Version Control for Losers

Up until the end of 2009 I created folder upon folder of website iterations and versions. Numbering them by version number and crying if I messed the numbering system up (which was a regular occurrence). If a client wanted to go back to a previous version of the content but couldn’t remember how the content was worded I would spend ages sifting through the folders hoping to hell I had kept the folder that we needed.

Every time the Apple online store went ‘down’ while the magicians worked in the background I wondered how they instantly switched from one version to another. With changes on every page of the store plus additions to categories etc. they can’t have been doing a simple folder removal and upload via FTP, mainly because it would have taken hours. Never mind if something went wrong, how would they fix the problem in less than a few hours. I strongly suspect that the Apple store is actually usually offline for longer than necessary to instill media hype around potential new products and services. Even so, however they pull this off – its smart.

I asked on Designate Online how people though this was done, I suspected it was SVN but I didn’t really know what SVN actually was. As usual, the folks at DO offered a fair amount of advice and suggestions. To be honest, I didn’t really understand most of it – but the bits I did pointed me in the right direction. As stupid and rash as it seems, I purchased Versions for Mac pretty much immediately. Even though I didn’t fully understand SVN, I did want to use the right tools and I really learn best when playing around – rather than reading tutorial after tutorial and getting swamped with information.

It was immediately apparent that I didn’t know enough to set my own versioning server up so I had to find someone who had been through all this before and had used their knowledge to make my life easier – enter Beanstalk.

Put simply Beanstalk is the behind the scenes magic that I wanted – just like Apple use. As you can imagine Apple won’t use a setup such as Beanstalk – they most probably have racks of servers just for that, but, I’m not Apple. I have neither the funds nor the knowledge to create a setup like that. Beanstalk are the wheels and Versions for Mac is the interface to make it all work like it should.

Unlike most Mac users – I very rarely use Terminal.app. I don’t know why way around OS X, nor do I really need to learn.  So, how the hell do I make things work – well – frankly, its a little bit of a botch job, but in the main its all pretty smooth and I have to be honest I’m loving it.

Update: NetTuts have just created a really useful screencast explaining the basics to Versions in the Git format.

http://net.tutsplus.com/videos/screencasts/terminal-git-and-github-for-the-rest-of-us-screencast/

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