Problem:

What is source control in SilkCentral Test Manager and how does it work within SCTM 8.0?

Resolution:

The source control section is found in the Administration->Configuration->Source Control section of SCTM. A basic description of it is a central repository where your working script files can reside so that they can be accessed by execution servers or clients connecting to the main server of SCTM. There are three types of source control that are supported within SCTM and they are UNC, MSVSS and PVCS.

Both Microsoft Visual SourceSave (MSVSS) and Polytron Version Control System (PVCS) are Source Control products that we support but the idea is that you enter scripts into a large database and check them out as you need them. This will lock the scripts and therefore not allow any group to make modifications to scripts simultaneously. The scripts will sit in a central repository and be able to be accessed by all clients.

UNC is slightly different and a little simpler to implement. All you have to do is create a folder and make sure that this is accessible to all your clients. You then enter in your scripts in what ever architecture you wish.

The way that SCTM works with both UNC and Source Control products when you are trying to execute tests from SCTM is the same. SCTM goes with the central repository and picks up the latest script file and copies it to a location local to the client. If the files are updated in between runs, SCTM always checks the Source Control central repository for the latest file. The default location for the local working directory is C:\temp and this will be created if it doesn"t already exist.