[AccessD] version control

I confess that I'm not a big fan of these approaches, particularly since it
sometimes happens that several clients in the field have different versions
(I don't update everyone to a single version all the time, but instead may
fork a project so there are several versions.

That's why I use version control systems I didn't create in a half-assed
way. I have used both VSS and Subversion and I like them both a lot. When I
first began using VSS, I thought it was only for source code. Then I got a
job at a firm that used it for storing every document of every file-type for
every project... all the Word, PPT, XLS, MDB and SQL files and more, for
every project.

Because all this was stored in a web-accessible version database, I could
get to it from anywhere. In a hotel room in Thunder Bay, I could plug in and
grab the January 7 version of project xyz, plonk it on my notebook, and
instantly recreate exactly the system that customer 123 is running.

Perhaps you can only appreciate the value of such a system by using it, and
by having to resurrect the version you shipped on January 7, and know for a
fact that said resurrected system is exactly (FE and BE, in the Access case)
what you deployed on that date.

This also obviates the need for a key or anything similar. You can easily
resurrect the January 7 and January 10 systems, each in its own directory,
and even compare and contrast them.

That's what version control is, IMO. Not some nickel-dime scheme I invented
but rather a scheme invented by folks whose principal project is version
control. I like both VSS and Subversion, and depending on my employer of the
moment, switch from one to the other. But all the previous data is available
no matter which one I'm using at any given moment.

Any SOHO developer with a server and a development box and a notebook can
set this arrangement up in an hour or less. The whole deal is, that you have
to respect its priority (i.e. check stuff out, check it back in when you're
done, etc.). And even if you're the only developer on a project, you gain
hugely.

My $.02.
Arthur

On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 1:30 PM, Mark A Matte <markamatte at hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> I use a custom database property I call
> BuildNo(FILE--DatabaseProperties--TAB=Custom)...and everytime the mdb
> opens...it checks for a newer version in a specified place.
>
> If you would like more details let me know.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark A. Matte
>
>
> > Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2008 10:16:37 -0700
> > From: dbdoug at gmail.com
> > To: AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
> > Subject: [AccessD] version control
> >
> > Hello all:
> >
> > Does anyone have any good ideas for database version control? I've
> tripped
> > myself up so many times on out-of-date versions of my databases. I now
> have
> > all my dbs check for a small 'key' file in the same folder as the
> current
> > version of the db, so that if I try to open up an older version in a
> > different folder, it won't run. But every once in a while I have to copy
> > the key file so I can view two db versions simultaneously, then of
> course I
> > sometimes forget to delete the copied key file, and two weeks later I
> find
> > I've got two different 'current' versions of the database.
> >
> > Doug Steele
> > --
> > AccessD mailing list
> > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
> > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
> > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> More immediate than e-mail? Get instant access with Windows Live
> Messenger.
>
> http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_instantaccess_042008
> --
> AccessD mailing list
> AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>