Experiences with Configuration Management

During my years as a computer science student I have never used configuration management tools, though I've known about them. I've never used them because they were never required in any of my classes and because frankly, I've never had a real use for them. Most of the programs I have written have been small and have been developed solely by me. But when are these configuration management tools essential for maintaining a project?

SUBVERSION

Before diving into subversion, I decided to think about some of the basic instances where using a configuration management program is useful:

• When groups of people are working on a single project
• When there is a system with multiple versions
• When working on a large system
• When projects branch of to separate versions  

Since I use Mac OS X, I could not use the 'ultimate' subversion client, TortoiseSVN available to windows users. What I did was install another good subversion client called SmartSVN. I found it extremely easy to set up, and after making a new directory on my system, I connected directly to the stack-johnson project on google project hosting. I then checked out the version in the online repository to get the most updated version of the program on my local machine. SmartSVN makes everything very simple and pretty intuitive. 

the smartSVN interface with the stack-johnson project view

To test out the other subversion commands I corrected some of the test code in TestStack.jav by adding @Test to some of the test methods. This is one of the first things I noticed in the stack source code and it definitely improved the system on a whole by enabling those methods to run in JUnit. After verifying that the project worked fine, I committed my change in TestStack.java and bam, my updated code was a part of the main line project.

That is what I think makes using a configuration management tool like subversion so cool. If many people are all working simultaneously to optimize some system, it makes things go really fast. Within a couple hours there were updated test cases and Javadocs in the stack program and it was much better than it was initially. Tools like subversion are essential for group work. It makes things so much easier. I can also see now how it is essential for versioning purposes. Its like an intelligent central backup, stemming from many sources.

GOOGLE PROJECT HOSTING

In order to get even more experience in using project hosting and subversion I set out to create my own stack project on google hosting. Google always impresses me with their different applications and technology. It seems like they have created everything anyone could ever need on the web (including this blog site!). In addition, everything is done so simply, while maintaining powerful functionality. Google project hosting is no exception to this. 

I went in and created my own personal project called stack-tylerwolff. It took about 2 seconds to do the initial set up and I was then ready to check in my program to the web. What was a bit

confusing was adding files to the project. I had to start up SmartSVN, check out the project into a directory (empty project), add files to be version controlled in that directory, and then check-in those files to google project hosting. This took me awhile to figure out but I eventually got it all to work nicely. Once everything is synced up to your local directory, check outs, updates, and commits can be done instantly.

Its really convenient that google project hosting incorporates subversion into their hosting infrastructure. On the project page you are able to view the source file directories as well as a changes list. Google makes it really easy to see everything that goes on with the program from start to finish. What's neat is that after adding Jeho Jung to the project, he was able to update and better the program from his home computer. It is really a great thing!

Overall, the hardest thing about creating a working project on google project hosting was creating a mailing list through google groups. I spent the bulk of my set up time trying to figure this all out. What I eventually realized was that I had set the group to be private, which meant group members (mainly codesite-noreply@google.com) did not have the proper permissions to post emails to other group members. When I fixed this problem, change messages were sent out to everyone added to the project and it was all good.

Subversion is such a great tool for working together on a project. Checking code in and out can be done instantly and getting updated project files is equally as quick. I can't imagine how one would work on a group project without it. In addition, google project hosting is so user friendly and easy to use. Creating projects and maintaining them through google is a smart idea. I can see now that the use of both can really optimize software engineering on a whole.