Introduction

OpenInsight Git is an interface from OpenInsight to the Git source code management system. It is included in OpenInsight 10.0 and above.

Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.

You can read more about Git on its web site at https://www.git-scm.com

For many, source code management is a black art reserved for large corporations who have hundreds of developers. You may think that source code management systems are complicated, involve many steps that have nothing to do with writing code and generally get in the way of being productive. And, for the most part, you would be right!!

OpenInsight Git has been designed to be as painless and transparent as possible. There are rules that you will need to follow, but, for the most part, there are many benefits to using source code management software. For example:

1. Backup of your source code

2. Version control

3. Change control

4. Collaboration with developers remote to your location

OpenInsight Git was originally designed to integrate OpenInsight’s development tools with the Git source code management software (SCM). However, there is no reason why OpenInsight Git can’t work with other SCM’s like Subversion or Mercurial.

OpenInsight Git’s philosophy is simple. It mirrors your OpenInsight source code, stored procedures, windows, messages, help, etc. as text files in Windows directories. From there, your chosen source code management system does the rest.

This manual consists of a quick start guide and a more detailed user manual. The quick start guide is designed to get you up and running in the shortest amount of time using a sample application (STAR). The chapter “The Seven Steps to Using OpenInsight Git” goes into more details about each step.

It is not this guide’s intention to teach you all the ins and outs of Git or of any other SCM. Git comes with many levels of documentation. We highly recommend a book called Pro Git which is the de facto bible on the subject.

Most of you will only use a fraction of the features that Git or any SCM offers. And that is ok. The important thing is to start using an SCM as soon as possible. From a one man developer to a team of tens or hundreds of developers, using an SCM should become part of your daily work routine.