My implementation of free source/version control

Source control is basically controlling your source. This is not so necessary when you work alone, very handy when you are working in a team. There are many good solutions out there where you need to pay money for. Visual Studio Team System, Team foundation Server, the older SourceSafe etc. These are all Microsoft products but there are probably some other non Microsoft products. I’m a Microsoft fan so I’m not so interested in other brands. If you do have the money go for one of the products I just mentioned. If you don’t have the money, working on an open source project or something else, read on.

You can setup your own source control system using Visual SVN. This is free and very easy to install. If you don’t want to do all the work there are some alternatives with much more extra functionality.

Assembla

This is web application that provides you with +/- 200MB of free space to store your project files. Assembla provides you with a lot of features. Too much to mention in here. It’s one big collaboration system actually. You can create your project, add team members to it. When that is done you can exchange messages, chats. Work together on the wiki that’s created with you project’s space, upload files, create events (which you will be notified for by the system). Another option is to create an agile project. Then you have the possibility to create scrum sessions etc..

It’s very easy to use. Create an account, Create a project and ready to go.

Changes_made_to_codeIf you want to maintain your repositories from Assembla on your desktop you need TortoiseSVN. When that is installed, just input the URL you got from Assembla and the files will be downloaded. A better alternative would be to integrate your source control in Visual Studio. This is not so hard to accomplish. There are several possibilities. If you have money you can check out Visual SVN Visual Studio AddOn. If you don’t have money, you needundo changes to check out Collabnet AnkhSVN. Basically this is the same as Visual SVN Visual Studio AddOn. It has the same functionality as far as I know. The install is again very easy, just install, insert your Assembla URL to your repositories and everything is done. Now you can commit, update your code from Visual Studio. You get a red block when something changed. This way your instantly know when you need to commit your changed code.

Another advantage is that you can revert to a previous version of your source. This is very easy with your new source control system and Visual Studio plugin.

 

Ok alternative for Assembla is Beanstalk. I haven’t checked it out myself but I think it provides you with the same functionality as Assembla.

If there are any questions regarding source control, how to set it up or anything else. Please let me know.


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