Subversion can often be a pain to get started with, it will take a while to integrate into your workflow but once you get it, it’s a lifesaver. If you don’t know about subversion see my previous article on getting started.

I haven’t gone into detail on how to do things because this article is about my workflow with subversion not how to use subversion.

When to make commits

There’re several cases when I make a commit, the more often the better in my opinion.

• When I’m finished implementing a certain feature.
• When I have achieved a particular milestone in implementing a feature
• Before I fix a bug
• When I have fixed a bug
• Before I make major changes to whatever I’m working on
• Before starting work on a new feature
• And always at the end of the day

So basically, whenever I can.

Commit Messages, Commit Messages, Commit Messages

This is all however completely useless (in my opinion) unless you provide commit messages with every commit stating what you have changed. Even if it’s a one man team, this is essential for when you need to go back later and find out what you broke, or why something is done how it is.

Registration now working, I think. The row is inserted into the user table and the number of remaneing uses on the invite code is being reduced.

Unideally the invite model is being loaded in the construct of the User model. This is the only way it would work, and is loading unnesecary stuff. So that needs attention.

Also still to do in registration.php is the setting of flashdata and redirection to the login page. the flashdata tells the login controller that this is the first login. An email also needs to be sent confirming the email address.

Example commit from hippstr

(I thought it would be more truthful to leave the spelling mistakes in, so don’t correct me on them). As you can see this commit message outlines everything that is changed in that commit and even outlines what is still to be done (which I don’t believe is 100% necessary). I do this because all Hippstr commits go into the basecamp project management system (see How I Manage Projects) so it lets the team know what’s happening. Read More …

For a long time I’ve hosted my sites on a MediaTemple VPS or Virtual Private Server. For a pricey $50 a month you get a pretty nice package and 24/7 support but recently I was turned onto Slicehost. They offer great plans for very reasonable prices and great support too (always important).

They also offer a choice of operating systems, not forcing me to use my now least favourite operating system: centOS. I chose ubuntu and following on from last weeks post about project management, I will talk about how to install and configure a subversion server running on Ubuntu 8.0.4.

Read More …

Managing projects is hard. I’ve come to learn this over the last year. [poor] Project management is also without a doubt one of the factors why Hippstr has been delayed for almost a year now. So I’m going to share with you a few of the tools, services and practices that have helped improve my productivity and my team’s.

Those who are around me often will know I never shut up about how great basecamp is. And it really is.

“Basecamp is the smarter, easier, more elegant way to collaborate on your internal and client projects.”
37signals

Basecamp is a really simple and easy-to-use project management system. With great to-do management, a forum like “messages” section and milestones (There’s more but this is the important sutff). Read More …