Monday, June 09, 2008

Checking who else has checked out?

A comment on an earlier post has prompted me to clarify the way that Subversion handles certain tasks. The commenter is using SQLDeveloper, that uses JDeveloper's SVN implementation, and wants-

1. Subversion navigator to indicate if others are working on the same code

Subversion uses the copy-modify-merge paradigm. This means that any user with the correct authorization can check out a copy of the code from the repository to a local file system. This local copy can be manipulated (using JDEV, Tortoise, command line etc) so that updates and commits can be carried out from it. However, the Subversion repository does not have any understanding of how many users are working on or have checked out the same code. Updates and Commits are instigated from the local copy. This also means that any local copy checked out from Subversion may never be checked back in.

2.When double clicking on a package in the database or in the versioning tree and have the option to load the local copy (linked to subversion).

With respect to the request to double click on the versioning tree this comes back to Subversion having no knowledge of the local copies. I think that he is asking that the local copy be updated through using the Subversion navigator - but updates are driven from the local copy, not the repository.

As for the database package, that would be another level of complexity. Presumably the single point of truth is the package definition held in the SVN repository. To ensure that the database holds the latest version the user would have to checkout a the latest version as a local copy from the repository and update the DB. I'm not sure that somehow automating this process would be desirable - it would need links from the DB to the tool to the correct local copy location and through this to the SVN repository - sounds error prone to me.

3. Be able to do a compile and see the log window

This is a SQL Developer question, rather than SVN oriented, so I'll leave that to my colleagues with SQLDeveloper to answer.

Friday, June 06, 2008

Going To New Orleans - ODTUG Kalaidoscope 2008

I've traveled and spoken on Oracle all around the world at many events but this year will be my first at ODTUG (June 15th-19th). I'm looking forward to both the technical and the non-technical aspects of the conference. New Orleans is somewhere that I haven't visited in 15 years and I'm happy to be one of the nearly-75 strong ODTUG Brigade volunteering for a day of community service work to give back to the city that has given so much to music lovers and so many others like me.

The conference is packed with keynotes and sessions, I'm going to be presenting two:
Who Moved My Code? - Team Development in Oracle JDeveloper on Wednesday 8.00-9.00am
Seven Secrets (and more) of Successful JDeveloper Database Designers on Wednesday 2.45-3.45pm

Both of these will be predominantly demo driven sessions. In the first Lynn Munsinger will be joining me so we can demo multi-developer tips and tricks using Subversion. The Seven Secrets will focus on existing and new features for database development and visualization for application developers. I'm hoping also to squeeze in a sneak preview of a project I'm working on around Application Lifecycle Management. Please join me if you are at ODTUG as I would welcome your feedback.

Our Usability Research Team is running some feedback sessions that Lynn, Grant Ronald and myself will be attending, be sure and sign up for one of those. Plus, if you want to talk to us about any aspect of JDeveloper we will be in the exhibit halls ready and willing to demo and discuss.

Finally, I hear there is a ODTUG Jam Session and I'm pretty sure I wont be able to resist!

New Best Practices Paper for Subversion and JDeveloper

I've finally got around to pulling together some of the information and best practices that I've blogged about into a document. You can view it here on Oracle Technology Network. Let me know what you think