On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 7:56 PM, Andy Canfield <andy.canfi...@pimco.mobi>wrote:
> My goal in learning Subversion was to put our web site under version > control. Now I have my doubts as to whether Subversion can handle it. > > The web site uses Drupal. And Drupal has the characteristic that much of > the site is contained in a MySQL database. For example, if I install a > module and set it up, the module is a disk file, but the configuration of > that module is in the database. If I make a change, part of the change may > be in a PHP code file on disk, part may be in the database. The database > contains both user data and configuration data, intermingled. > > I could get Subversion to work. I would have a pre-commit script to back up > the database to a disk file in the working copy. I would have a > post-checkout script to reload the database from the disk file. Along with > svn commit and svn checkout, this would give us the ability to roll back to > any earlier version. > > What I can not imagine is how to get more than one person to be able to > work on the site. Yes, Subversion would be able to merge changes to the disk > files. But I don't see how Subversion can handle merging changes to the > database. The MySQL database is text; perhaps someone here as experience > with that. Can MySQL backup files be merged? > > You'll need to analyze your app closely do it right, but it's absolutely possible. It's a daunting task for Drupal, WordPress, Joomla or any other CMS-driven site and everyone who manages these type of sites deals with the issue differently. Subversion can handle whatever you svn commit. That's not the problem at all. The filesystem files that make up your Drupal install are easy to manage. You'll need to use svn:ignore on the uploads directory, cache, logs, etc., but that's the easy part. The tricky part is managing database schema under version control, and there are myriad ways to output your db schema to a text file or files, try phpMyAdmin for starters. You have to plan your version control system to account for and differentiate between dynamic/user-generated content in the database that it needs to ignore, versus that which plays a critical role in the ui such as dropdown items in forms. You don't want your client's website content in your version control system if you can avoid it, and with one well-written backup script you can achieve it. It goes without saying that you'll need at least one VM or additional hosting account, virtual host on your server or other technique to develop and/or stage your planned changes, too.
