Revision Control for Web Development

[abeere]

Hello,

I'm looking to use revision control for web development. The problem I'm encountering is that most revision control systems seem to be designed for either text documents or computer code. The problem with these is that a user would need to "Check out" documents to a working directory. Though files can be edited this way, I need to have the working files on a web server to do a lot of our testing. Note there are likely to be several people working on the same server simultaneously.

Ideally, I'm looking for a program that will allow users to log into a server, check out files, make changes to the code and test it all on the server before having to check it back in. I don't want people to have to check in the code everytime they save and need to test.

Has anyone done this before? How did you do it?

FYI, we are currently using NT4 on our servers. We'll be upgrading to 2000 soon. Though having a UNIX box would be rather nice, I would prefer to find a solution that will fit on our existing infrastructure.

Thanks,

Andrew

[Spookster]

Macromedia Dreamweaver MX provides a page check in/check out feature.

I've never used that feature before but essentially it is what you are looking to do. A person can check out a page and work on it. While it is checked out nobody else can make changes to that page until it is checked back in.

[abeere]

I'll check that out. Do you know if the files it is working with can be live and on the server?

Thanks,

Andrew

[Spookster]

The only ways you could actually edit a file that is live and on the server is to log into the server via telnet and work on the file that way, or if you have LAN access to the server you could open the page directly on the server, or have a web based interface for editing the live files.

Typically it is not a good idea to work on the live files. That is a disaster waiting for the right person to come along and make it happen.

Note that Dreamweaver is a web development software and the check-in/check-out thing is just one of it's many features. With dreamweaver when you check out a file it downloads the live file to the local system(that local system could be a network drive on your LAN if you choose). Others that see the live file on the server using dreamweaver would be notified by dreamweaver who has the file checked out and is working on it.

This is an exerpt from the Dreamweaver Help files on Check-In/Check-Out:


Using Check In/Check Out
If you’re working in a collaborative environment, you can check files in and out from local and remote servers. If you’re the only person working on the remote server, you can use the Put and Get commands without checking files in or out (see Getting and putting files).

Checking out a file is the equivalent of declaring “I’m working on this file now—don’t touch it!” When a file is checked out, Dreamweaver displays the name of the person who checked out the file in the Site panel, along with a red check mark (if a team member checked out the file) or green check mark (if you checked out the file) next to the file’s icon.

Checking in a file makes the file available to other team members to check out and edit. When you check in a file after editing it, your local version becomes read-only and a lock symbol appears beside the file in the Site panel to prevent you from making changes to the file.

Dreamweaver does not make checked-out files read-only on the remote server. If you transfer files with an application other than Dreamweaver, you can overwrite checked-out files. However, in applications other than Dreamweaver, the .LCK file is visible next to the checked-out file in the file hierarchy to help prevent such accidents.

To enable or disable Check In/Check Out for some sites, see Setting up the Check In/Check Out system. For information about transferring files between local and remote sites without checking them in or out, see Getting files from a remote or testing server and Putting files on a remote or testing server.

Note: You can use Get and Put functionality with a testing server, but you cannot use the Check In/Check Out system with a testing server.

[abeere]

Originally posted by Spookster

<snip>
Typically it is not a good idea to work on the live files. That is a disaster waiting for the right person to come along and make it happen.

If it were a "live to the world" site, then I would most certainly concur with you. However, it would on a development machine built identically to the live production site. This development machine is on our LAN and thus easily accessible.

Note that Dreamweaver is a web development software and the check-in/check-out thing is just one of it's many features. With dreamweaver when you check out a file it downloads the live file to the local system(that local system could be a network drive on your LAN if you choose). Others that see the live file on the server using dreamweaver would be notified by dreamweaver who has the file checked out and is working on it.
<snipped bit from Dreamveaver help>

The notification is a definite plus and something we need. However, having to check in the file everytime you make a change could become rather tedious during debugging. Especially, if you checked something in to test your fix, figured out it didn't work and went to check it out again to fix it, only to find that someone else checked out the file between the time you checked it in and when you figured out the problem.

Ideally, you could mark a file or set of files on the server as "yours". You could play around with them until you were sure you'd fixed the bugs. At which point you'd check them in (which would not only enter the files into the revision history, but would "unmark" them so that they were free for others to access).

I'll have to check into exactly how easy/annoying it would be to check in/out files is with Dreamweaver. Thanks for the lead.

Andrew