Visual Studio 2008 and C#

Question

I'm an IT Professional with a background with developing ASP/VBscript/SQL web applications. I want to take some training and get up to speed with Visual Studio 2008 and C# so that I can take over a project at work and make updates/bug fixes in house rather than calling in a third party.

The web application I'll be working on was developed in Visual Studio 2005 with a mix of C# code and some Ajax.

When I load the source code into Visual Studio 2008 I received a warning that the Source Control Plugin wasn't installed. It's looking for SourceSafe which I don't have. Is this necessary to use?

I'm starting a training course in February called Introduction to Visual Studio C# 2008. Well this be adequate to get me going in the right direction to be able to update, fix, and make minor changes to our web application? This is a big opportunity for me and I don't want to blow it.

Thanks!

Answer 1

SourceSafe is a Software Configuration Management tool from Microsoft, and is not required. I WOULD recommend using some form of SCM, but flavor is a matter of preference.

If the pop-ups are annoying to you and you would like to disable them, then removing the SourceSafe bindings from the project should stop them.

From http://weblogs.asp.net/bkcarroll/archive/2004/03/08/86059.aspx :

Solution:

1 - Go to the folder containing the solution files and delete the following:
          mssccprj.scc
          MyProject.vssscc
          vssver.scc

2 - Open MyProject.sln in your favorite text editor and remove the following section:
          GlobalSection(SourceCodeControl) = preSolution
                     ...
          EndGlobalSection

3 - Go to the folder containing the project files and delete the following:
          MyProject.vbproj.vspscc
          mssccprj.scc
          vssver.scc

4 - Open MyProject.vbproj in your text editor and remove the following lines:
          SccProjectName = "SAK"
          SccLocalPath = "SAK"
          SccAuxPath = "SAK"
          SccProvider = "SAK"

Now you can open the solution/project with no source control errors.

As far as the class goes, if you're already familiar with ASP/VBScript, you can probably pick up a C# class and figure out the rest. If not, I would suggest going for an ASP focused class that utilizes a C# back-end.

Answer 2

I would expect that a course named "Introduction to Visual Studio C# 2008" would probably not cover Ajax technologies, so you might want to look for some additional resources on that topic. (It might not even cover ASP.NET in significant depth, so I'd advise checking the syllabus, and if the ASP.NET coverage is weak then prepare for some additional learning on that topic as well.)

Re the Source Safe plug-in: you will need this if you want to work on the code base (so you can check in and out of the existing VSS repository). You will not need it just to browse the code.

Answer 3

Well James that is up to you. I am not familer with the course but if you apply yourself and pay attention I'm sure you can achive your goal. Do not be afraid to move beyond just course work to learn new things. There is a lot of information about Visual Studio on the internet.

Answer 4

SourceSafe is not required to use Visual Studio.

Learning the basics of VS will definitely allow you to update and fix your web apps. VS allows you to work with all the technologies you mentioned all in one environment. Although ASP/VBScript are "legacy" at this point, there is still support for them in the VS environment.

Answer 5

James I'd suggest that you look at the free resources (video and textual) available to you on ASP.NET . I would presume that once you've read a few tutorials and watched some videos + taken your training course you should be able to maintain the code base. Add in the fact that sites like StackOverflow have a large .NET community and there are always people willing to help.

Good luck