TFS check-out problem

Hi,

I have a problem when I compile the scss files (in a simple web application). The css files are regenerated, but they are still locked from TFS's view, so the TFS server will never know that these files are modified, and won't update them in the server.

I've read that the generated files should be checked out automaticly, so what am I missing?

Thanks, tom

Hi Tom,

Are your .scss and .css files included in the project and source control bindings for TFS are enabled? Can you explain what you are seeing by "still locked from TFS's view"?

Jeremy

Hi Jeremy,

Both my files are included in the project and they are under source control. What do you mean by "source control bindings for TFS are enabled"?

So, first both files locked (little blue lock icon), unmodified. If a modify the .scss file, it is checked-out in the background (little red check icon). After modification, if a save the file the .css generated (if I'm rigth, it's because the Compilation isn't disabled in the Web Workbench options). VS2012 detects the .css file is modified outside of the VS and asks me if I want reload it. If I do, than I see the correctly generated file content, but the file itself is still "locked" in TFS (still has blue lock icon). The .css doesn't appair in the pending changes window.

I don't want to generate the .css file on the TFS server, I don't want to generate them in a nightly build or things like that. I only want to able to check-in the localy generated .css files after I modified the .scss files.

Shouldn't the .css files be checked out automaticaly after a "generation"?

Tom

Hi Tom,

Source control bindings meaning you have set up source control for the project within Visual Studio - so that would be yes. From what you have described the file should be being checked out when we go to save it - the only reasons it wouldn't be is being either we are being told by Visual Studio that file is not under source control or that it is already checked out.

Unfortunately I am a bit lost of ideas on this as we lean on Visual Studio to manage the source control operations and it appears to be telling lies about the state of your file. Are your project files on a local drive? I am wondering if there might be something which is confusing VS when we ask it about the file in question.

Jeremy

Ok, I could not login into TFS for a day, now I see a different behaviour (I have no idea what changed....).

First, every file is checked in. If a edit the .scss file, the TFS checks it out for me automaticaly. Everything is the same so far. The difference is that if I save the .scss file I get an error, that there is a permission error, because the .css file is locked.

So 2 days ago the .css file would be overwritten, but still wouldn't be checked out. Right now I can't regenerate the file, because it isn't checked out from TFS (which is perfectly logical result).

So right now the only question I have is: do I have to check out the .css file I want to regenerate from TFS manually, or it is supposed to be checked out automaticaly?

Thanks, tom

Hi Tom,

I would expect it to be checked out automatically however as mentioned above this must not be happening because Visual Studio is telling Web Workbench that the file either doesn't need to be checked out or is not being managed by source control. Presumably if you mark the file writable on disk you can work-around back to the same behavior as you were seeing previously?

Jeremy

Hi Jeremy,

I'm back to the original setup (css generated, not checked out automaticaly from TFS). I've tried using process monitor, but I can't see any difference when I modify the .scss and when the .css is generated (the same CreateFile, CloseFile operations).

Any ideas?

Tom

Hi Tom,

If you manually edit the .css file yourself does Visual Studio automatically check it out for you?

Jeremy

Of course, it works the same way as if I edit the .scss file. Right now I don't have clue how to continue.

How it is supposed to work? Should I delete all the generated .css files before even editing the .scss files? Because if I do that, then the Visual Studio has no problem adding these newly generated .css files to the project, and these files are shown as "added" in the pending changes window.

Is it even supposed the work in the way I discribed at the begining of the thread?

Tom

Hi Tom,

Yes it should work as you described. As mentioned earlier we rely on Visual Studio to handle the source control functions so we are making a call to check out the file as part of the workflow for saving a file (e.g. the generated .css). For some reason Visual Studio is not checking this file out for you though despite apparently deciding that it should check it out if you edit it. I dont know why it would be doing this and unfortunately this isn't really something we can diagnose or fix Im afraid.

Sorry we cant be of more help here :(

Jeremy

Hi Jeremy

I was wonder if you could help me out as i have the exact same issue but I'm not sure if it's related to the way i firstly configured the project. So I'll explain what I've currently got setup.

I have a project in Visual Studio, I've attached it to the post so you can see the configuration of the project. I created this project before workbench supported compass, so all the compass integration was done using command via the compass framework. The config generated is very simple;

I also have a file that states the project is a compass project, this file is also bound to source control and included in the proj file.

So having now turned on the setting to ask workbench to do the compilation of the SASS instead of using compass command line. If I checkout the CSS files then the compilation works fine. However if I don't check out the file and go on to amend the SASS file the CSS stays locked and I get the following error in the output.

This clearly means that the file is locked (read-only) but normally you'd expect it to be automatically checked out. If manually go and amend that CSS file then the file is checked out automatically as expected.

So there you have it, I can't work out why its not working as expected, is there some form of configuration I've missed? I can't find much documentation on your site about moving from compass command to workbench so i believe I've done everything correctly.

Thanks Adam

Thanks for the detailed post.

I suspect the file is write protected which is leading to the error.

When you were handling this manually did you have the files (specifically the .css file) checked in to TFS? If you run Compass via the command line now (without checking the .css file out manually) do you get the same error reported? Lastly is the file marked as read-only prior to checking it out from TFS (or touching it in the editor).

Thanks!
Jeremy

Thanks for your fast reply.

When I was handling this all manually both the .sass and .css files were checked into TFS, therefore both file types are set to be read-only (any file that's committed to TFS becomes read-only when its not checked out for edit).

If i run compass via command line now and as like previously I get the same error, due to the file being set to read-only. I would have to check out the .css file to allow the .sass file to be complied into CSS.

Thanks Adam

Thanks for checking that Adam,

Ill look at reproducing this here and working on a fix. I will let you know once we have an update available in the nightlies.

Jeremy

Thanks for looking into this Jeremy

Can you let me know when you've worked on a fix and got it into the nightlies?

Hey guys,

I just switched a project that I'm working on over from basic SASS to Compass based SASS and I am having a problem like this as well. TFS version control is unable to automatically check out the .css file that corresponds with the .scss file that I am making changes to.

I would love to know when this is fixed.

Thanks!

Hi Jeremy

Do you have any update on this issue?

Thanks

An update for this hasnt been released *yet* but it is coming very soon once we can do some more testing on this :) Ill certainly update this once the branch is merged and available in the nightlies.

Jeremy

I had the same issue - it seems that Visual Studio doesn't like it when a script automatically generates a file. Just rename the css file and manually re-create the css file using "Add New" and it seems to work fine.

Peterchon, all my css files were manually created and i've still got the same issue.

I am also having the same compass issue and TFS. This is the error I see on the Work Bench Output when I edit a partial:

Errno::EACCES on line ["56"] of C: Permission denied

I did not have this problem with the normal sass setup. As I would edit, it would checkout files as I needed them. Once I activated compass and configured my paths in the ruby file, it will update the additional files but not check them out.

I also get the error when I edit a single sass file with no dependents. It is trying to modify all sass files even though they were not changed.

Just a fix for my last error regarding the non dependent file... comment out the line numbers for debugging in the config.rb.

Any update on this? This is really frustrating. Basically, Web Workbench + compass is not compatible with TFS.

Agreed.

It is only a viable solution when it is a one man team. Every sass change checks out the project file, preventing other users from making sass changes or adding/deleting files.

I had to roll back to a pre-installed Compass version since I wasn't able to turn it off (web app).

Hi all,

We have merged some fixes for these today and these will be available in the next nighlty build. The fixes should cover the issue where the project file is checked out on each .scss save when using Compass and we have added a new option under Tools/Options/Web Workbench, under the Compass section called "Force Compass stylesheets to writable" which if enabled will remove the read-only flag on all files in the output folder prior to executing Compass - this should cover the "Errno:EACCES" issue where Compass cannot update a read-only file.

These fixes will also be included in the next gallery update next week.

Jeremy