Cross IDE Compatibility: VS Extension & Graphite

[Jay]

Problem:  You want to share a GIT repository with multiple developers (some using VS Extension and some using Graphite).

I couldn't find this documented anywhere so sharing here.  Hoping Icneium guys will confirm that I'm not going to blow up the large Hadron collider as a result.

As near as I can tell, based on my experience.  If you try to clone a VS Extension created project into Graphite it just says project not found in repo. I dug in a little bit to a Graphite-created repo and found that there is a separate project file used by Graphite ([ProjectName].proj), whereas the VS extension uses ([projectname].iceproj).

So, I did a little devil-magick hackery and copied the .iceproj file to a .proj file.  Removed all the visual studio <includeItems> bits, pushed it to the repo, pulled from within graphite and ta DA! you have a project that can be used and sync'ed via Git across the two IDEs.

I think this works long term, but looking for Icenium devs to confirm or deny.

Thanks,

J

[Steve]

Hello Jay,

As you have found out yourself, there is no direct out of the box compatibility between an Icenium project created in Graphite and in the Visual Studio extension. Usually the users of these two IDEs have different goals in terms of source control and solution integration, so it is not often that one would need to do such migration.

Either way, the steps you provided would work fine if one needs to do this. Quite frankly copying the files from your VS Icenium app directly in your Graphite Icenium app, could be a faster exercise.

Regards,
Steve
Telerik
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[Jay]

No disrespect intended Steve, but I think you're dead wrong on this.  I think that there are a lot more people than you think who might need to use both environments.  This is especially true since a)  the UI designer is not available in the Visual Studio extension and b) the git support in both makes them easily cross-compatible.

LOL.  Copy/Paste sync only beats Git integration in the first lap and then its insanely easy. 

We've been working for a week with code flying in/out of Git from Graphite and VS without any problems.

[Bob]

I would have to side with Jay on this one as well. Our team wants to use both Graphite and VS extensions and push/pull from a central repository. The primary reason for this is:

1. Don't mean to complain, but Graphite is a bit clunky (text editor is slow)
2. Our developers are familiar with VS and take advantage of its advanced editor features 
3. QA and designers appreciate the simplicity of Graphite
4. Once the feature to allow branch switching is completed, QA/implementation can pull, test and build specific branches and/or changsets (I hope) with Graphite, without the heavy costs of Visual Studio.

[Stefan Dobrev]

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for sharing your feedback with us. It is greatly appreciated and I can assure you that we are listening closely. Now onto your problems:

• Cross IDE compatibility is very high in our backlog and you should be expecting a solution in the upcoming months.
• The UI Designer will be available in the VS extension in one of our next releases. We are releasing a major updated in a couple of days that among other things will include the Data Navigator in the VS extension. The designer will follow next.
• Branching support in Windows/Web clients (Graphite/Mist) is also coming in the upcoming release.
• We are aware of some performance issues in the Windows code editor and we will be addressing them. For example in the next release we have dramatically improved the code completion and you can enjoy completion for Cordova and Kendo UI Mobile out of the box.

I would like to thank you once more about our feedback. Please keep it coming.

Have a great day,
Stefan Dobrev
Telerik

[Aaron]

Hi Stefan.

Any news on cross IDE compatibility?
We have been working with App Builder (windows client) and would like to move to Visual Studio.

Cheers
Aaron

[Tina Stancheva]

Hello Aaron,

In the AppBuilder 2.3 release  we improved the project mobility between the different AppBuilder clients and we unified the project files. This is why you can now successfully open and work on your AppBuilder projects across multiple clients as long as they are configured for collaboration. 

Please take a look at this tutorial for more information on your options and let us know if this is what you were looking for. 

Also, if your case is different and there is a specific scenario you'd like to see enabled with AppBuilder, please let us know and we will gladly discuss it further.

Regards,
Tina Stancheva
Telerik