GUI interface to Subversion via web browser?

[Bo Berglund]

... I hope this is not totally OT ...

I am running an SVN server on an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS system and I have the Apache
connection so I can access it via its web interface.

This works but is *very limited* in functionality, so I am looking for some kind
of GUI interface that can be added to my Ubuntu SVN installation and gives me
functionality to view file revisions, logs etc and also diff revisions using the
web view.

Many years ago (like 20+ years) when I worked at a company using CVS there was a
web interface which had very useful functions in this regard. It was all running
on Windows Server.

It was named ViewCVS (Python based) and was accessed using a web browser towards
the CVS server. 

I have tried to search for something similar for SVN and found WebSVN on Github:
https://github.com/websvnphp/websvn

and:

https://websvnphp.github.io/

However, I have yet to find any examples on how its displays look or work and it
also seems to be a rather old project...

I have also recently used VisualSVN, which has some improvements over Apache
Subversion but it is a Windows only system AFAICT and I do not like to use that
platform...

And it is not being updated with the operating system so it gets older over
time.

So is there something available apart from WebSVN and are there some howto sites
showing actual screenshots from its use?


-- 
Bo Berglund
Developer in Sweden

Re: GUI interface to Subversion via web browser?

[Daniel Sahlberg]

ons 22 maj 2024 kl. 10:06 skrev Bo Berglund :

> ... I hope this is not totally OT ...
>
> I am running an SVN server on an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS system and I have the
> Apache
> connection so I can access it via its web interface.
>
> This works but is *very limited* in functionality, so I am looking for
> some kind
> of GUI interface that can be added to my Ubuntu SVN installation and gives
> me
> functionality to view file revisions, logs etc and also diff revisions
> using the
> web view.
>
> Many years ago (like 20+ years) when I worked at a company using CVS there
> was a
> web interface which had very useful functions in this regard. It was all
> running
> on Windows Server.
>
> It was named ViewCVS (Python based) and was accessed using a web browser
> towards
> the CVS server.


ViewCVS evolved to ViewVC

https://viewvc.org

A prominent user is the Apache Software Foundation, see

http://svn.apache.org/viewvc



>
> I have tried to search for something similar for SVN and found WebSVN on
> Github:
> https://github.com/websvnphp/websvn
>
> and:
>
> https://websvnphp.github.io/
>
> However, I have yet to find any examples on how its displays look or work
> and it
> also seems to be a rather old project...
>
> I have also recently used VisualSVN, which has some improvements over
> Apache
> Subversion but it is a Windows only system AFAICT and I do not like to use
> that
> platform...
>
> And it is not being updated with the operating system so it gets older over
> time.


VisualSVN is, in my experience, updated regularly. Of course you have to
install the update but that is quite easy within the management UI.

Personally I think the web interface from VisualSVN beats everything else
at the moment.

But if you don’t want to use Windows then it is no option.


>
> So is there something available apart from WebSVN and are there some howto
> sites
> showing actual screenshots from its use?
>
>
> --
> Bo Berglund
> Developer in Sweden



Kind regards
Daniel



>
>

Re: GUI interface to Subversion via web browser?

[Philippe Andersson]

On 22/05/2024 10:06, Bo Berglund wrote:

... I hope this is not totally OT ...

I am running an SVN server on an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS system and I have the Apache
connection so I can access it via its web interface.

This works but is *very limited* in functionality, so I am looking for some kind
of GUI interface that can be added to my Ubuntu SVN installation and gives me
functionality to view file revisions, logs etc and also diff revisions using the
web view.

Many years ago (like 20+ years) when I worked at a company using CVS there was a
web interface which had very useful functions in this regard. It was all running
on Windows Server.

It was named ViewCVS (Python based) and was accessed using a web browser towards
the CVS server.

I have tried to search for something similar for SVN and found WebSVN on Github:
https://github.com/websvnphp/websvn

and:

https://websvnphp.github.io/

However, I have yet to find any examples on how its displays look or work and it
also seems to be a rather old project...
WebSVN is still actively maintained (version 2.8.4 was released 2 months 
ago) and offers the features you're looking for (view files, logs and 
diffs) and more.


I'm not aware of any screenshots, but installing it for evaluation 
purposes is reasonably straightforward.


For small to medium-scale projects, I find it a really helpful addition 
to the Subversion server. For large-scale projects with more than a 
thousand branches or tags, performance will become an issue.


HTH

Ph. A.

--

*Philippe Andersson*
Unix System Administrator
IBA Particle Therapy |
Tel: +32-10-475.983
Fax: +32-10-487.707
eMail: p...@iba-group.com

Re: GUI interface to Subversion via web browser?

[Justin MASSIOT | Zentek]

Hello,

You can find screen captures of the three previously mentioned tools just
here:
https://superuser.com/questions/559261/looking-for-a-web-based-svn-code-browser-alternative-for-trac-anything-like-g
Some ticket trackers like Redmine also have Subversion browsing
capabilities.

If you're willing to manage you repositories as well as browsing them, I
would recommend having a look at:
* SCM-Manager: https://scm-manager.org/docs/3.1.x/en/user/repo/code/
* RhodeCode: https://rhodecode.com/features
Both are compatible with Subversion, Git and Mercurial backends.

Justin MASSIOT  |  Zentek


On Wed, 22 May 2024 at 10:25, Philippe Andersson  wrote:

> On 22/05/2024 10:06, Bo Berglund wrote:
> > ... I hope this is not totally OT ...
> >
> > I am running an SVN server on an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS system and I have the
> Apache
> > connection so I can access it via its web interface.
> >
> > This works but is *very limited* in functionality, so I am looking for
> some kind
> > of GUI interface that can be added to my Ubuntu SVN installation and
> gives me
> > functionality to view file revisions, logs etc and also diff revisions
> using the
> > web view.
> >
> > Many years ago (like 20+ years) when I worked at a company using CVS
> there was a
> > web interface which had very useful functions in this regard. It was all
> running
> > on Windows Server.
> >
> > It was named ViewCVS (Python based) and was accessed using a web browser
> towards
> > the CVS server.
> >
> > I have tried to search for something similar for SVN and found WebSVN on
> Github:
> > https://github.com/websvnphp/websvn
> >
> > and:
> >
> > https://websvnphp.github.io/
> >
> > However, I have yet to find any examples on how its displays look or
> work and it
> > also seems to be a rather old project...
> WebSVN is still actively maintained (version 2.8.4 was released 2 months
> ago) and offers the features you're looking for (view files, logs and
> diffs) and more.
>
> I'm not aware of any screenshots, but installing it for evaluation
> purposes is reasonably straightforward.
>
> For small to medium-scale projects, I find it a really helpful addition
> to the Subversion server. For large-scale projects with more than a
> thousand branches or tags, performance will become an issue.
>
> HTH
>
> Ph. A.
>
> --
>
> *Philippe Andersson*
> Unix System Administrator
> IBA Particle Therapy |
> Tel: +32-10-475.983
> Fax: +32-10-487.707
> eMail: p...@iba-group.com
> 
>
>
>

Re: GUI interface to Subversion via web browser?

[Bo Berglund]

On Wed, 22 May 2024 10:14:36 +0200, Daniel Sahlberg
 wrote:

>> Many years ago (like 20+ years) when I worked at a company using CVS there
>> was a
>> web interface which had very useful functions in this regard. It was all
>> running
>> on Windows Server.
>>
>> It was named ViewCVS (Python based) and was accessed using a web browser
>> towards
>> the CVS server.
>
>
>ViewCVS evolved to ViewVC
>
>https://viewvc.org
>
>A prominent user is the Apache Software Foundation, see
>
>http://svn.apache.org/viewvc
>

Thanks for that!

I think I will test this first. I located its sources on GitHub!!!

https://github.com/viewvc/viewvc/

Seems to be modified last on 2023-01-04 (rev 1.2.3)

Latest release as of now:
https://viewvc.org/downloads/viewvc-1.2.3.tar.gz
or here
https://github.com/viewvc/viewvc/releases/tag/1.2.3


So I will download it and see if I can get it running on my local svn server
(Ubuntu) requirements seem to be:

Python 3.6+
  $ python3 --version
  Python 3.8.10

Subversion 1.14.0+ 
  $ svn --version
  svn, version 1.13.0 (r1867053)
  Oops! My Ubuntu 20.04 LTS has only svn 1.13.0 !!

How can I fix that svn problem?

$ apt policy svn
svn:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: (none)

Seems like svn was *not* installed via apt at all...
I have used it on this machine for many years and it should not be at 1.13
unless "something" updated it.

$ which svn
/usr/bin/svn

What/who put it there?
Apache?


-- 
Bo Berglund
Developer in Sweden

Re: GUI interface to Subversion via web browser?

[Bo Berglund]

On Wed, 22 May 2024 12:05:25 +0200, Bo Berglund  wrote:

>Subversion 1.14.0+ 
>  $ svn --version
>  svn, version 1.13.0 (r1867053)
>  Oops! My Ubuntu 20.04 LTS has only svn 1.13.0 !!
>
>How can I fix that svn problem?
>
>$ apt policy svn
>svn:
>  Installed: (none)
>  Candidate: (none)
>
>Seems like svn was *not* installed via apt at all...
>I have used it on this machine for many years and it should not be at 1.13
>unless "something" updated it.
>
>$ which svn
>/usr/bin/svn
>
>What/who put it there?
>Apache?

SORRY!

I made an error here, I'm so used to typing binary's name svn that I forgot to
use the true package name with apt:

$ apt policy subversion
subversion:
  Installed: 1.13.0-3ubuntu0.2
  Candidate: 1.13.0-3ubuntu0.2

So it seems like subversion has been stuck at this revision on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS!

If I test on another device running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (this is a desktop system):

$ apt policy subversion
subversion:
  Installed: 1.14.1-3ubuntu0.22.04.1
  Candidate: 1.14.1-3ubuntu0.22.04.1

Question:

Is it possible to upgrade subversion from the apt installed version which is
locked to the distribution level to a more recent version available on 22.04 or
even 24.04?


-- 
Bo Berglund
Developer in Sweden

Re: GUI interface to Subversion via web browser?

[Daniel Sahlberg]

Den ons 22 maj 2024 kl 13:27 skrev Bo Berglund :

> On Wed, 22 May 2024 12:05:25 +0200, Bo Berglund 
> wrote:
>
> >Subversion 1.14.0+
> >  $ svn --version
> >  svn, version 1.13.0 (r1867053)
> >  Oops! My Ubuntu 20.04 LTS has only svn 1.13.0 !!
> >
> >How can I fix that svn problem?
> >
> >$ apt policy svn
> >svn:
> >  Installed: (none)
> >  Candidate: (none)
> >
> >Seems like svn was *not* installed via apt at all...
> >I have used it on this machine for many years and it should not be at 1.13
> >unless "something" updated it.
> >
> >$ which svn
> >/usr/bin/svn
> >
> >What/who put it there?
> >Apache?
>
> SORRY!
>
> I made an error here, I'm so used to typing binary's name svn that I
> forgot to
> use the true package name with apt:
>
> $ apt policy subversion
> subversion:
>   Installed: 1.13.0-3ubuntu0.2
>   Candidate: 1.13.0-3ubuntu0.2
>
> So it seems like subversion has been stuck at this revision on Ubuntu
> 20.04 LTS!
>
> If I test on another device running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (this is a desktop
> system):
>
> $ apt policy subversion
> subversion:
>   Installed: 1.14.1-3ubuntu0.22.04.1
>   Candidate: 1.14.1-3ubuntu0.22.04.1
>
> Question:
>
> Is it possible to upgrade subversion from the apt installed version which
> is
> locked to the distribution level to a more recent version available on
> 22.04 or
> even 24.04?


That is more a question for a Ubuntu forum. I think there is a backport
repository available for Ubuntu but I don't know if it carries Subversion
1.14.1 (for 20.04). I would assume you can't take packages from newer
Ubuntu releases - in that case you are probably better off by upgrading to
that version..

If you can't find a binary package you can maybe build Subversion yourself.
In that case make sure to build the Python bindings for Python 3.

Kind regards,
Daniel

Re: GUI interface to Subversion via web browser?

[Yasuhito FUTATSUKI]

Hello,

On 2024/05/22 19:05, Bo Berglund wrote:
> On Wed, 22 May 2024 10:14:36 +0200, Daniel Sahlberg
>  wrote:

>> ViewCVS evolved to ViewVC
>>
>> https://viewvc.org
>>
>> A prominent user is the Apache Software Foundation, see
>>
>> http://svn.apache.org/viewvc
>>
> 
> Thanks for that!
> 
> I think I will test this first. I located its sources on GitHub!!!
> 
> https://github.com/viewvc/viewvc/
> 
> Seems to be modified last on 2023-01-04 (rev 1.2.3)
> 
> Latest release as of now:
> https://viewvc.org/downloads/viewvc-1.2.3.tar.gz
> or here
> https://github.com/viewvc/viewvc/releases/tag/1.2.3
> 
> 
> So I will download it and see if I can get it running on my local svn server
> (Ubuntu) requirements seem to be:
> 
> Python 3.6+
>   $ python3 --version
>   Python 3.8.10
> 
> Subversion 1.14.0+ 
>   $ svn --version
>   svn, version 1.13.0 (r1867053)
>   Oops! My Ubuntu 20.04 LTS has only svn 1.13.0 !!
> 
> How can I fix that svn problem?

ViewVC 1.2.3 does not support Python 3. It runs on Python 2 and
it needs Subversion Python 2 bindings. If you are using Subversion
installed by apt, it might be available as python-subversion.

https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/python-subversion


If you want to run ViewVC on Python 3.x, you need to use snapshot
on master branch (unreleased 1.3-dev) from https://viewvc.org/nightly/
or get it from git repo. In the case, you need Subversion >= 1.14
because of Python 3 bindings support.

Cheers,
-- 
Yasuhito FUTATSUKI