Project revision history

[falkpl]

Is there any mechanism for tracking changes to a project much like the vi revision history.  I would like to keep better track of project changes over time.  I currently keep this info in a text file but I find this too cumbersome and a simple key selection that would bring up a history window with the time and a place for me to enter changes would be nice.  It would also be nice to automatically add project hierarchy changes automatically (i.e. xxx.vi changed, yyy.ctrl added to project, zzz.vi removed from project). 

[Kristen_K.]

Hi Paul!

There currently is not a built in functionality to keep track of project history.  However, you have two things you can do. 

1) create a product suggestion here. Click on the Product Feedback link. R&D looks at these when determining what features to add next. 

2) Use VI revision history.  Go to File >> VI Properties >>Revision History to edit the settings for VI revision history. Also, here is a link to an example program that demonstrates programmatically retrieving a VI's Revision History.

I hope this helps!

Kristen H.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Or use a source code control program and the Connectivity>Source Control functions.

[falkpl]

Probebly best to use Source code control I think, it would be nice to have a build in revision on the project though, I sometimes dont keep track of this since it is not very convienent.  I have seen much debate in the past but never followed through using a good version control.  Will SVN accomplish a good mechanism for doccumenting and tracking changes to a project?

[Dennis_Knutson]

I use svn now and though I don't use a client that integrates with LabVIEW but I like it a lot. My only complaint right now is that the way it was set up, you can commit a new version without documenting it. I hope this is something that can be changed though the quality of the documentation is still dependent on the individual. One of the things I never liked about using the VI revision history was that it bumped the rev with every save. If you save often during development, that can quickly become a pain. With any of the source code control tools, you only have to document and commit the change when you think it's complete. Being able to revert to old versions, create branches or tags, etc. makes it invaluable.

[Gabi1]

i was long hesitating to implement such source control. but no other option seemed to solve the problem, the vi history being the worse.

I am delighted to have it so well implemented.

I am looking now for an online (or email based) project management tool, where all participants could add comments, answers, and the whole communication would be saved. any idea?

[falkpl]

I agree that the revision numbering autoincrementing on each save is not a great idea, it would be better to allow versioning selected by the user with x.x.x  numbering system.  I often take a vi from previous projects and find that I am on a revision number in the several hundereds.  A better revision doccumentation could be a helpful feature.

[tst]

There's a list of project management tools that people use here.

You can force people to add comments in SVN by adding a commit hook script to the server to disallow this. Since this is a popular request, there are probably examples online (and maybe even shipping with SVN).

You should note that there is some overhead in learning how to work with SVN, especially if you're the one who's going to have to handle it, but there is quite a lot of information available online, including on LAVA and in LabVIEW-related blogs.