Best tool to build a documentation repository

Question

I'm sharing documentation with people not programming oriented. We agree we need a documentation repository but they don't like TortoiseSVN as it lacks some features that they consider key issues:

• Lock of files in such a way that everybody knows is blocked (more like VSS)
• To see files that are being changed by other people, even though the files have not been commited to the server yet.

My first question is if there is a way to achieve these features with TortoiseSVN. I have been using it for a while with VisualSVN but didn't need these kind of features.

My second question, if the first answer is no, is if you know any free or open source tool to create a documentation repository that is easy to use. The target people are engineers with few time learn (as usual) and not used to this kind of system.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Sharepoint sounds like it might serve your needs. It can get fairly complex, but from a standpoint of just sharing files and locking them, I've found it easy for many non-technical people to use. It's not free or open source, however. Alfresco is an open source tool that has similar functionality.

A wiki may also work, but may not include all of the locking features you need. Also look at Content Management Systems (CMS) - There are some open source ones like Drupal or Joomla.

Answer 2

Subversion actually meets both of the requirements that you have listed.

Subversion, since version 1.2, has supported the ability to lock files (called "reserved checkouts"). I would assume that it also keeps track of who has the lock on the file as well. The only document that I could find that appeared to give a decent discussion of reserved checkouts was this one, from CollabNet.

Now, I'm not sure how well TortoiseSVN handles those capabilities of SVN - I've never used SVN with reserved checkouts, since I usually am either working alone or using mostly text files and a small number if binary files, using merging when necessary. If TortoiseSVN can't work with reserved checkouts well, there might be other options for interfaces to Subversion.

Answer 3

You have to put the svn property svn:needs-lock to your files.

The best thing is to add them to you autoprops in your svn config file. So they will be set on each new file.

If you did this, all files are write protected on checkout. You can remove this writeprotection by "locking" the file using svn lock or Tortoise svn.

If you want to see the locked files you can just use the tortoise Repo-browser.

I just googled around and found these URLs (mostly in german):

• idok

• svn as dms (german, PDF)

• e-government DMS (german, PDF)

I think the main caveat is that you are unable to search easily. Other problems can be solved by dedicated applications. It depends as well on your requirements.

For most simple requirements I think a small adapted subversion server with some hookscripts and some small scripts for workflow actions should do fine.