Following are definitions for some of the common phrases used in Flare's built-in source control system.

• Bind This means to connect your project to Apache Subversion. After doing this, you can take advantage of all the automated source control tasks (such as commit, revert, update, and so on).
• Commit This means to send changes from your working copy of a Flare file to the Subversion repository, on a server.
• Revert This means to undo changes you have made to a Flare file. Changes are reverted to the way they were at the last commit.
• Update This means to update your working copy of a Flare file with changes from the repository.
• Lock This means to prevent other users from committing changes to a Flare file in the repository.
• Unlock This means to remove an existing lock from a Flare file in the repository so other users can commit changes to the file.

Note: Flare integrates with multiple source control providers to provide built-in source control support. Each of the source control providers built-in to Flare uses different terms. As such, Flare's source control interface is different depending on which source control provider you use. Please refer to the sections for each source control provider if you need to see information about the terms used by other built-in systems.

Following are descriptions for the primary icons that you may see next to files when using source control.

Following are the basic steps for using Flare's source control integration for a multi-author team.

1. Set Up Subversion Install Subversion and set up the database and any folders where you want to place the project. Also, assign permissions to the proper individuals. This task may be performed by someone else, such as a network administrator.
2. In Flare, do one of the following, depending on whether you are creating a new Flare project or using an existing one.

   • Create and Bind New Project Create a new Flare project and simultaneously bind it to Subversion. See Creating a New Project.

     OR

   • Bind Existing Project If you have an existing Flare project on your local machine, bind the project to Subversion. See Binding a Project to Subversion.

   Note: Only one of the authors needs to perform this task. The other authors on the team can follow Step 3 below.

3. Import Project Other users on the team can easily import the project from source control. This creates a copy of the Flare project on the author's computer. See Importing a Project from Subversion.

4. Update After you bind a Flare project to Subversion, you can update any of the source control files. When you do this, you are copying the most current files stored in Subversion to your local Flare project. When working with other authors, it is a good idea to do this frequently (e.g., at the beginning of each day) to ensure you have the latest changes that those authors have made, and that they have the latest changes you've made. See Updating Source Control Files—Subversion.

5. Modify Files When you use Subversion, there is no need to "check out" a file from source control before you make changes to it. You can simply edit the file you want to work on. Additionally, any user can work on a file at any time. A red check mark is displayed next to each file that you have modified.
6. Lock/Unlock Files When you are working, you may want to lock the files you have modified. Locking a file does not prevent other users from modifying the file. However, no one else can commit a file that you have locked unless they steal the lock from you or until you remove the lock. See Locking a File—Subversion and Unlocking a File—Subversion.

7. Commit Files When you are finished editing files, you can commit them to source control. Committing a file overwrites the old copy of the file in the source control database with the new one from your local machine. So even if others will not be working on that file, it is a good idea to periodically commit files so that you have a backup in source control. See Committing Source Control Files—Subversion.

8. Merging There may be times when you need to merge changes from different authors when committing a file. The merge occurs automatically if there are no conflicting changes (i.e., changes do not occur in the same location in the file). If there are conflicting changes, a dialog opens, allowing you to determine how changes are merged. See Merging Source Control Files—Subversion.

9. Add Files When working in a project that is connected to source control, there may be occasions when you have files in your local copy of the project that are not yet part of the source control copy. For example, when you add a new topic in your local copy of the project, that file will not be included in the source control copy of the project until you add it. See Adding Files to Source Control—Subversion.

Following are the basic steps for using Flare's Subversion integration for a single author.

1. Set Up Subversion Install Subversion and set up the database and any folders where you want to place the project. Also, assign permissions to the proper individuals. This task may be performed by someone else, such as a network administrator.

2. In Flare, do one of the following, depending on whether you are creating a new Flare project or using an existing one.

   • Create and Bind New Project Create a new Flare project and simultaneously bind it to Subversion. See Creating a New Project.

     OR

   • Bind Existing Project If you have an existing Flare project on your local machine, bind the project to Subversion. See Binding a Project to Subversion.

3. Modify Files When you need to work on a Flare project file connected to Subversion, you can modify it in the same way you would modify a file in a project that is not connected to source control. When you use Subversion, there is no need to "check out" a file from source control before you make changes to it. A red check mark is displayed next to each file that you have modified.

4. Commit Files When you are finished editing files, you can commit them to source control. Committing a file overwrites the old copy of the file in the source control database with the new one from your local machine. So even if others will not be working on that file, it is a good idea to periodically commit files so that you have a backup in source control. See Committing Source Control Files—Subversion.

5. Add Files When working in a project that is connected to source control, there may be occasions when you have files in your local copy of the project that are not yet part of the source control copy. For example, when you add a new topic in your local copy of the project, that file will not be included in the source control copy of the project until you add it. See Adding Files to Source Control—Subversion.

Following are some additional tasks and features related to source control.

• Automatic Status Checks If you are using source control integration in Flare, you can check for frequent status changes automatically. You can specify the number of minutes and seconds when you want Flare to ping the source control repository and get status changes for files that have been committed, moved, deleted, etc. The upside of this feature is that you can ensure that the source control status information is always up to date. The downside is that you may experience slower performance due to this constant communication over the network. See Enabling Source Control Status Checks—Subversion.
• You can view differences between files in various ways. See Viewing Differences in Source Control Files—Subversion.
• By default, when you open a project that is bound to source control, a message automatically asks if you want to get the latest version of files. However, you can disable this prompt in the Source Control tab of the Options dialog (File > Options). See Disabling the Get Latest Prompt for Source Control—Subversion.
• There may be times that you need to disconnect from source control to work offline. You can disconnect from source control and reconnect at any time. See Disconnecting from Source Control—Subversion.

• You can view the history of a particular source control file. See Viewing the History of Source Control Files—Subversion.

  • Version Displays a number for each version of the file. The lower the number, the older the version. The higher the number, the more recent the version.
  • Users Displays the name of the user who has been working on the file.
  • Date Displays the date and time when the action has occurred.
  • Action Displays the action that has taken place for the file (e.g., commit).
  • Comment Displays the comment (if any) associated with the file. A comment can be added to a file when you commit that file to source control. This enables you to maintain an audit trail for the file's history.
  • Get Selected Version Retrieves a particular version of a file, thus rolling back to that version of the file. The local version of the file is replaced with the source control version that you selected. See Rolling Back to an Earlier Version of a File—Subversion and Updating Source Control Files—Subversion.
  • Show Differences Opens a dialog that lets you view the differences between two versions of a file. If you select one row in the History dialog and view the differences, you will see the content differences between the version that you selected and the version of the file in your local copy of the Flare project. If you select two files in the History dialog (by holding down the CTRL key) and view the differences, you will see the content differences between those two versions of the file.

• Locks You can lock files so other users cannot commit those same files unless they steal the lock from you first. Likewise, other users can lock files to prevent you from committing the files they are working on. You would have to steal their lock if you needed to commit that file before they unlocked the file. However, locks only prevent you from committing another user's files; you can modify files at any time. You can set files to be locked automatically when you modify files. This can be done from the Source Control tab of the Options dialog (File > Options). See Locking a File—Subversion and Unlocking a File—Subversion.

  Note: Subversion will automatically lock a modified file when saving changes (if it is not already locked) if you selected the option to automatically check out files from source control when saving them. Because there is not a "checked out" status for Subversion files, these files will be marked as modified and can be committed. See Options Dialog.

• Publish to Source Control You can use Flare to directly publish your output to source control, rather than having to upload it to source control separately. Publishing your output to source control is beneficial because it you can keep previous versions of your output in source control and access them if necessary. See Publishing to Source Control—Subversion.

• Unbind You can unbind a project from source control. See Unbinding a Project from Subversion.
• View and Modify Network Settings You can view and modify your current source control network settings without having to close Flare. You can make changes to several settings, including SSL, HTTP proxy, and caching options. See Modifying Network Settings—Subversion.
• View Modified Files You can use the Pending Changes window pane and the Source Control Explorer to view all of the files that you have modified and need to commit. You can use the File List window pane and Pending Changes window pane to view files that have been modified by other users. See Viewing Modified Files—Subversion and File List Window Pane.