Version Control Systems (VCS) and AgileSCM

The constant need to swap files when collaborating with other people on a project can become somewhat tedious to say the least, and various methods are often used to achieve this including email, file upload etc. Not ideal, ask any developer and they will be sure to tell you. Introducing Revision Control; a solution to combat the challenge of sharing files between development teams.

The use of Revision Control is almost imperative for organisations involved in software development. The benefits include being able to browse previous “commits” to your repository and revert to earlier versions if something happens. Perhaps the most obvious benefit though, is that there is no restriction on the number of people that can work on the same code base at one time and it removes the hurdle of constantly having to send files back and forth.

Subversion, Git, Mecurial

Subversion is arguably the most well known and widely-adopted VCS in the industry today. Many open-source projects use Subversion as a repository because other larger projects, such as SourceForge, Apache, Python, Ruby and many others use it as well.

Hot on the heels of Subversion, Git is the new fast-rising star of version control systems and is beginning to take the development industry by storm. Git it’s a distributed version control system; there isn’t one centralised code base to pull the code from. Different branches hold different parts of the code.

Like Git, Mercurial is an open-source distributed version control system and was designed for larger projects, most likely outside the scope of designers and independent developers. This is not to say that small development teams can’t or shouldn’t use it. Mercurial is extremely fast, with performance as the most important feature. It is a much simpler system than Git and there are less functions to learn, the reason it appeals to some developers.

AgileSCM

Regardless of the Version Control System you use as a developer or team leader, whichever you choose it is likely you may experience some hurdles or challenges along the way. AgileSCM is Clearvision’s ALM solution which integrates with Subversion, Git and Mecurial. AgileSCM adds a lightweight process and policy layer to help ensure that software is developed in a controlled, repeatable and secure manner.

Spending more time coding and less time fighting development tools, or tied up with administration, is a key factor in reducing time to market, this can be achieved through the use of ALM products such as AgileSCM. AgileSCM is the Clearvision browser-based ALM which integrates with Subversion, Git and Mercurial to improve cross-team communication, closing the gap between developers, team leaders and the business. For more information click here, or try it now via Clearvisions’ AgileSCM sandbox.

AgileSCM - A Complete Plugin to JIRA

Clearvision have produced a plugin for AgileSCM to integrate fully with Atlassian’s Jira.

The AgileSCM JIRA Plugin allows developers to drive AgileSCM entirely from within the JIRA interface.

The JIRA Plugin (JIRADriver) consists of a new AgileSCM tab which interacts directly with AgileSCM.

The plugin performs the following actions in AgileSCM;

• Creation of AgileSCM development activities (automatic branching in Subversion, Git and Mercurial)
• Merging of activities to an SCM integration branch (Subversion, Git and Mercurial)
• Any JIRA workflow can be used to trigger AgileSCM 'close and deliver' actions The JIRA Driver is an easy to use way to perform SCM merging in Subversion, Git or Mercurial based upon JIRA state transitions.

Try it for yourself, click here.