PRB: Web References Added to Visual Source Safe Cause Merge Problems and Errors While You Update References

When you add your ASP.NET Web application project and your ASP.NET Web services project to Microsoft VisualSource Safe, you may experience problems when you update the Web references of your Web application project. For example, when you update your project Web References folder, the changes that you incorporated in the Web services interface do not appear in the Web service proxy file. When you click the Get Latest Version (Recursive) command, you are prompted to merge the file. When you click Merge, your Web Service Proxy may not reflect the latest changes. The merge may corrupt the files and then make them unusable.

When you add the ASP.NET Web Application Project to Visual SourceSafe, you automatically add the Web Reference files (.map, .disco, .wsdl) as shared files. These files are output files. Output files are updated with the Web service proxy file. When you perform the Get Latest Version (Recursive) command for Web References, the Web application project in Visual SourceSafe, not the Web service project, picks up the latest version of these files.

Additionally, when you use the Open Project From Source Control option of the Visual Studio .NET to directly open a Web service project , you are prompted to Enter the Working Copy Location. By default, _number is appended to the project name depending on how many copies of the Web service or Web application project exist on your Web server. However, the Web reference in the Web application still points to the actual Web service location, and not to the newly created Web service. Therefore, when you run Update Web Reference, the Web service reference may not be updated with the latest changes.

To work around this problem, do not merge the Web reference files. When you want to update the reference, click File, and then click Open. Do not click Open From Source Control.

Check out the Web service application project and then run the Get Latest Version command to retrieve the most recent version of the files. Rebuild the Web service project, check out the Web application project, remove the existing Web reference of the Web service, and then add the updated Web service reference.

When you use the Open From Source Control option to open the service, the Web Service project name may change as described in the "Cause" section of this article. Therefore, delete the Web reference of your existing Web application project, and then again add the appropriate Web reference.

This behavior is by design.

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: