Git revision control system support

Nothing is perfect! This is where you can post your ideas and wishes for functions you'd like to see in Help & Manual. Current version only please (H&M7).

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Steffen Sledz
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Git revision control system support

Unread post by Steffen Sledz »

Nowadays the revison control system Git is as most common as Subversion, and a lot of projects switch to it.

H&M should support Git too :!:
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Tim Green
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Re: Git revision control system support

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Steffen,

Thanks for your feedback. Git is on the road map as well, but unfortunately we are going to have to do the work to integrate Team Foundation Server first because of all the Microsofties among our customers. :mrgreen:

However, you can use git now passively if you want, it just requires a couple of extra steps. There are two ways to do this. Which you choose depends on how experienced your authors are with working with git. Option A is the best choice for less experienced users.

Option A: Check out one local copy that all users work on, HM handles multi-user

1) You maintain your project in your git repository but you only create ONE local copy, which must be stored on a network drive to which all users have read/write access.

IMPORTANT: This must be a Windows share, or a Linux/Unix share with full support for Windows file locking with the SMB protocol, otherwise Help & Manual won't be able to know when topics are in use.

2) At the beginning of the working session the project leader checks out the entire project to the local copy.

3) The users all edit this copy at the same time. Help & Manual manages multi-user editing automatically, locking topics for access by other users while one user is editing it. See the chapter on Multi-User Editing in the Help & Manual help for details.

4) At the end of the editing session the project leader checks the project back into the git repository to update the changes.

Option B: Each user has a local copy, git handles merging

1) You maintain your project in your git repository and each user checks out a local copy on their machines using the git tools.

2) Before starting work each day, each author performs an update with the git tools to make sure that any changes made by other authors are merged into their local copy. Similarly, at the end of work each author commits their work to the repository with the git tools.

If there are any conflicts these can be resolved with git and communication with the other authors. But if there are clear agreements within the team as to who is responsible for which parts of the project there should not be any major problems.

The only thing you need to be a little careful about when working like this is that there should be a clear agreement as to who is responsible for making project configuration changes. The main project file where all this is stored is also XML and will thus also merge well, but managing conflicts here can sometimes be a little trickier.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Steffen Sledz
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Re: Git revision control system support

Unread post by Steffen Sledz »

Any news on git support?
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Tim Green
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Re: Git revision control system support

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Steffen,
Any news on git support?
Unfortunately we're going to have to support Team Foundation Server first because of the large number of customers using it, and it's turning out to be a very major project. (The different versions of TFS are behaving like completely different programs, which is multiplying the amount of work involved...) Any support for git is going to have to wait until after that is ready and working, so it will be quite I while, I'm afraid. Don't hold your breath... :?
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Steffen Sledz
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Re: Git revision control system support

Unread post by Steffen Sledz »

Some news after five more months?
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Tim Green
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Re: Git revision control system support

Unread post by Tim Green »

Steffen Sledz wrote:Some news after five more months?
Don't hold your breath... 8) Implementing TFS is monstrously complex and this will be available in Help & Manual 7. If git is added it will be a long time in the future. At the moment, mentioning git to our developers working on TFS integration would be an excellent way to get your head bitten off... :twisted:

And no, there is not a target release date for Help & Manual 7, beyond a possible time frame around the end of the year or later. :)
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Steffen Sledz
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Re: Git revision control system support

Unread post by Steffen Sledz »

Meanwhile we've setup a SVN-GIT-Proxy. But this is really a dirty hack. :(

While setting up H&M for subversion we discovered that you use TortoiseSVN as backend. There is also TortoiseGIT available. Is it really that hard to integrate this? I believe you can add a new, very useful feature to H&M with less work (in opposite to the TFS integration which is a lot of work as you mentioned).

Steffen
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Tim Green
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Re: Git revision control system support

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Steffen,

Sorry, but we're not even going to look at git in any form until TFS is implemented. One thing at a time. 8)
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gk
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Re: Git revision control system support

Unread post by gk »

Hello Tim,

I don't want to push you, but is there any information on the progress of TFS support?
We are upgrading our development environment and TFS is a big part of this.
So they were looking at me: "does the help documentation software support integration with TFS?"

Any news?

Kind regards,
Gerwin
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Tim Green
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Re: Git revision control system support

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Gerwin,

TFS implementation is proceeding very well. It will definitely be included in Help & Manual 7, which we are currently aiming to release early next year. It's not possible to provide a more specific date at the moment, however... 8)
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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gk
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Re: Git revision control system support

Unread post by gk »

Hello Tim,

thanks for the swift reply. I'll be eagerly watching the website 'early next year' then :)

Best regards,
Gerwin
gk
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Re: Git revision control system support

Unread post by gk »

Hello Tim,

Could you give an update on the status of TFS-support please?
H&M is one of the last bottlenecks in our 'upgrade' from VSS to TFS, so we would like to know more about when the H&M version that supports TFS will be available.

Kind regards,
Gerwin
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Tim Green
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Re: Git revision control system support

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Gerwin,

TFS support is included in Help & Manual 7 which is going to be released in the coming weeks. Note that you will have the following restrictions:
  • Each Help & Manual project must be stored in its own separate TFS project, which can be created by Help & Manual. You cannot add HM projects to existing TFS projects with other content.
  • Currently only TFS 2012 is supported. Later versions will be added, earlier versions will not be supported.
  • Currently you will only be able to use your own TFS server. Online TFS servers like those provided by Microsoft use a completely different authentication system that is not yet supported. Support for those will probably be added later.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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gk
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Re: Git revision control system support

Unread post by gk »

Hello Tim,

Thank you for this information!

Kind regards,
Gerwin
Mathew Weaver
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Re: Git revision control system support

Unread post by Mathew Weaver »

Does H&M v7.0 work with TFS 2015? Or does it only work with TFS 2012?

Will it work with a Git repository hosted in TFS? Or do we need to use a standard TFS repository?
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