Delete topics sub-folders

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John Johann
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Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2017 7:35 pm

Delete topics sub-folders

Unread post by John Johann »

In order to group topics according to specific categories, I created a new project with sub-folders
Topics
Topics\ABC
Topics\DEF
etc.

As topics can move from folder to folder during their lifecycle, I've been advised that this may result in additional manual effort to manage files when synching with TFS.

In order to simplify the process, I have now moved all the topics back into the top-most Topics folder via H&M to not corrupt any structures or paths. The topics are now differentiated via an html template (Default --> Default_ABC, etc.) instead.
I then deleted the sub-folders within H&M and confirmed removing them from the TOC.
However, the sub-folders are still present in Windows Explorer. Is it ok to delete them there?
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Tim Green
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Re: Delete topics sub-folders

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi John,

I just tested this myself and I can confirm that the physical folder on the disk doesn't get deleted when you do this. Only the internal reference in your project gets changed so that it no longer shows up there. I'm checking this with the HM developers and I'll let you know what they say on it. For the time being, please leave it as it is.

As a general principle, however, anything you delete within an SVN-managed folder should be deleted using Tortoise, so as not to confuse SVN. So you would use the Delete option in the Tortoise context menu in Windows Explorer rather than just deleting the folder directly.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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John Johann
Posts: 305
Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2017 7:35 pm

Re: Delete topics sub-folders

Unread post by John Johann »

Hi Tim,
Thanks.
We're on TFS, but the principle is probably the same as with SVN. How and ever, I did run into issues on another project where I renamed files within H&M (so as to make sure my links were updated) and also deleted some files. The next time I synched with TFS, the originals were recovered and I had to delete them manually in TFS.

I know that is part of the point, but it does make things a little more awkward.

This project has not been synched yet -- so the folders in question do not exist in TFS yet -- just as duds in my topics folder. I'd like to get rid of them :-)
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Tim Green
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Re: Delete topics sub-folders

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi John,

I just checked with the developers and the behavior is correct. Even though Help+Manual creates the folders on the disk it will not delete them because it is quite possible that you may have added some other files of your own to the folder in the meantime, for whatever reason. Deleting the folder would then delete those files.

If you want to delete the folder yourself and it isn't in TFS yet then that is fine. And once it's in TFS you can also delete it via TFS, provided you are sure you don't have any own data in it.

When deleting and renaming things in TFS-managed data systems there is an annoying quirk of TFS you need to be aware of: It never ever forgets the name of a file or folder that you have deleted. So if you delete a topic or a folder that will still exist in TFS' memory and it will never allow you to create another topic or folder with that name again, because the name is now reserved. :roll:
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
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