What is the best version control system to use for our situation (XML)?

Question

Hi,

We do a lot of XML editing in our department. The problem lies in version control of large XML files. Obviously we would like version control to:

1. Show the differences between different versions, and differences between any two versions at any point in time.

2. Be easy to administer and maintain - a lot of people in the department are really non-programmers and they shouldn't have to learn the ins and outs of this version control to use it.

3. Support concurrent development - not really needed but it's good just in case complex XML files requires multiple people.

4. Have a nice interface where management or users can see all the commit points, sort of like what you can do with the git web interface.

Thanks

Answer 1

We use SVN with Tortoise and it does fine for us. We have a lot of "non-programmers" checking in and out files. After a little training, they seem to have no problem with it.

Answer 2

SVN for the server and Tortoise SVN for the clients. The Tortoise SVN Explorer extension really makes things easy for non-techies. (If you're in a Windows environment.)

Answer 3

We use SVN here too - VisualSVN Server makes it easy to set up and maintain, TortoiseSVN integrates nicely with explorer and you can use a number of tools to get you the web interface you want (e.g. WebSVN or Warehouse).

Sounds like you have git experience - git also has a version of Tortoise. I've not used Git personally but I hear it has a number of benefits over SVN (distributed repository, easier merges, etc) and if I were setting up a new repository I'd certainly consider it.