Introduction

The Team Coherence Version Control API is a set of functions exported from the core Version Control DLL's that allow you to programatically access much of the functionality of Team Coherence. It is aimed at developers who need to integrate Team Coherence with their own applications or with applications that are not currently supported.

In addition, this help file will describe how to create extensions to Team Coherence that are triggered when certain actions occur. Triggers are aimed at developers who want to change the way Team Coherence works, or to add additional functionality related to version control actions. Sample trigger addins are available for download from our website and include full source code. Within client-side triggers, you have access to most of the Direct Interface API calls.

This help file documents the supported functions and describes their use in more detail. Although this document is aimed mainly at Delphi developers, all API functions are available from any other application that can access exported functions from Windows DLL's.

In addition to the API and use of Triggers, Team Coherence can also be controlled using the Command-line tool: TC.exe. For more information on the Team Coherence command line, see the TCCmd.chm help file. The command-line tool was created using the Team Coherence API and illustrates what can be done using the API.

What is documented

Throughout this document we will describe the API as it is handled from within a Delphi application. The Delphi interface to the API is wrapped by a set of files that simply convert the low-level functions into a more pascal-friendly format:

Filename	Description
TCVcsConst.pas	Defines the constants, including error codes, used in the API
TCVcsTypes.pas	Defines the types used by the API
TCVcsUtils.pas	Useful utility functions that help with conversion and initializing.
TCIntf.pas	The main API wrapper file for GPVMain.dll. This DLL contains the User Interface for Team Coherence and provides a higher-level interface. It also re-exports the functionality provided in the Direct interface.
TCDirectIntf.pas	The API wrapper file for GPVCCore.dll. This DLL contains low-level functions to allow access to the Version Control functionality without using the User Interface.

Note that the functions available in GPVCCore.dll are also available in the higher level GPVMain.dll. The core API defined in GPVCCore.dll has a separate wrapper file simply so that it can be used without the overhead of loading the main DLL that contains the User Interface for Team Coherence.

In addition to controlling Version Manager from your own applications and tools, Version Manager also has support for Addins and Triggers. These allow you to extend the functionality of Version Manager. There are basically two types of addin:

Addin type	Description
Client Side	Client side addins and triggers allow you to modify actions before they are processed and allow you to carry out other actions before and after certain Version Control actions. Client side addins, as the name suggests, are installed on a per-client basis.
Server Side	Server side addins are installed on the server and, as well as being triggered by certain events, can be used to control the server in certain ways. Server-side addins do not require anything to be installed on the client applications.

Calling Convention

All functions are exported from the DLL's using the stdcall calling convention.