Basecamp SVN Integration

Posted May 4, 2007. Filed under code, subversion

As promised, here is the follow-up to the SVN for Web Developers post, Basecamp integration.

Why?

Transparency is very important to my business. The #1 complaint I hear about web developers is that they rarely meet deadlines and the client has no idea what is happening with the work until one day it magically appears. To combat that, I use Basecamp to lay out milestones for all my projects. I’ve found that even if a project takes longer than a client would like, as long as they can count on a date that it will be delivered, they’re happy.

Milestones are usually pretty spread out and don’t give clients a good idea of what I’m doing day-to-day to meet them. Writing each Subversion commit to Basecamp gives my clients quick access to the current status of their project.

How?

Luckily, all the hard work is done ...

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Subversion for Web Developers

Posted April 24, 2007. Filed under subversion

I switched from Ubuntu Linux to a Mac last week. I knew the new system would force me to adapt my workflow a bit so I figured it would be a good opportunity to break some bad habits.

One of those bad habits was how I manage site and code updates. My typical cycle was to build the site on a local development server, upload the site, present to client, then go through a tweak → upload → tweak → upload cycle until the site was perfect. This development approach, although popular, is flawed for a few reasons:

• No revision backups are maintained, unless you are manually doing them. You break it, you buy it.
• The constant uploading for tweaks is inefficient and slow.
• It simply breaks down when trying to work with others on the same code.

Enter Subversion. It solves all these problems and has some other really nice features to ...

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