Multiple Subversion Projects And their Dependency With Subversion in Visual Studio

Question

I want to manage a solution with multiple project and put each of them in their own repository structure(branches/tags/trunk). I have a project Test1 and i commit it to its own repository:

trunk
  Test1
        Properties
        Class1.cs
        Test1.csproj
  Test1.sln

I have a another project Test2 and i commit it to its own repository and Test2 depends on Test1.I use svn:enxternals to make a reference to Test1 in Test2,and then in Visual Studio right click on solution Test2 and then Add-> Existing Project ,add Test1.

branches/
    tags/
    trunk/
      Test2/
        Properties/
        Class2.cs
        Test2.csproj 
     Test2.sln
     svn:externals Test1 https://mydomain/Test1/trunk/Test1

And i have a another project Test3 that depends on Test2:

branches/
    tags/
    trunk/
       Test3/
         Properties/
         Class3.cs
         Test3.csproj 
       Test3.sln
       svn:externals Test2 https://svn/Test2/trunk/Test2

and then do the same as Test2.

But when i add Test2 project to Test3,depencecy of Test2 project(Test1) does not exists,and then i got error when i want to build Test3.

In order to resolve this issue i use following sv:externals commnad in Test3 repository :

svn:externals Test2 https://mydomain/Test2/trunk

but when i update Test3 solution the following structure appears in Test3:

Test3/
 Properties/
 Class3.cs
 Test3.csproj 
Test2
     Test2/
       Properties/
       Class2.cs
       Test2.csproj 
        Test1
          Properties/
          Class1.cs
          Test1.csproj
     Test2.sln
Test3.sln

But this not ideal approach because i only want Test1 dll checked out not Test1 project,and in order to build Test3 we must first build Test1 project that resides in Tes3/Test2/Test1/Test1.csproj and then build Test3/Test2.sln.

What is the best approach to resolve this issue?

Answer 1

Do you have other projects depending on Test2 and Test3? If not than I would recommend using the same repository for all three just store them in separate directories. I have an ERP project with dozens of projects in the same repository and it works well. I only use externals for projects linked to more than one repository.

If you link Test2 to Test3 but not Test1 then you must compile Test1 and add a reference of the exe or dll. But that may not work depending on how you link Test2 and Test1. If you link Test2 and Test1 at the project level you may have to compile Test2 to use it with Test3 because you will have two different instances (if I understand you correctly) of Test2. One on its own with Test1 and one with Test3 without Test1.

I would recommend either put all the projects in a single project or compile them all separately and add them as references where needed.