svn, test document workflow

["Hanssens Bart" <Bart.Hanssens@fedict.be>]

Title: svn, test document workflow

Dear members,


Perhaps it's time to think about workflow of the submitted test documents.


Several approaches are feasible:

a) use svn-properties on the files
Drawbacks:
- while adding properties is simple, SVN manuals states that searching for properties is non-optimal)
- you'll have to use an SVN-client or open the HTML-ized metadata files one by one to see which test documents are approved


b) use a metadata element in the metadata file, which is more or less the same situation as (a)


c) use branches and merge them
Possible drawback:
- in most software projects, you create a branch of the whole tree (in our case, that would be a whole - lazy - copy of all the testdocuments) since you want to compile the whole lot. This might not be the most optimal solution for working with test documents.
It think you can also branch subdirectories (for instance, one subdirectory per testdocument+metadata+html combination), but reading the SVN documentation it seems slightly more error-prone.


d) Implement a simple workflow using directories like this:

TestSuite/trunk/approved
TestSuite/trunk/todo

This makes it very clear what is ready for prime time and what remains to be done.

Possible drawback:
- the benefit of using a tool like SVN is that it can generate a history log including the file movements ("state changes"), provided that one always remembers to use the "svn move" command or the move option in TortoiseSVN.
Simply using your OS move/rename command or drag'n'drop in your file browser will bypass SVN, thereby making it much harder to track the file's history.

Flow:
- New documents chould go to the "todo" folder
- Once they are approved by the OIC TC, they can be SVN-moved to "approved"
- If at one point the document should be revised, it can be SVN-moved back into the "todo" folder.
- "Revoking" a document can be done by simply SVN-deleting it (remember, you'll always be able to dig it up using the appropriate SVN command)


(Personally, I prefer d or c)



On regular intervals (say every 4 months), the TestSuite can be tagged and a set of "test suite distributions" could be compiled from the approved folder.

For example:

TestSuite/tags/release_20090807

This simply marks a certain revision point in SVN, allowing a script to generate focused test suites like "ODF-1.1" or "spreadsheet-only", using the submitted (XML-ized) metadata.

Feel free to comment :-)


Best regards,

Bart