This section provides an overview of source control systems and describes how PowerBuilder integrates with these systems' interfaces.
What source control systems do
Source control systems (version control systems) track and store the evolutionary history of software components. They are particularly useful if you are working with other developers on a large application, in that they can prevent multiple developers from modifying the same component at the same time. You can make sure you are working with the latest version of a component or object by synchronizing the copy of the object you are working on with the last version of the object checked into the source control system.
Why use a source control system
Most source control systems provide disaster recovery protection and functions to help manage complex development processes. With a source control system, you can track the development history of objects in your PowerBuilder workspace/solution, maintain archives, and restore previous revisions of objects if necessary.
Source control interfaces
You work with a source control system through a source control interface in the following ways.
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PowerBuilder supports working with Subversion (SVN) and Git source control systems through proprietary interfaces provided by source control vendors in the PowerBuilder IDE.
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PowerBuilder also provides a standard application programming interface to any source control interfaces based on the Microsoft Common Source Code Control Interface Specification, Version 0.99.0823, which means, you can use the PowerBuilder SCC API with any source control system that implements features defined in the Microsoft specification.
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PowerBuilder also provides a basic check in/check out utility (PBNative) that installs with the product.
PowerBuilder institutes source control at the object level. This gives you a finer grain of control than if you copied your PBLs directly to source control outside of the PowerBuilder SCC API.
