Managing the client side of collaborative work with Subversion

In a previous post, I wrote a little bit about the activities involved in the management of collaborative work using Subversion. That post was completely server-side oriented.

Now, I’d like to address the other side of the coin, the client side of Subversion. I’ll be describing the most common activities related to SVN Clients for the Mac and the best way to use them, and will provide a few more useful tips from the perspective of, let’s say, a programmer.

Read on for info and tips.

Once the server is set up with Subversion (to efficiently control versions of files), the website of the Trac (to monitor task progress), and the initial import of the repository (the main structure of files and folders), all we need to do to get started with the fun part of the job is to get a Subversion client.

A while ago, the availability of applications to handle this task was a little bit poor; nowadays, this is a different reality. First of all, I’d like to clear the general concept of the client. Then, we’ll be listing a few of them from which you can choose.

The SVN Client is the application that will let you manage the repository and your working copies from you local computer. It’d be correct to say it’s the interface between you and the Subversion server.

There are a lot of clients out there, and the first one you’ll encounter is the client embedded in the Subversion itself. This is not my choice at all, not because it doesn’t cover every need, but instead because it’s command line oriented. This makes everything more complicated for the beginner, and it’s a bit less friendly in general terms.

That’s possibly the main reason for the existence of third party clients. There’s a wide range of options for every operative system on the market. We could find them in three main categories:

• Stand-alone
• Desktop integration
• IDE plug-ins

A complete list of flavors can be found at the Subversion official site. Also, a very useful comparative matrix can be found at Wikipedia.

If you are a Windows user, let me save you valuable time on your decision making process. The desktop integration client called TortoiseSVN, is by far the best one out there.

When it comes to the Mac, we have some interesting options. Here are the most remarkable ones, and some of their features:

• SVNX is an open source GUI for most features of the svn client binary. It handles the main features of any client—such as browsing your working copies, spotting changes and operating on them—but it also allows you to browse logs and revisions of your repositories. Right now, its current version is 0.9.13, and its website still says it requires Mac OS X 10.4. I’ve installed it on Leopard (10.5.4), and it works fine. What I like the most about this client is the OS integration of the interface, and the way it organizes every item on different adjacent sections.
• SyncroSVN makes easier the document and code sharing between content authors or developers. This multiplatform (it was developed in java) Subversion front-end allows you to browse repositories, check for changes, commit changes, update your working copy and examine the revision history. Its current version is 3, and it costs $59. It’s a really good client, but there are so many free and open options that I wouldn’t recommend anyone pay for a SVN Client.
• SmartSVN is a powerful and easy-to-use, graphical client. It is project centric, it runs on all major operating systems, and it’s targeted at professional developers to make their daily work visual, efficient and comfortable. Actually, this one is the client I use on daily basis. I won’t say it’s the best, but it’s definitely my favorite. Its interface is clean, simple to configure and use, and it’s always being updated. It’s not an open source project, but it has a free version, the one I use. Its current version is 4.
• Versions is one of the new kids on the block. Even though it’s still on a beta stage, it seems to be one of the big contenders as the future preferred client for the Mac. As they state on their website, “Whether you’re a designer, developer, editor or project manager, chances are you already have plenty on your mind. Versions saves you the hassle and makes working with Subversion easy for your entire team.” That’s a really good way to summarize the job of any good Subversion client.

The steps to configure the clients are basically the same for all of them. You should introduce the URL of your repository, your user account data, and the local folder to download and modify your working copy.

Then you should just worry about working on you local copy of the repository, updating the code in order to have your image always updated, and commit your changes every time you can. I’d recommend doing it frequently and always writing a brief comment about the changes being uploaded. That would be the beginning for any nice citizen in any Subversion neighborhood.

• See also Managing the server side of collaborative work with Subversion