PowerBuilder provides minimal in-the-box source control through the PBNative check in/check out utility. PBNative allows you to lock the current version of PowerBuilder objects and prevents others from checking out these objects while you are working on them. It provides minimal versioning functionality, and does not allow you to add comments or labels to objects that you add or check in to the PBNative project directory.
You connect to PBNative from PowerBuilder in the same way you connect to all other source control systems: through the PowerBuilder SCC API. You use the same menu items to add, check out, check in, or get the latest version of objects on the source control server. However, any menu item that calls a source control management tool is unavailable when you select PBNative as your source control system.
Because there is no separate management tool for PBNative, if you need to edit project PBG files that get out of sync, you can open them directly on the server without checking them out of source control.
For more information about PBG files, see “Editing the PBG file for a source-controlled target”.
PBNative creates files with an extra PRP extension for every object registered in the server storage location. If an object with the same file name (minus the additional extension) has been checked out, a PRP file provides the user name of the person who has placed a lock on the object. PRP files are created on the server, not in the local path.
PowerBuilder also adds a version number to the PRP file for an object in the PBNative archive directory when you register that object with PBNative source control. PowerBuilder increments the version number when you check in a new revision. The version number is visible in the Show History dialog box that you open from the pop-up menu for the object, or in the Library painter when you display the object version numbers.
For more information on the Show History dialog box, see “Displaying the source control version history”. For information on displaying the version number in the Library painter, see “Controlling columns that display in the List view”.
Using Show Differences functionality with PBNative
PBNative has an option that allows you to see differences
between an object on the server and an object on the local computer
using a 32-bit visual difference utility that you must install separately.
For information on setting up a visual difference utility for use
with PBNative, see “Comparing local objects with source control versions”.
