Version Control of Model and packages

[digwizf18]

 Greetings.  I'm currently evaluating EA for my company.  We have a number of applications that are windows applications and these applications will each share some common classes as well as application specific classes.  

So I am trying to figure out how to implement version control with Microsoft Visual Source Safe.  Here are some problems I am running into.

The model file cannot be opened if it is read only.  I do not understand why.  I have implemented source control for the packages within my model and that seems to work fine.  But users must have write access to the whole model just to check out one small package within the model.  That seems to defeat the purpose of breaking up the model into smaller pieces (using package diagrams).  So I put the model and the .xml files into source control.  The user has to check out the model file to open it.  Then the user can check out the individual packages as well.  If I check out the model file to check out one small package within it; no one else can open the model file since it will be read only.

I have read the documentation, in the help section but I seem to be missing some key concepts on how to implement version control.  What is the proper way to setup version control to allow multiple users access to the same model?  Do I have to create a hierarchy of model files somehow?  If so, how do I do this?  Do I need to be using the corporate version of the software to accomplish this task?

Please point me to some documentation or another thread that would be helpful.  I've been searching through the forums with no luck thus far.

[TrtnJohn]

You don't need to put the .EAP file into source safe.  Instead it needs to be located on a shared drive that everyone can access.  The file itself is really a database that contains all of the classes, diagrams, ...  When you put a package under source control all it does is export the package to XML, lock the package for the user, and source control the XML file.  You can't change any controlled packages that you don't checkout.  

This basic concept works if you use a database repository or just an EAP file.

[digwizf18]

Wow.  That works.  I don't understand how it works but it does.   I was worried what would happen if multiple users are accessing the .eap file at the same time.  Somehow the system handles that.  So two people can add and delete things from the model concurrently, while the existing packages within the model can be setup for version control.  

Thanks for the suggestion!

Shawn