TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: We Need A Website Update Procedure Tip From:Sandy Harris <sandy -at- storm -dot- ca> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 22 Jan 2002 09:50:00 -0500
Sylvia Braunstein wrote:
> We are looking for information on what procedures you use to keep your
> websites updated with valid and authorized information.
Given some Unix boxes and a bit of Unix expertise, this is straightforward
to do using the free, open source, CVS version control system. http://www.cvshome.org/
CVS and similar tools are also available for Windows, but I'm extremely
hazy on details.
What you do is set up a CVS repository that holds the master copy of your
web site. Use CVS access control features to control who can "check in"
new versions of various things.
Each developer can "check out" one or more copies and experiment with
various modifications in his or her personal "sandbox". However, only
those with the right permissions can check their changes into the master
copy.
A developer can do "cvs update" to get any changes that others may have
checked in applied to the local sandbox, putting that in sync with the
master.
Your webmaster then just does a checkout to get a copy on the web server
and sets up a script to do "cvs update" to grab changes from the master
every so often.
Among other things, this is great for backups. If your web server fries
a disk or is trashed by some EvilDoer, just do a checkout on a new
machine and all your data is restored. If someone blunders and checks
in an awful update, there are CVS commands that let you go back to any
previous version. If the machine with the CVS repository croaks and you
have no backups (shame on you), any of the sandboxes can provide an
almost correct version.
It can also support multiple web servers, perhaps a public one and an
internal company-only site. CVS allows the repository to be broken up
into modules; put private stuff in separate modules and don't check
them out on the public server.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Collect Royalties, Not Rejection Letters! Tell us your rejection story when you
submit your manuscript to iUniverse Nov. 6 -Dec. 15 and get five free copies of
your book. What are you waiting for? http://www.iuniverse.com/media/techwr
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
