Visual InterDev Modes in Link View

See Also      Tasks

In Microsoft^® Visual InterDev™, developers can choose to work on files in an application using either online mode or offline mode.

When you work online, you must be connected to a Web server. Online mode has two options for interacting with the Web server: master and local. For more information about Visual InterDev modes, see Working Locally in the Visual InterDev documentation.

• Master allows you to prototype, test, and debug files directly on the master Web server so that all the changes you make are immediately available to all users.
  
  
• Local allows you to prototype, test, and debug files on your local computer without having to automatically save your changes to the master Web server. Instead, you save changes to the master Web server by manually releasing the local copies of the files to the master server.

When you work offline, you are not connected to a Web server. For example, you may choose to copy your Web files to a laptop to work on individual files while you are away from your office. Some Web server functionality is lost while working offline. For more information, see Working Offline in the Visual InterDev documentation.

Link View allows you to visualize the links to and from items both online and offline. The only difference between the two for Link View is the scope of the information available.

• Online   Link View displays the links for items located in the local Web project, the master Web application, and any other URLs associated with your Web pages.
  
  
• Offline   Link View displays the links for items located in the local Web project only.

When working online, Link View displays link information for your Web project as if you have already updated the master Web server with your changes. As a result, some link diagrams may contain link information that conflicts with the actual state of the Web project. For example, suppose you create the following link diagrams in local mode:

• You create a link diagram for an item located only on your local Web server. This item has an out link to an item located only on the master Web server. Link View will use the link information located on the master Web server to display out link between the two items.
  
  
• You create a link diagram for an item located only on the master Web server. This item has an in link from an item located only on the local Web server. Link View will use the link information located on the local Web server to display the in link between the two items.

The link diagram displays graphical icons to indicate the current status of an item in terms of its location and status in the Visual InterDev project. When you change the status of a file, you can update the link diagram by choosing Refresh.

Item status	Link diagram graphic
Working file
Local file
personal file
Master file

Note   If your project is under source control, you will see additional icons on the items in the link diagram. A blue padlock appears beside each file under source control. A red checkmark appears beside each file that is currently checked out.