Subversion... practical with a PHP framework app or not?

Question

I am developing a website using CodeIgniter and PHP. Some of my friends suggest I start using Subversion to take care of my organization. Could someone give me a basic explanation of what SVN is without the jargon and also if it is practical for a framework where 5 files are needed to run a single page?

Answer 1

SVN is a version control system - which means that it stores various previous versions of a given file, and allows many people to work on the same file, and in the end put all the changes together. It also helps you go back to a previous version if necessary.

You should use that in your project if there are a lot of people working on the project. But even if you are the only one working, it will be easier to manage the project if it is on version control.

Answer 2

It's a way to keep control of versions. You could think of it as some kind of incremental backup. You send your code to the SVN server and it saves only the differences from the last version. This way, you can go back to an earlier version if you need it. It also allows you to work with more people and merge differences with ease. I say, you should use it. It's easy and useful.

Answer 3

Every single project (even with only one developer) should be under source control, no matter what framework or language you are using.

Using simple words, Subversion will keep a history of your code files, should you like to revert them to a previous state or restore a copy in case of a disk crash (SVN must be on another computer in this case). It will also help you see easily the differences between two versions of a file.

For more information, just read TortoiseSVN user's guide, it has a pretty good overview of Subversion.

Here's some good info : Chapter 2. Basic Concepts

Answer 4

Subversion allows you to store your source in a central location, make changes from multiple places (ie. laptop, desktop), track changes and revert changes to your source tree if needed.

Have you ever made a big 'improvement' and then decided you were going in the wrong direction? With Subversion you can revert to the version of your source before you started heading off in the wrong direction.

Or how about this, you make some subtle changes to the codebase, but don't notice that you introduced a new bug until much later. You can use subversion to revert to previous code versions, helping you track down the change that introduced the bug.

It is more valuable when sharing the source with multiple developers, but even for my single developer projects I find it very handy to have all my source and changes in a Subversion repository.

If you combine it with Trac, you can then keep track of bugs/features, milestones, and use the Trac Wiki to document your project.

Answer 5

SVN is a version control system. It is used as a central repository for all of your code.

A significant strength of SVN is that it uses a Copy-Modify-Merge work flow model versus a Lock-Modify-Unlock model. The idea behind this is that each developer checks out or copies (copy) their own version of the code, works on it (modify), checks it back in and reconciles any changes (merge) that may conflict with other work another developer has done.

This is really handy as if you wanted to work on a piece of your code, you won't have to worry about the file being locked because someone else is working on it.

If anything, developers should use SVN to catalogue all revisions of their code and revert back if needed.

Answer 6

Irrespective of what software you produce and even if you are on your own, SVN has to be used. I depend on it every day. Its the one software tool I could not live without. If you can install it off-site it gives you backup as well.

Simple things like being able to do a diff on the previous version of a file when you are making changes, can be a great help.

Use Toortoise under windows for the client side. It integrates into Windows and is just great to use.