Since a while now I’m using source control in Domino Designer and I love it! I’m using eGit because I like that it’s integrated directly into Designer.
I recently needed to re-install Designer and found out that all on-disk projects needed to be re-added to Designer too. In this post I’ll share a way on how you can restore those and restore the connection with the NSF´s.
First thing you need to do after installing Designer is to re-install the eGit plugin. By default, eGit stores the GIT repositories on Windows in a directory called “git” in the users’ home folder (c:users<your name>)*. An uninstall of Designer will not remove that folder, so my on-disk projects were still there. Note: add this folder to your backups!
Next add your databases to Designer and organize them using working sets. You then need to get the Git projects back in Designer: go to the Package Explorer, right click somewhere in it and choose “Import”. Enter “git” in the search dialog and select the “Projects from Git” option. Select the Git repository (folder) that contains your project (or click “Add” to select the location of the repository on the file system). In the next screen, leave the “Import existing projects” option enabled and select the “Working Directory” folder. Click “Next” and Designer will show you the on-disk projects it contains. Select the ones you would like to import. I would suggest to select the working set you chose for your database, but for some reason I wasn’t able to select it, so I added the Git project to the working set afterwards using the method described here . Click “Finish”.
You’re now ready to restore the link from your databases/ applications with the on-disk project: right-click on a database and select Team Development > Associate with Existing On-Disk Project. In my situation I have the latest design sitting in my database, so I choose the “Export from database.nsf to selected on-disk project” option. If you want the on-disk project to be leading, choose the “Import …” option. Select the on-disk project you just imported and hit Finish. Done. Now back to work!
By the way: it looks like there’s a bug the eGit version used in Designer that causes eGit’s repository views to sometimes be completely blank. No fear: click the menu icon next to the view and select “Refresh”.
* Side-note: if you create an on-disk project for a database, all files are stored (by default) in <notes data>workspace<project name>. If you then add that local on-disk project to eGit using Team > Share project, the entire folder is moved to the default eGit folder at c:users<your name>git<new repo name>.
And don’t make the mistake of creating an on-disk project into that Git folder. I did that once and watched Designer delete all the repositories that were sitting there.
We tried eGit but had so many issues with it to a point where our whole Git repository was corrupted (eGit is a great tool on it’s own but unfortunately the Notes/Domino implementation is buggy and has been abandoned with no support), so we decided to switch to Git GUI and used bitbucket instead.
My view on this has also changed: I stopped using eGit and am now using SourceTree as my Git client. I can very much recommend it.
Mark
I am currently using the eGit plugin to import existing repos into the designer, but for the actual source control process (committing, etc.).
If you guys are no longer using eGit at all, how are you importing existing repos into the designer and creating the on-disk project?
If you use SourceTree (or any other external Git client), creating the on-disk project is still done in Designer. But that’s also all that Designer does.
The repo and all other source control functions (commiting, branche management, working with remote repos) is all done in the external Git client.
Do you still need egit installed in DDE?
Or do you directly manage the On-Disk-Project with Sourcetree?
What about the .git folders?
I’m not using eGit anymore in Designer and have started using SourceTree to manage the on-disk project. Find it more intuitive to use and I don’t like having all those plugins in Designer.
About the .git folder: I always store the on-disk project in a folder of the GIT repository. That way you don’t have any problems with the .git folder. Here’s an example: https://github.com/markleusink/AutoLogins