Need to change creation date for some files to be checked in

Products

• CA Harvest Software Change Manager - OpenMake Meister

Issue/Introduction

The user needs to check in some older files to establish the baseline for his new project, but the original dates on the files are important for his historical reference. When he checks in, Harvest will assign today as the creation date. Is there any way to change the creation date of the file after check in to reflect the actual day the file was created?

Environment

CA Harvest SCM all versions

Resolution

We do not recommend using SQL to change the creation date on files checked into Harvest. It’s not just a matter of updating the date in one table, there would be several things that would have to be changed accordingly. We could be creating other problems by doing it this way.

So, to avoid those problems, what we can do instead is to put the original date and time into the version’s description field instead. Like this:

<Please see attached file for image>

I wrote a quick Windows batch script that would accomplish this. It’s attached. To execute, edit the script and adjust the environement variable settings at the top to reflect the correct information about your broker, project, state, etc. Then run it from your Windows computer containing the files you want to check in.

Additional Information

It is best to do your initial check in using a new, empty package.  Review the results after the script completes to be sure the results are correct.  If not, it is a simple matter to delete the contents of your package, make any needed adjustments and try your check in again.