The local service development feature is installed as a plug-in to Designer, whereas the VCS Integration feature is provided by way of the WmVCS Integration Server package. When a new version of your VCS client is released, with the local service development feature, you would need to reinstall the VCS client plug-in but you do not need to upgrade Designer. With the VCS Integration feature, you would need to update the WmVCS package every time a new version of a supported VCS client is released.

Configuration for the local service development feature is performed in Designer rather than on Integration Server.

The local service development feature permits Designer to connect to multiple VCS clients. The VCS Integration feature permits Integration Server to connect to only one of the supported VCS clients.

The local service development feature performs version control tasks locally within the Eclipse framework. That is, commands are sent directly between Designer and the VCS client. Conversely, the VCS Integration feature performs version control tasks through Integration Server.

The local service development feature uses the VCS client’s menus and commands, which you may already know. Conversely, the VCS Integration feature uses its own commands to access the VCS client and therefore requires a little extra time to learn.

Each feature supports a different set of VCS clients. The local service development feature supports Concurrent Versions System (CVS), Subversion (SVN), and Microsoft Team Foundation Server. The VCS Integration feature supports Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, IBM Rational ClearCase, and SVN and includes an exposed Java API that you can use to develop a connection to other VCS clients.

With the local service development feature, you can check in all contents of a package, including Integration Server assets and other items that Integration Server does not maintain, such as HTML files. The VCS Integration feature requires you to manually check in items that Integration Server does not maintain.