New to SVN, How to Setup? - asp.net

I have a Windows 2003 Server with IIS, I installed VisualSVN Server on it.
I have two developers, who are going to use TortoiseSVN.
Since this is my first time ever setting up a SVN server I am kind of confused on how this will all work. The way I see it, each developer would have a copy of the repository on his or her local pc, would each person be required to have IIS installed on their PC as well to test their copies before checking out?
Should I create a testing folder on the server and then a production ready? It seems as if that would cause more issues with copies?
What would you do?
EDIT
I dont know what I was thinking, I forgot that VS has a built in IIS when you debug so the issue about setting up IIS on either client or server is now a non-issue. But I am confused, I imported the site into the repo, it said it was on revision 2 but I dont see any of the files in the repo folder. Do I create a virtual folder in IIS pointing to the repo that I created?

No, each developer uses your repository, and checks out their own copies to do their work. They do not need IIS or svn, etc, installed on their systems.
I recommend reading up on the Subversion FAQ.

Your devs don't have a local repository, they have a Working Copy on their PC. Typically, this is the most recent version of the app with whatever changes have been made by the developers but not committed yet.
As this is a web app, then your developers will need some kind of web server locally to test it - this could be IIS, or Visual Studio's built in web server (although that does behave differently to IIS in subtle ways).
You said in a comment: "My problem is I dont want the devs to commit to the live site in case there was a bug.".
The devs commit to the SVN repository on the server: at some point you will want to export (aka 'publish') a copy from the latest version in your repository to your live site. In order to make sure this works, you can check out a specific version from the server, test it, and if it passes the tests upload it: devs will always check in code with bugs (even though it builds) as it's better to check code in frequently than build up lots of changes locally then commit them, as there are bound to be conflicts with work other developers have done.
Branching and Tagging are useful concepts here: when you have a version which is almost right, you 'branch' it away from the main 'trunk' of the source code tree, fix any issues in the branch (back-porting to the main trunk as required), then when you have a working version you 'tag' it (as version x.y.z) and upload it. This way you can always refer to the particular version of the code you have uploaded, which makes it a lot easier to identify bugs which turn up in production. As others have suggested, read the SVN documentation for more info.

It depends on how you work. There are other discussions about folder structure and such which play directly into how you use version control.

Uh, no, no local repositories. Setting up SVN is easy, well almost. You'll want to look for the svn windows installer and set it up on the server. You'll want to install Apache and then you'll have a little hurdle setting up the http.conf file to expose svn over http. There's a little complexity with setting up security so go with Windows Authentication, you'll need WebDav, google it.
Once that's done, any svn client can hit it and checkout a copy and work with SVN normally. If you get really stuck, comment here and I'll go get a copy of our install and config for you.
The good news is that it's rock solid, once you get it setup it'll run forever.

"Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion" and the SVN red-bean are the two sources you need to see.
Set up SVN on a single server and have all your developers point to it.

I've installed tortoise on the server and do Updates / Checkouts of the release website. Some people don't like checking in compiled code, but I like having the production compiled site in SVN.
If you use tortoise on the server, Do the initial checkout to the inetpub/website directory and then on rollouts you just need to update the directory using tortoise->update
Of course checkin to rollout is considered bad practice without first rolling out and testing on staging servers, but depends on your team size.

I have used the following resources for learning SVN:
http://www.polymorphicpodcast.com/shows/subversion/
http://www.dimecasts.net/Casts/ByTag/SVN
Found both quite good, and learning by watching can be easier especially for getting started.

No - your central server will maintain the repository. Your developers will get copies of the repository, make changes, and then commit them to your repository.
You actually have quite a few things to figure out if you want to do a successful deployment of subversion.
One really good article about setting up subversion on Windows - https://blog.codinghorror.com/setting-up-subversion-on-windows/

No, SVN server must be installed on a single computer. Each developer point at this computer and get locally (and eventually) a full copy or a partial copy of the repository.
You may also buy a book from O'Reilly about Subversion. Don't remember the title, sorry, but it helps me a lot.
All the best ! Sylvain.

Related

Version maintenance of artifacts in artifactory, when we do bug fixing in various environments

We use artifactory as a repo manager. We store packages for releases in repo libs-release-local and snapshot packages in libs-snapshot-local.
For example: If we send the war (web app) into test, it should be from libs-snapshot-local and if it is into stage & prod it will be from libs-release-local.
I will say a scenario, where I needed help below:
Once the war is certified good on test server we would send the same code to stage.
We saw a bug after deployed into stage, so we changed the code and again build it, it obviously cannot go to same versioned release(as in artifactory, we cannot override releases).
So,
What will happen if we recognized 10 bug fixes one at a time, after each deployment in stage ?
What if we have realized there are bug fixes after going to prod.
Artifactory will have bulk of folders with so many version names & folders. Is that good practice? Or else anything senses wrong in our procedure?
Thanks!
Suggest to read Binary repository management Refcard first.
You need define your strategy for your folders and wars (web application), it is already good to use different repo for different purpose (snapshot/release)
The process for maintenance is simple
fix the bug and increase the version, send to the libs-snapshot-local for testing
after testing, a.k.a QA passed, the packages are promoted to release/stage repo libs-release-local again for public use again.
In this case, bug fix is the same as normal development procedure.
or you can refine the questions to make your questions more clear.

DotNetNuke Module keeps converting itself into Application in IIS7

Bit of a weird one. For some reason one of my DNN modules keeps being converted into an Application in IIS7 in my development environment. Meaning when I try to view a page that contains that module it can't find the module correctly. It's ok if I go into IIS and delete the application, then restart the site but is a bit of a pain and am little worried it might do this when uploaded to the live server and disable the whole site.
Anyone encountered anything like this before? Any thoughts?
This is a common problem with my VS templates, though not for everyone, and it doesn't happen all the time. It stems from Visual Studio, so it shouldn't ever be a problem on your production servers, unless you upload source and try to compile there, than it might be an issue.
HuwD,
A good resource might be my module template installation video which gives good information on setting up your development environment and debugging issues (regardless of the template you use). Check out between 1:30 and 5:00 minutes for the environment setup, and after 19 minutes some of the troubleshooting.
A couple common problems I see Visual Studio doing is creating an unwanted virtual directory on the DesktopModules folder and/or creating an unwanted web.config in the module's root.
Another good resource is Dnnhero.com. In the development section there is a series on DNN7 environment and template setup.
You may want to give a try a free module called Users Importer - A bit old but worth a try.
Here is a paid alternative: Bulk User Manager

Need a GUI based deployment solution for .net

Ok.. I have looked through this site and just can't seem to find the answer I am looking for.
We have a multi server setup for our web sites, typically (DEV/QA/PRODUCTION). Our sites are .net which require some sort of build before being deployed. We are using SVN for source control and are looking for a tool/website/something that will allow our project managers to push button deploy changes to the different environments. It seems there is no silver bullet for this, am I correct in this assumption?
I like the functionality of Springloops but can't find any information regarding its use with .net. Sparing details, it would be nice to see a diagram of sorts on the whole end to end process. What I mean by that is, if multiple different tools are the only answer (no silver bullet), then a diagram that shows where the tools sit in relation to the whole process.
Look at CruiseControl.Net. It'll let you automate your builds and if there are errors it can notify certain people and even flash a big red light in the office.
The other thing it can do is automatically deploy to a chosen region such as Dev/Test/Stage/Prod when there are no errors.
Though you may want to make Prod a manual press of a button. :)
The new on click publishing features in Visual Studio 2010 are pretty easy to set up ans use: http://vishaljoshi.blogspot.com/2009/05/web-1-click-publish-with-vs-2010.html
Supports configuring IIS and deploying SQL packages too.
There is a msdeploy.exe file included in the that you could setup to run with .bat files or some configurable script runner.
Try ClickOnce deployment. Once a update is deployed on the server the client applications are automatically get updated on every client on their next run.

How can I enable auto-updates in a Qt cross-platform application?

I love applications that are able to update themselves without any effort from the user (think: Sparkle framework for Mac). Is there any code/library I can leverage to do this in a Qt application, without having to worry about the OS details?
At least for Windows, Mac and user-owned Linux binaries.
I could integrate Sparkle on the Mac version, code something for the Linux case (only for a standalone, user-owned binary; I won't mess with distribution packaging, if my program is ever packaged), and find someone to help me on the Windows side, but that's horribly painful.
It is not a complete solution, but a cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) tool for creating packages for auto-updates and installing them is available at https://github.com/mendeley/Update-Installer. This tool does not deal with publishing updates or downloading them.
This was written for use with a Qt-based application but to make the update installer small, standalone and easy to build, the installer uses only standard system libraries (C++ runtime, pthreads/libz/libbz2 on Linux/Mac, Win32 API on Windows, Cocoa on Mac, GTK with fallback on Linux). This simplifies delivering updates which include new versions of Qt and other non-system libraries that your application may depend on.
Before considering this though, I would suggest:
If you are only building for two platforms, consider using standard and well-tested auto-update frameworks for those platforms - eg. Sparkle on Mac, Google's Omaha on Windows or auto-update systems built into popular install frameworks (eg. InstallShield). I haven't tried BitRock.
On Mac, the Mac App Store may be a good option. See https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-16549 though.
On Linux, consider creating a .deb package and a simple repository to host it. Once users have a repository set up, the system-wide software update tools will take care of checking for and installing new releases. The steps for setting up a new repository however are too complex for many new Ubuntu/Debian users. What we did, and also what Dropbox and Google have done, is to create a .deb package which sets up the repository as part of the package installation.
A few other notes on creating an updater:
On Windows Vista/7, if the application is installed system-wide (eg. in C:\Program Files\$APPNAME) your users will see a scary UAC prompt when the updater tries to obtain permissions to write to the install directory. This can be avoided either by installing to a user-writable directory (I gather that this is what Google Chrome does) or by obtaining an Authenticode certificate and using it to sign the updater binary.
On Windows Vista/7, an application .exe or DLL cannot be deleted if in use, but the updater can move the existing .exe/DLL out of the way into a temporary directory and schedule it for deletion on the next reboot.
On Ubuntu, 3rd-party repositories are disabled after distribution updates. Google works around this by creating a cron-job to re-add the repository if necessary.
Shameless plug: Fervor, a simple multiplatform (Qt-based) application autoupdater inspired by Sparkle.
Shameless plug: this a relatively old question, but I thought that it may be useful to mention a library that I created recently, which I named "QSimpleUpdater". Aside from notifying you if there's a newer version, it allows you to download the change log in any format (such as HTML or RTF) and download the updates directly from your application using a dialog.
As you may expect from a Qt project, it works on any platform supported by Qt (tested on Windows, Mac & Linux).
Links:
Website
GitHub repository
Screenshot:
Though it works a bit differently than Sparkle, BitRock InstallBuilder contains an autoupdater written in Qt that can be used independently (disclaimer, I am the original BitRock developer). It is a commercial app, but we have free licenses for open source projects.
I've developed an auto-updater library which works beautifully on Mac OS X, Linux and pretty much every Unix that allows you to unlink a file while the file is still open. The reason being that I simply extracted the downloaded package on top of the existing application. Unfortunately, because I relied on this functionality, I ran into problems on Windows as Windows does not let you unlink an open file.
The only alternative I could find is to use MoveFileEx with the replace on reboot flag, but that is awful.
However, renaming the working directory of the application works on Windows 7 and Windows XP. I haven't tried Windows Vista yet.
I have found WebUpdate to be quite useful, though it's written with the wxWidgets. But don't worry, it's a separate app which handles your updates. The steps to integrate it are pretty simple - just write two XML files and run the updater. And yes, it's cross-platform.
The advantage of it is it will automatically download and unzip/install all you required and not just provide a popup with a notification about a new version and a link to download it. Another thing you can do with it is customizable actions.
Project's main page is here, you can read the docs or take a look at the official tutorial.
The blog post Mixing Cocoa and Qt may solve the problem for the Mac platform.
You can use UpdateNode which gives you all the possibilities to update your software. It's using a cross platform Qt client and is free for Open Source!
UPDATE
Just did some further analysis on that and really like this solution:
Pros:
Free for Open Source!!! Even the client is Open Source: https://github.com/updatenode/unclient
The client is already localized in several languages
Very flexible in terms of updates. You can even update single non-binaries.
Provides additionally a way to display messages though the client.
Ready to use binaries & installer for all common Linux distributions, single Windows binary, as well as installer and a solution for Mac (which I have not tried, as I don't have a Mac)
Easy to use web service, nice statistics and update check is integrated within few minutes
Cons:
I am missing a multi-user management in the online service. Maybe they will do it in future - I will definitely suggest that in their feedback portal
The client is a GUI client only - so, you will need to shrink it down to run without a GUI frontend (maybe only necessary for people like me ;-) )
So, bottom line, as this solution is quite new, I think there is lot of potential here. I will definitely use it in my project and I am looking forward for more from them! Thumbs up!
This is an old question but there is not Squirrel in answers which is BEST SOLUTION , here is what I'm doing in qt 5.12.4 with qt quick "my qml app" you can do this in any other language
I'm doing this in windows there is mac version of squirrel too, I don't know about Linux
download nuget package explorer release
https://github.com/NuGetPackageExplorer/NuGetPackageExplorer/releases
open nuget package explorer and add this directory 'lib/net45' it doesn't matter you have a .net app or not, I did this for my qt application otherwise it won't work.
add all files into this folder specify your version in the metadata
save nupkg file
download squirrel release https://github.com/Squirrel/Squirrel.Windows/releases
add squirrel to windows environment path
open cmd and cd to directory of nupkg file
squirrel --releasify file_name.nupkg -> now inide releases folder, there should be setup.exe file which will install app and other files.
to create new version do 2,3,4,7,8 again if its an update it will create delta file which is only needed file to update, put this files into your service directory for example in updates folder of your website which you need to disable directory browsing in IIS , and to auto-update application you need to call Update.exe which is in parent folder of application root directory appdir/../update.exe --update http://yourserver.com/upates/ after application restart app should start with new version
you can find documentation for squirrel in https://github.com/Squirrel/Squirrel.Windows/blob/develop/docs/getting-started/0-overview.md and nuget package explorer here https://github.com/NuGetPackageExplorer/NuGetPackageExplorer and you can use only nuget.exe too if you don't want to use nuget package explorer which can be used for dynamic generation of versions, which can be download from https://www.nuget.org/downloads
That easy. Now you have auto-update app which will download updates from the server and auto-update app. For more info you can read documentations.
note: for iis uses https://github.com/Squirrel/OldSquirrelForWindows/issues/205
I suggest you read on plugin and how to create and use them. If your application architecture is modular and be split into different plugins. Take a look at Google Auto Update utility http://code.google.com/p/omaha/. We use this.
Thibault Cuvelier is writing a tutorial (in French) to develop an updater. I know the explanations are in French (and everyone is not understanding French), but I think this can be readable with a web translator like Google Translate. With this you will have a cross-platform updater, but you need to write it by yourself.
For what I know, the only part of the updater that is explained in the tutorial, is the file downloading part. In the case this can help you, refer to the tutorial, Un updater avec Qt.
I hope that helps.
OK, so I guess I take it as a "no (cross-platform) way". It's too bad!
I have found a solution that can be automated with built-in self-extracting patches and updates. for windows. I have started using their sdk. take a look at the massive documentation here, https://agersoftware.com/docs/ the sdk is called securesdk and comes with their app, SecureDelta sdk. does a great job on any kind of files, better results than lzma-included delta updaters

How can I uninstall Win32 assemblies and cleanup WinSxS?

After a lot of trial and error (mostly due to lack of documentation and examples) I have managed to create MSI installers that install custom DLLs to WinSxS as side-by-side assembly. There is only one problem: Uninstalling leaves all files (DLLs, manifests and catalogs) in the WinSxS directory. How can or should I best clean that up? I know for sure that nothing else references it.
I have read somewhere that WinSxS has a self-scavenging process that cleans up over time but I could not find more information about that. Can you manually invoke this to clean up stuff?
The only other way I see is manually deleting those bits. First you have to change the owner of all files (assembly, catalog, manifest and their respective directory) from SYSTEM to an administrator account, adjust the permissions and delete them. There are also pieces left in the registry (I think HKLM\COMPONENTS\DerivedData\Components may be one place), but since WinSxS should be treated as opaque it is hard to find any information.
Scavenging isn't exposed anywhere that I know of. I'm not even sure when it is kicked off automatically. Maybe on uninstall of a service pack? Maybe some tool admins can run? I really forget.
Anyway, my suggestion is don't fight it. There are so many twisty turns down there that it just isn't worth trying to get the disk space back. Once uninstalled the bits still in the SxS cache will not be activated so they are just wasting space.
It's a dumb design but blame Microsoft and don't try to overcompensate.
Here is an article, it's kinda complete guide to WinSxS.
So, shortly, you can only uninstall some components (all their versions are in this folder), and you can run Service Pack bridge burning utility (in Vista it is named VSP1CLN.EXE and shipped with SP1). Note, that after execution, you shouldn't be able to uninstall SP or any components to state, prior to SP release date.
No-one is convinced you can - short of a complete reinstall, your bloaty WinSxS directory is there to stay.
There's been a long "discussion" of the problem on technet.
There is no documentation of the format, or any instructions how to remove files that are no longer needed - MS seems to think that disc space is cheap. There is a self-scavenging feature, but no-one's convinced it works, or if it does, it is very conservative (as you'd hope as you don't want it to break your OS)
You can tell is the scavenger is working by checking the "C:\Windows\winsxs\Temp\PendingDeletes." folder, as this is where files are moved by windows update or an installer moves them to - the scavenger just deletes the files in here.
You'll notice that after you uninstall your assembly, while the files are still there, they can no longer be bound to - so they are just "staged", or cached, but not really installed.
Rob & gbjbaanb are correct - you cannot manually invoke a scavenge yourself. Don't try to delete the files yourself - there are multiple places in the registry where they are registered, DerivedData\Components being only one of the many references.
I think the rule for Vista is scavenging is kicked off by the TrustedInstaller service after 10 minutes of machine inactivity, after the last servicing operation (service pack, hotfix, etc). But it's very fickle, so it doesn't run as often as it should. So just be patient, and the files will disappear on their own.
Well i was having some issues as i have an 80GB SSD for my windows and the WinSxs folder was about 12gb's
I was searching the net and i found this command:
DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /spsuperseded
And now my WinSxs is 7gb which was wonderful news.
There are a few updates regarding the cleanup method that apply to newer OS. Check http://www.karafilis.net/winsxs-cleanup

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