., Harry, Craig A., Pinnix, Justin E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,480,896 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/122
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and methodology to facilitate software development activities via the concept of “Shelving” which provides an improved alternative to conventional branching technologies in certain scenarios. In one aspect, a software development system is provided. The system includes a shelving component that captures a current state of an intermediate software design. A version control component processes the intermediate design as if the intermediate design were a completed software design.

Claims

1. A software development system, comprising:

a shelving component that captures a current state of an intermediate software design; and

a version control component that processes the intermediate software design as if a completed software design.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more code development systems that are employed by a developer to design software applications.

3. The system of claim 1, the shelving component is executed on at least one of a local development system or a centralized server or servers.

4. The system of claim 1, the version control component includes committed work or files that are generally checked in as finalized versions of code.

5. The system of claim 1, the version control system enables authorized users to retrieve respective versions of code to produce intermediate versions or builds of software in cases that utilize the shelving component or final versions or builds of software in cases that build from the committed work.

6. The system of claim 1, the shelving component is employed for at least one of an interrupted workflow application, a checkpoint application, a shared work application, a code backup application, a work exchange application, and a private workspace exchange application.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising an unshelving component that restores a private workspace to a state that was previously archived.

8. The system of claim 7, the unshelving component allows removing the state that is stored on a server or to preserve changes shelved on the server in order that the changes are available for unshelving by other users.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to store state information for all files or folders in a workspace or for individual files in the workspace.

10. The system of claim 9, the state information includes at least one of a unique identifier for all files and folders in the workspace and a version number of each file or folder in the workspace.

11. The system of claim 9, the state information includes at least one of a unique identifier for a file, a number of a version that was modified to create a current state, and a locally modified state of a file.

12. The system of claim 9, further comprising meta-data that is associated with the state information.

13. A computer readable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon for implementing the shelving component and the version control component of claim 1.

14. A code development system, comprising:

means for archiving non-finalized software in a version control system;

means for capturing one or more states associated with the non-finalized software; and

means for processing the non-finalized software along with finalized software on the version control system.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising means for restoring the states and the non-finalized software to a previous state.

16. A method to facilitate code development, comprising:

creating a version of software in a local development system;

automatically determining at least one state for the software; and

shelving the software and the state on a version control system.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising unshelving the version of software in accordance with the state.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising providing at least one of a shelving command and an unshelving command to facilitate development of the software.

19. The method of claim 18, the shelving command is associated with at least one of a preserve option, a workspace option, a replace option, a comment option, a file option, an error condition, and an exit code.

20. The method of claim 18, the shelving and the unshelving command are associated with at least one security parameter.

21. The method of claim 18, the unshelving command is associated with at least one of a preserve option, a file option, a name option, a usemame option, an error condition, and an exit code.

23. The user interface of claim 21, further comprising an unshelving command that restores selected files on the version control system to a previous state.

22. A user interface for archiving intermediate versions of code, comprising:

a display component to highlight one or more intermediate files to archive on a version control system; and

an shelving command input to enable users to transfer the intermediate files to a version control system as if the intermediate files were finalized versions of the intermediate files.