IBM ClearCase and the Visual Studio 2008 integration: the case is not clear

Introduction

When the previous version of the Visual Studio was released (VS 2005), IBM released a CC integration package for it, which job was to integrate VS and CC. The integration package dlls by default located at “Program Files\Common Files\Rational\ClearCase\CCVSI” folder (just for the record – CCVSI stands for ClearCase Visual Studio Integration). Later, when the VS 2008 was released, the package failed to integrate, due to VS internal changes. So IBM released the patch, which is adding necessary keys to the computer registry and this way registering properly the CC package. The patch can be downloaded from the www.ibm.com (look for the Rational products). The package adding ClearCase menus to the VS, such as check in, check out and so on, thus making possible to operate CC directly from the VS.

A year ago, when we switched to Visual Studio 2008 and installed it on ours development machines with the ClearCase, Visual Studio refused to open our projects without patch being applied. However, then we noticed very strange phenomenon: on some machines, for unknown reason (now it does known ), VS 2008 managed to open and fully integrate with ClearCase without a patch! For a year that was a voodoo for us, one thing I can say with confidence: the lucky guys whose computer worked without the patch was extremely happy, because VS worked a way better without it.

Life with patch and without

Personally, I don’t like the patch (I don’t like ClearCase either, but this is not relevant to the issue). Probably, one of the reasons for that is my previous experience with the Microsoft Source Safe – its integration worked so transparently to the user, as he will almost never notice to its existence. Contrary, when you work with the CC integration you have the feeling it not belongs to there. Each time you doing some operation, such as check in or adding a new file, external ugly dialogs are pop ups, freezing the whole environment while initializing. The integration changes project files, adding its tags to it. As the result, any attempt to open project on the machine with ClearCase but without the patch will fail. With the patch, some of the features (such as pending check ins) does not works. With the patch, you don’t have an icon for hijack or added new file. And more.

You don’t have to use the patch (and CC integration)!

Because patch was making projects corrupted to the machines without patch, we had to make a decision: to make all our machines work with patch or without, in the uniform way. A week ago I discovered what caused to some computers integrate without a patch: they had a different image, and a ClearCase on that image was installed without Visual Studio integration. To make clear what I trying to say here, I will say it again: if you install ClearCase with VS integration – you need a patch. If you install CC without VS integration – VS 2008 integrates perfectly without a patch or anything else.
Wow, this is weird! Why IBM released that patch from the beginning? How it works without the CC integration package? I don’t have answers, and honestly I don’t care since it works and I happy.
When you installing Visual Studio 2008 on the machine with ClearCase installed without VS integration, the VS integrates itself to CC. Inside it, appears all the same standard menus and icons you have with, for example, Source Safe. Every ability I tested perfectly works:
Check in – check
Check out – check
Undo check out – check
For almost every operation opens Visual Studio standard dialog (not third party) – check
Hijack file icon (a flag icon) – check
Added new file icon (a plus icon) – check
View history – check
Compare – check
Pending check ins – check
.. and more

Under File menu added standard “Source Control” menu item – nice, you don’t have it with the patch! Under Tools\Options\Source Control plug in selection – now you can select ClearCase or any other source control provider! Without a patch, the whole Visual Studio works much faster, no freezing anymore. And you can open your projects on computer with patch (pay attention – patch changes project files). We decided to work without a patch and integration, cleaned it from our computers, and no one regrets about that.

Ok, I want to work without a patch and CC integration. How I do that?

If you installing ClearCase first time, just make sure you installing it without Visual Studio integration. In case you already have a ClearCase installed with the integration, you have to perform two simple steps: first is to uninstall CC VS integration (CC itself should remain, of cause), and second is to remove patch registry keys from the registry.
Uninstalling CC VS integration: go to Add or Remove Programs, find “IBM rational ClearCase” there and choose Change >> Next >> Modify. Make sure the “IBM Rational ClearCase Client for VS.Net” is not selected. Press Next to apply changes.
Removing registry keys: when you applied a patch, you used two .reg files. Modify these files by adding “-” char at the end of every key. For example:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Packages] turns into:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Packages-]

After you modifying all the keys inside these files, run both of them. This will remove a specified keys from the registry.
Now run Visual Studio and enjoy.

Software versions I tested: Visual Studio 2008 with/without SP1, ClearCase versions 2003.06.10+ and 7.0.1.3.  Our computers (the ones without integration installed) work this way about a year, no complains

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