Version Control System in AX

A Version Control System (VCS) enables a team of developers to work, at the same time, on the code base in one or more projects. Using a VCS can have the following advantages, depending on which VCS you use:

• Concurrent development
• Isolated development
• Change description
• Change history
• Change list support
• Quality bar enforcement

MorphX, the Microsoft Dynamics AX Integrated Development Environment (IDE), can integrate various Version Control Systems (VCS). You can integrate:

• Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (TFS)
• Microsoft Visual SourceSafe
• MorphX VCS
• Another third-party VCS

Version Control Considerations

If you use the VSS or TFS version control systems, you should consider the following before you develop code or write documentation:

• Version control is file-based.
• You must install Microsoft Visual Studio or Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer.
• Each developer must have an Application Object Server (AOS) and database server.

MorphX VCS allows for out-of-the-box version control system integration. MorphX VCS is intended for one to ten developers who use a shared AOS. Instead of checking out objects and storing them in a repository, MorphX VCS signals to other users that a specific element is being worked on by another user. It provides change description functionality, change history functionality, and quality bar enforcement.

Microsoft Dynamics AX can integrate with VSS, TFS, and MorphX VCS, but you can extend the version control functionality to use other version control systems.

The following table compares the features available from the different version control options:

	MorphX	MorphX VCS	Visual SourceSafe	TFS
Concurrent development	No	No	Yes	Yes
Isolated development	No	No	Yes	Yes
Change description	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Change history	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Quality bar enforcement	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Branching	No	No	No	Yes
Work item integration	No	No	No	Yes
Labeling support	No	No	Yes	No

Adding Elements to the Version Control System

To add Elements to the version control system

1. In the AOT, right-click the element and then click Add to Version Control.
2. Select the folder in the version control system that you want to add your element to.Right-click the element and then click Check In. This opens the Check in form.
3. After you check in the element, it can be checked out of the version control system.
   
   

After you check in the element, it can be checked out of the version control system.

The element is added to the current model. The current model and layer are displayed in the status bar in Microsoft Dynamics AX and may also be displayed together with the element in the AOT.

You cannot have two models under version control in the same layer if elements occur in both models. You must develop outside of version control when this is the scenario. For example, during upgrade you might have fields that occur in the original table and the upgrade table.

If you add an element in a lower layer to version control and then customize the element in a higher layer, you may encounter problems when you synchronize. If you develop in multiple layers, we recommend that you create separate VCS branches for each layer.

If you cannot check in a new element, it might have failed some of the quality checks set in the system settings for the version control system. These settings are typically chosen by an administrator, and are set in the System settings form.

Checking Out and Checking in the Label File

Create or edit labels by using the Label editor. When you create a new label, a temporary label ID is assigned to it.

To add a label file to version control

1. Click Tools > Label > Label editor.
2. Click Add to version control.

To check out the label file

1. Click Tools > Label > Label editor.
2. Click Check out.

When finished, check the label file back in. When you check in a new label, the temporary label ID and references to it are mapped to a globally unique label ID.

To check in the label file

1. On the Label editor form, click Check in.
2. Type a description of the work you completed, and then click OK.

Resolving References to a Temporary Label ID that is Not Valid

If you have references to a temporary label ID that has already been checked in, those references are not valid because the temporary label ID is replaced with a globally unique label ID when you check it in. This can happen when references to the temporary label ID are not in the scope of the check-in.

To resolve references to temporary labels

1. Manually locate references to a temporary label ID that should reference the new globally unique label ID.
2. Update the references to point to the new globally unique label ID.

To check out an element from the AOT

• In the AOT, right-click the element, and then click Check Out.

The Check Out command synchronizes the local copy with the version control system copy before checking it out. You can select multiple items in the AOT and check them out in one step.