How do you setup a shared Working Copy in Subversion

Question

I still very new using Subversion.

Is it possible to have a working copy on a network available share (c:\\svn\\projects\\website) that everyone (in this case 3 of use)

Answer 1

I know this is an old question/wiki, but a solution that occurred to me is as follows.

The problem could be restated as follows: How can we use a real source control system (like SVN), and still allow non-technical designers to enjoy the same save-preview-save-preview cycle that they've come to know and love?

Points:

• In order to realize the full benefit of SVN, each user needs to have their own working copy. That's just the way it is.

• If you've still got classic ASP (NOT .NET) in your app, a lightweight local server like Cassini won't do the job.

• It'd be preferable for the user to not have to install or learn to use an SVN client like the (admittedly-simple) Tortoise.

My approach:

• Create a branch in SVN for each user

• On each client, provide a mapped drive to a user-specific working directory on your dev server. They will use FrontPage, Expression, SharePoint designer or whatever to make their changes here.

• In IIS on the dev server, create a user-specific website (for example, alice.www.mysite.com or bob.www.mysite.com) with a user-specific host header. They will browse the site through this URL to see their changes. This also allows them to show their changes to others before merging it into the trunk.

• Using CruiseControl.NET, provide tasks to check out, update, add and commit changes for each user's branch. Figure out how to make this so that each user can only see their own tasks.

• Using CruiseControl.NET, create a task that will merge their changes into the trunk

• Using CruiseControl.NET, create a task that will update the real dev site (dev.www.mysite.com) with the merged changes. This site will show everyone's work combined, and acts as a staging and debugging area. If you are using a WAP, you'll want this task to trigger a build as well.

Sounds like a lot of steps, but it's really pretty simple. Create branches, map drives, set up new IIS sites and let them go crazy.

Under the covers, this is exactly the same as giving them a local IIS install and letting them commit their changes with SVN whenever necessary, just as developers do. The difference is that their working copy is on a server, IIS/Cassini doesn't have to be on their box, and they'll use a web interface to perform SVN actions like commit, update, etc.

Good luck!