History Manager

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Click History tab in the main window.

The History Manager lets you see and compare versions of a file managed by the IDE, including:

• Multiple backup versions saved by the IDE
• Your saved local changes
• The current buffer of unsaved changes for the active file.

You can also see the version control information if your project or individual files are under a version control system (such as Subversion, Git or Mercurial).

Version Control Systems Are Integrated into the History Manager and Project Manager

The Version Insight feature integrates support for the version control system into the IDE.

You can see version control information in the History Manager that originates from both the IDE and the version control system that you are using:

• If the current file is under version control, all types of revisions are available in the History Manager.
• If you are using an integrated Version Control System, it provides the following functionality that you can use inside the IDE:
  • All the revisions that have been checked into the repository are available in the History Manager.
  • You can diff (compare) files and annotate specific versions of the file in the History Manager. See Diff'ing (Comparing) Versions of a File and Using the Annotation Feature.
  • You can perform the standard source-control operations in the Project Manager, such as Commit.

The History Manager continues to keep version information for backups that the IDE creates. Ten backups are kept by default; you can set the File backup limit option on Tools > Options > Editor Options.

For more information about the version control systems that are integrated in RAD Studio, see:

• How To Use a Version Control System in the IDE
• Version Control Systems in the IDE

The History Tab in the IDE

To open the History Manager, click the History tab, which is located in the center of the lower edge of the IDE main window:

• The Code tab opens the Code Editor.
• The Design tab opens the Form Designer (The Design tab appears only for visual component applications).
• The History tab opens the History Manager, also known as the History view.

Tabs in the History Manager

The History Manager contains three tabbed pages (Contents, Information, and Differences):

These pages display history and version information that is maintained by the IDE and by the version control system integrated in the IDE. You can select the file in the dropdown list in the toolbar of the History window.

Page	Description
Contents	Displays the current and previous versions of the file. The Contents page contains two panes: Revision content: The top portion of the Contents page lists revisions of the active file. Columns include: Revision: Revision number of each revision of the active file Label: Either the Revision number or a specified label Date: The date of the revision Author: The name of the user who checked in the revision File display: The lower portion of the Contents page displays the contents of the active file.
Information	Displays the revision info of the active file. The information page contains two panes: Revision info: The top portion of the Information page lists revision info of the active file. Columns include: Revision: Revision number of each revision of the active file. Label: Either the revision number or a specified label (such as "Local file") Date: The date of the revision Author: The name of the user who checked in the revision Comment: The comments entered with the commit of that revision Additional revision info: The lower portion of the Information page displays additional comments of the selected revision Note: To see the version control log entries for a specific file: Hover the mouse over a revision ( or ) that is checked into version control system. Click the Information tab and select the revision number.
Differences	Displays the differences between the selected versions of the active file. The Differences page contains three panes: Differences From: Lists the revisions of the active file, including the current revision and the date. To: Lists the revisions of the active file, including the current revision and any unsaved changes in the buffer. File display: The lower portion of the Differences page displays the contents of the file being diff'ed. Highlighting indicates the differences between the revisions selected in Differences From and the revisions selected in To. (a large minus sign) marks source lines that were deleted. (a large plus sign) marks source lines that were added. You can set the colors to be used in the highlighting on the Differences tab by using the Color dialog box.

Toolbar Buttons in the History Manager

Button	Description
Refresh revision info	Updates the revision list to include unsaved changes to the file.
Revert to previous revision	Makes the selected version the current version. Enabled on the Contents and Information pages. Reverting a prior version deletes any unsaved changes in the editor buffer.
Annotate	Adds a gutter column that contains the most recent revision number associated with each line in the active file. Especially useful when diff'ing versions of a file (click the Differences tab on the History Manager).
Show in Difference Viewer	Loads the current file into a diff viewer (either the default difference viewer or one that you have installed and set up using Difference Viewer tools). Click the down-arrow to select from the list of difference viewers. After you select a diff viewer, the selected viewer reports the differences between the current version being viewed and the previous version. See Using an External Difference Viewer.
Synchronize scrolling	Synchronizes scrolling in the Contents and Differences pages and the Code Editor. Matches the line of text that contains the cursor with the nearest matching line of text in the other view. If there is no matching text in that region of the file, matches line numbers.
Go to next difference	Repositions the source on the Differences page to the next block of different code.
Go to previous difference	Repositions the Differences page to the previous block of different code.
Follow text movement	Locates the same line in the source viewer when switching between views.
File dropdown list	Lists related files, such as .dfm and .res files.

Revision Icons Used in the History Manager

Icon	Description
	The latest saved file version.
	A local backup file version.
	The file version that is in the buffer and includes unsaved changes.
	A file version that is stored in a version control repository.
	A file version that you have checked out from a version control repository (Subversion only).
	Indicates a line of code was moved from the highlighted line.
	Indicates a line of code was moved to the highlighted line.

Context Menu Commands

Item	Description
Refresh	Refreshes the view in the History Manager.
Revert	Reverts the last change made in the History Manager.
Copy	Copies the selected text.
Select All	Selects all the contents on the History Manager.
Next Difference	Moves the focus from the current location to the next difference displayed in the History Manager. Enabled only on the Differences page.
Previous Difference	Moves the focus from the current location to the previous difference displayed in the History Manager. Enabled only on the Differences page.
Follow Move	Locates the same line in the source viewer when switching between views.

Finding the Next and Previous Changes

When you are using the History Manager to examine diffs in several versions of a file, you can use either context menu commands or equivalent keystrokes to quickly navigate to the Next and the Previous differences. The keyboard shortcuts are:

• Ctrl+Shift+F7 - moves to the Previous Difference.
• Ctrl+Shift+F8 - moves to the Next Difference.
• F5 - refreshes the History view.

The keystrokes are the same for the following keyboard mappings: Default, IDE classic, BRIEF, and Epsilon.

The Visual Studio and Visual Basic keyboard mappings do not have keystrokes for Next/Previous change.

See Also

• Tour of the IDE
• Using the History Manager
• Version Control Systems in the IDE
  • Subversion Integration in the IDE
  • Git Integration in the IDE
  • Mercurial Integration in the IDE