The Control Poll

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Control Poll

  • I am using Mercurial[/url] for my small (single-dev) projects.

    I like it because it is distributed, simple and scalable. And most important: You don't need a server if using it one a single machine. The repository is stored in a sub-directory of your project.

    Side-effect: The file-backup of your project-folder will also back up the whole version history.

    With Mercurial there is no excuse left for living without VC! 😛

  • I've been using Subversion for about 6 years for SSIS packages. Firstly on a Linux server, and now on a Windows server using CollabNet Subversion Edge (it's free, and provides a nice web interface for remote administration).

    A couple of years ago, I convinced my boss to buy Red-Gate SQL Source Control which is linked into the Subversion repository. It's probably now my most-often used piece of software - I check in absolutely every change now, and means I am able to synchronise databases as well as packages. I use TortoiseSVN for SSIS packages.

    It's all a bit of overkill at the moment, as I'm the only developer using this VC solution at the moment. However, it means that it's really easy to get a new developer set up with the stuff that they need to do any development work. I don't have to grant them access to the live server - just source control.

    For all of the effort that it takes to set up (about half a day including building the VM that hosts it) it's saved me so much time in deploying code to live, making sure that I've always got the most up to date version.

    The only shortcomings I've seen so far in the software I've selected is that you can't store snapshots of jobs in version control (unless you script them into a procedure), and you have to drop out to Windows Explorer to commit the local version of SSIS packages. There are Visual Studio shell extensions available, but I've not found one that does everything that I want for a sensible cost.

    Cheers

    Ben

  • I'm with Ben. I invested the time and money in RedGate's SQL Source Control several years ago, and have never looked back. Having not had much experience with source control prior to that, there was a small learning curve, but I can't imagine developing anything without it now. Our dev team also recently grew in size, and source control allowed us to maintain different dev, testing, and production environments with very little overhead/complexity.

  • I use Visual SVN in VS2012 for SSDT, SSIS, and SSRS.

    We are looking into RedGate source control

  • I use CVS. It is easy to set up, use and free.

  • I've been using Serena Version Manager for over 8 years now. I can't really imagine life without it. Stored Procedures, Views, SSRS Reports, Entire SSAS solutions, even some documents and jpegs get checked in there. I don't have to worry about anyone over-writing my code when I have anything checked out. If I toast something I'm working on, I always have the option to refresh back to the latest version that was checked in. I can do a diff between files and see what's changed, plus there are notes kept with each version change along with the last check-in date. All work is bridged back to our project documentation, so you can always see why the change was made. I probably wouldn't consider a position elsewhere if they didn't have similar capabilties available. It's just too easy to do, and it adds such a security blanket. It would be foolish not to use a VCS.

    In addition to that, we have a shared drive that automatically backs up every hour. It always keeps a couple of days worth of snapshots, and all versions are available through file properties. We can save new development and anything that's checked out there, and you can easily get a version of a file backed up from earlier in the day before you had problems without going to tape. You can get whole folders back if necessary. I don't need to do it that often, but boy is it nice to have when you need it.

  • We are still non-distributed, and use SourceGear Vault, happy enough. Anyone got compelling reasons to go distributed?

    The only time I have not checked any code in recently is when a released version needs patching, an updated version is in progress, and we have not properly forked at release for whatever reason. This would rarely tend to happen to be fair.

  • I'm a single developer/DBA/chief cook & Bottle washer at my company. I use Subversion tied into Visual Studio and SSMS/Windows Explorer.

    I actually like using Explorer as my navigation shell, Win 7 makes grouping and searching different types of stored procedures quite simple, with editing etc. in SSMS.

    There's nothing quite like knowing I can roll back a change or get back an accidentally deleted SP or VS file. 😎 I would recommend version control for any project that changes frequently. The only things I don't put in version control are the ERD and a few Access tools that do the grunt work of creating CRUD SPs.

    Plus it gives an additional layer of backup, another copy is never amiss when something goes south!

  • For users of the RedGate solution do you recommend Shared Database Development or Dedicated?

    I am leaning towards Dedicated, my coworker is leaning towards Shared.

  • I use better version control (Git & Mercurial) for my open source projects than I do for my work related ones. Tis a sad thought...

  • Joe - We use dedicated development on SQL Source Control.

    Seemed to make most sense at the time!

    Cheers

    Ben

  • Joe - definitely go with Dedicated dev environments for RedGate's SQL Source Control. They've got quite a few resources on their website that explain the differences (videos, whitepapers, etc), but the dedicated environments are easier to maintain.

  • Yeah that's what I am thinking.

    I'll check out the whitepapers.

  • Been a VSS user for years.

    Cheers

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