Bad behaviour of excel files in RTC Version Control
Dear Sirs,
Microsoft Excel 2003 is creating some mess in our Versioning, because it always modifies files in the system, even if this documents are just opened and no content has changed.
RTC then records these changes in Pending Changes, even if no content has been modified (esp. after the project is refreshed or the document stays open for long time). Therefore lots of wrong changes are created.
The developers then tend to delever those changes, rather then discard them, because it is hard to figure out which binary changes a real and which changes are fake.
This issue is also reported here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826741
RTC WI created here:
https://jazz.net/jazz/web/projects/Rational%20Team%20Concert#action=com.ibm.team.workitem.viewWorkItem&id=100338
Is there any work arround for this issue?
Microsoft Excel 2003 is creating some mess in our Versioning, because it always modifies files in the system, even if this documents are just opened and no content has changed.
RTC then records these changes in Pending Changes, even if no content has been modified (esp. after the project is refreshed or the document stays open for long time). Therefore lots of wrong changes are created.
The developers then tend to delever those changes, rather then discard them, because it is hard to figure out which binary changes a real and which changes are fake.
This issue is also reported here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826741
RTC WI created here:
https://jazz.net/jazz/web/projects/Rational%20Team%20Concert#action=com.ibm.team.workitem.viewWorkItem&id=100338
Is there any work arround for this issue?
6 answers
I would suggest locking the Excel file before editing and keep it unlocked if only viewing. It will help to prevent your developers from overwriting each other's changes. It's also a reminder that if the file isn't locked then any pending changes on it are most likely false changes.
Dear Sirs,
Microsoft Excel 2003 is creating some mess in our Versioning, because it always modifies files in the system, even if this documents are just opened and no content has changed.
RTC then records these changes in Pending Changes, even if no content has been modified (esp. after the project is refreshed or the document stays open for long time). Therefore lots of wrong changes are created.
The developers then tend to delever those changes, rather then discard them, because it is hard to figure out which binary changes a real and which changes are fake.
This issue is also reported here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826741
RTC WI created here:
https://jazz.net/jazz/web/projects/Rational%20Team%20Concert#action=com.ibm.team.workitem.viewWorkItem&id=100338
Is there any work arround for this issue?
I believe I have seen these issues with PPT if the editor was opened in Eclipse and not the external system default editor. I think after launching PPT as window embedded in Eclipse the editor always showed the dirty flag.
I configured Eclipse to always open PPT outside of Eclipse and as long as I did not save these issues went away or at least got less frequent.
You could try that too. For testing rightclick the file and select open with>system editor. To make this permanent for all files of that type, add a new file association in Window>Preferences>General>Editors>File Association.
Ralph
I configured Eclipse to always open PPT outside of Eclipse and as long as I did not save these issues went away or at least got less frequent.
You could try that too. For testing rightclick the file and select open with>system editor. To make this permanent for all files of that type, add a new file association in Window>Preferences>General>Editors>File Association.
Ralph
Dear Sirs,
Microsoft Excel 2003 is creating some mess in our Versioning, because it always modifies files in the system, even if this documents are just opened and no content has changed.
RTC then records these changes in Pending Changes, even if no content has been modified (esp. after the project is refreshed or the document stays open for long time). Therefore lots of wrong changes are created.
The developers then tend to delever those changes, rather then discard them, because it is hard to figure out which binary changes a real and which changes are fake.
This issue is also reported here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826741
RTC WI created here:
https://jazz.net/jazz/web/projects/Rational%20Team%20Concert#action=com.ibm.team.workitem.viewWorkItem&id=100338
Is there any work arround for this issue?
@tmok: thanks for the suggestion: we will test how the pending changes behave with locking.
@rschoon: you will face the same problem with external editor if you refresh the package explorer while the file is opened by the editor or if the file is opend for a long time.
@rschoon: you will face the same problem with external editor if you refresh the package explorer while the file is opened by the editor or if the file is opend for a long time.
I believe I have seen these issues with PPT if the editor was opened in Eclipse and not the external system default editor. I think after launching PPT as window embedded in Eclipse the editor always showed the dirty flag.
I configured Eclipse to always open PPT outside of Eclipse and as long as I did not save these issues went away or at least got less frequent.
You could try that too. For testing rightclick the file and select open with>system editor. To make this permanent for all files of that type, add a new file association in Window>Preferences>General>Editors>File Association.
Ralph
Dear Sirs,
Microsoft Excel 2003 is creating some mess in our Versioning, because it always modifies files in the system, even if this documents are just opened and no content has changed.
RTC then records these changes in Pending Changes, even if no content has been modified (esp. after the project is refreshed or the document stays open for long time). Therefore lots of wrong changes are created.
The developers then tend to delever those changes, rather then discard them, because it is hard to figure out which binary changes a real and which changes are fake.
This issue is also reported here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826741
RTC WI created here:
https://jazz.net/jazz/web/projects/Rational%20Team%20Concert#action=com.ibm.team.workitem.viewWorkItem&id=100338
Is there any work arround for this issue?
Dear Sirs,
Microsoft Excel 2003 is creating some mess in our Versioning, because it always modifies files in the system, even if this documents are just opened and no content has changed.
RTC then records these changes in Pending Changes, even if no content has been modified (esp. after the project is refreshed or the document stays open for long time). Therefore lots of wrong changes are created.
The developers then tend to delever those changes, rather then discard them, because it is hard to figure out which binary changes a real and which changes are fake.
This issue is also reported here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826741
RTC WI created here:
https://jazz.net/jazz/web/projects/Rational%20Team%20Concert#action=com.ibm.team.workitem.viewWorkItem&id=100338
Is there any work arround for this issue?
Hi
Can the developers abandon the changes (ie Undo them before they do a checkin)? Alternatively, they could see the recommendation in the Microsoft link and use a different file format.
anthony
Thanks for your feedback. Maybe I haven't seen that for some reason e.g. not having them open long enough. Definitely good to know.
Ralph
Ralph
@tmok: thanks for the suggestion: we will test how the pending changes behave with locking.
@rschoon: you will face the same problem with external editor if you refresh the package explorer while the file is opened by the editor or if the file is opend for a long time.
I believe I have seen these issues with PPT if the editor was opened in Eclipse and not the external system default editor. I think after launching PPT as window embedded in Eclipse the editor always showed the dirty flag.
I configured Eclipse to always open PPT outside of Eclipse and as long as I did not save these issues went away or at least got less frequent.
You could try that too. For testing rightclick the file and select open with>system editor. To make this permanent for all files of that type, add a new file association in Window>Preferences>General>Editors>File Association.
Ralph
Dear Sirs,
Microsoft Excel 2003 is creating some mess in our Versioning, because it always modifies files in the system, even if this documents are just opened and no content has changed.
RTC then records these changes in Pending Changes, even if no content has been modified (esp. after the project is refreshed or the document stays open for long time). Therefore lots of wrong changes are created.
The developers then tend to delever those changes, rather then discard them, because it is hard to figure out which binary changes a real and which changes are fake.
This issue is also reported here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826741
RTC WI created here:
https://jazz.net/jazz/web/projects/Rational%20Team%20Concert#action=com.ibm.team.workitem.viewWorkItem&id=100338
Is there any work arround for this issue?
As discussed in the related work item the best workarround would be to lock binary files before editing and then discard changes, which are not locked.
Alexander
Alexander
Thanks for your feedback. Maybe I haven't seen that for some reason e.g. not having them open long enough. Definitely good to know.
Ralph
@tmok: thanks for the suggestion: we will test how the pending changes behave with locking.
@rschoon: you will face the same problem with external editor if you refresh the package explorer while the file is opened by the editor or if the file is opend for a long time.
I believe I have seen these issues with PPT if the editor was opened in Eclipse and not the external system default editor. I think after launching PPT as window embedded in Eclipse the editor always showed the dirty flag.
I configured Eclipse to always open PPT outside of Eclipse and as long as I did not save these issues went away or at least got less frequent.
You could try that too. For testing rightclick the file and select open with>system editor. To make this permanent for all files of that type, add a new file association in Window>Preferences>General>Editors>File Association.
Ralph
Dear Sirs,
Microsoft Excel 2003 is creating some mess in our Versioning, because it always modifies files in the system, even if this documents are just opened and no content has changed.
RTC then records these changes in Pending Changes, even if no content has been modified (esp. after the project is refreshed or the document stays open for long time). Therefore lots of wrong changes are created.
The developers then tend to delever those changes, rather then discard them, because it is hard to figure out which binary changes a real and which changes are fake.
This issue is also reported here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/826741
RTC WI created here:
https://jazz.net/jazz/web/projects/Rational%20Team%20Concert#action=com.ibm.team.workitem.viewWorkItem&id=100338
Is there any work arround for this issue?