Online collaborative environment (not only dev oriented)

Question

I've been working with SVN for a couple of years and recently been working on some projects involving Trac. It might seem odd for most of you but I come from design oriented background where those tools are not so often used.

For the moment we mostly use Basecamp to keep track of client requirements, documents etc. And on the other hand SVN for source control (between developers only).

So, the aim being to integrate Trac to the bundle (and maybe other helpful features) I've been looking around for an online environment that could fulfill these requirements. There's a lot out there but my main concern is that I don't want to freak out the designers, project managers, clients with something too geeky.

So far the most appropriate solution I've found is Assembla.

Any advice is more than welcome!

Thanks,

T

EDIT :

Thanks all for your input! An answer was voted automatically although. We are currently giving REDMINE a try.

Answer 1

This may not be a perfect fit for what you're looking for, but have you considered google code? Bug Tracking, version control, wiki's. It's even free.

Answer 2

Assembla is a good option. You can try devjavu as well. I've used both of them for a couple of years, devjavu has a cleaner environment.

I've seen 'SVN-and-trac in action' in two projects I've worked among with designers, project managers, people that had no previous contact with a version control system. They used the most common features without problems, I don't think it should be a big concern if your team could have a 2-hour training about the main concepts of version controlling with subversion.

EDIT:

There is a comparison page on this subject, it should be a good resource. In case it isn't, at least they have a large amount of links to svn hosting services. ;)

Answer 3

Are you looking for hosted or non-hosted? We're using redmine, an alternative to Trac, which was a breeze to set-up and use. The UI is simple and intuitive. Quite flexible with configuration, allows multiple projects, Source Code Management integration (for SVN, git, CVS, all the common ones), integrated wiki, forums, files, etc. Other names to toss around include unfuddle, jira, lighthouse, and sifter app.

Answer 4

I'd recommend Confluence. It's flexible, and available hosted and non-hosted. It's a wiki at the core, but it has nice version management, for pages as well as attachments. It keeps track of who changes what, and the permission system allows you to specify who sees what (for instance, to allow your clients access, but only to relevant areas). It has nice integration options, such as a remote API interface, a WebDAV interface, and there's plenty of plugins available for functionality not included by default.

You could also have a look at Jira, which is more useful for project management.

No, I do not work for atlassian.

Answer 5

I have been using for almost two years now Unfuddle.

It's excellent. It does SVN and GIT hosting, does not skimp on online space, has bug/issue tracking built-in (can import from Trac) AND integrated with the SVN, has wiki, mini-forums, time-tracking... yet it's very simple to use and has non-geeky interface.

It also has a clean API. I do the backup (they do it automatically as well, but I'm super careful with my data) via a simple Powershell script.

They are very customer-oriented: once I needed them to import a SVN repo I had from before and they replied and did the work inside a half-an-hour or so.

There are several levels of service offered, from free to moderately expensive. I'd say overall prices are very reasonable.

I have nothing to disclaim and am in no way affiliated, just a very happy customer.

Answer 6

I use SVN+TRAC+MediaWIKI as main tool for entire interaction between all chains of development process.

Developers use SVN for versioning, TRAC for monitoring issues QA report and WIKI as source of requirement and technical documentation.

QA use TRAC for reporting issues and WIKI for as source of workflows and requirements. PMs and TLs use TRAC for building burndown reports and WIKI as source of all kind of documentation.

Top management see a top part of the iceberg visualized by burndown graphics.

So I can recommend to use TRAC with integration with SVN and MediaWIKI. All is free. There's only some time effort required to run it.