I wrote a blog post last year about Five Subversion Clients for Mac OSX where I highlighted some of the Subversion version control clients with a good GUI that are available for Mac OSX.
Out of all the clients I wrote about I ended up using the Cornerstone client the most (although Versions was a close second place). The makers of Cornerstone, Zennaware, have just released version 2 which introduces a whole load of new features and improvements to existing features.
SVN Workflow
My own SVN workflow is pretty straightforward as I am the only person that checks into my repositories. But Cornerstone 2 provides great tools for repositories with multiple users, finding out who checked in which files and why is clear and easy to find. One big improvement in V2 is with merging branches, this can be a pretty tricky process to manage but Cornerstone adds the ability to synchronise and reintegrate branches with their ancestor, deal with various revisions, and preview changes of any merges made.
Subversion 1.4, 1.5 & 1.6 inside…
Even though it’s not new to version 2 it’s worth mentioning that Cornerstone actually includes Subversion 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6 within the application itself. Although Mac OSX already includes Subversion having multiple versions right within Cornerstone itself means you can work with repositories that use different Subversion releases and also not have to worry about whether any OSX updates affect your existing Subversion repositories. This also helps to make sure that your local repository data is backed up via Apple’s Time Machine backup process too.
Or work with external repositories
I don’t use any internal Subversion repositories myself though but instead host mine using Beanstalk who offer various pricing plans including a free plan. So if you work with external repositories then you can quite happily work with Cornerstone using your own external server or subversion host.
if you’re not using version control of any kind you should definitely give it a shot, Cornerstone makes the process a lot less daunting than having to work via the command line as well as offering a much more visual way to work with the changes and growth of your codebase.
How much does it cost?
Cornerstone 2 is out now and costs $59 for a single licence or $29 to upgrade from any previous version 1.x of the app. There is also a student discount of 20% which sweetens the deal even more.
You can also download a 14 day trial in order to check out the application for yourself before parting with any hard earned cash. Go to http://zennaware.com/cornerstone/ and click the download link to get the trial version, you can also buy Cornerstone directly from the Mac App Store.
[ Get 10% off your first month of Beanstalk Subversion hosting via this link:http://bnst.lk/eMqJVm ]
One issue in particular is that the commands for Checking out and committing to a repository are the same as those used for the regular Checkin / Checkout functions of Dreamweaver which I think is a bit confusing as they are very different features. Using these terms is a problem as they don’t match up with the correct terminology used in Subversion. Dreamweaver is often the first app (rightly or wrongly) that people who are learning how to make websites use so there’s a bit of a responsibility for it to teach people correctly and to encourage good habits.
Once connecting to my SVN repository it was quite easy to create a working copy and update it from the repository files. After working on files it was easy to find the updated files with a simple click on the ‘Changed Files’ icon in the menubar. Only the new or updated files would be shown which could then be selected and checked in to the repository with appropriate comments added at the same time. It was also easy to get access to revisions of files via the ‘Revision Viewer’ button.
Versions’ main tool bar provides buttons for Update, Commit, Checkout and other options, just under the main toolbar there are three tabs, Timeline, Browse and Transcript. The Timeline tab gives you a timeline in the form of a list of revisions and accompanying notes which makes it easy to view the changes made over a period of time. The Browse tab allows you to view the repository files and view history of individual files as well as comparing, managing blame and also a Quick Look option for quickly viewing the contents of files.
You can easily filter the working copy files in different states such as Changed, Modified, Conflicted, Unversioned and Locked. The ability to filter files this way is an essential feature in an SVN app, finding changed files in order to commit them to the repository is one of the most things I do.
Coda’s SVN integration adds a simple source control status window that quickly highlights changed files making it easy to find updated files and commit them to the repository. There is also easy access to a Source Control menu option offering committing / discarding changes, refreshing, comparing and updating the repository.