I've spent some time now developing a web application in php. It has mostly been just for the fun of learning as a side project, but the app now has a few users which I don't want to upset by breaking things as I develop.
At the moment, I have a very rudimentary method for managing the development - I use a text editor (ultraedit) to write the code and use its built in ftp to upload the files to the server. In terms of version control I have 2 domains, and only push files to the "live" domain when they work, but that's it. The domains are hosted on a cPanel shared hosting site which I have some doubts about its ability to handle even minor spikes in traffic. I looked at slicehost yesterday for something more scalable but that looks like a bit of a learning curve from where I am now.
I know I could do better than this, but where to start? I think I need advice on three things
1 - code writing tool
2 - version control / management
3 - scalable hosting
I've deliberately asked these in the same question as I'd like to know if one choice impacts another. Is there a good integrated solution?
Thanks in advance as ever.
Each part of your question has been answered before. The list below lists some of the common tools to use and links to appropriate searches on StackOverflow. There is no all in one package and going into details about these tools in one question is out of scope, so I am afraid you have to do some digging:
SVN, Git or Mercurial
UnitTesting (PHPUnit or SimpleTest)
Continuous Integration
Phing (for deployment)
phpqatools.org
Netbeans or Eclipse (for an IDE)
Disclaimer: list is not meant to be complete and order is not important
There is a lot going on here. I'll give you my two cents though.
I used to use ultra edit. Now I use netbeans, its a fully integrated development environment and it makes my life soooo much easier. Its free too. I can't imagine ever going back to UltraEdit. Also, which brings me to number two, netbeans has SVN and CVS integration
I would use subversion for version control. In my experience it does everything you need for version control. Others use ones like git and mercurial, but I think SVN is widely supported and easy enough to set up. As far as pushing code to the server, i've begun using svn for this too. I first ssh into the server and checkout the code into the public_html directory, and then set up an alias to do svn updates through the command line... its way easier than ftping in my opinion. There are other deployment methods, but i've never used them. see this question:
What is your preferred php deployment strategy?
obviously shared hosting is not going to handle traffic as well as a dedicated server. But there are lots of things you can do to improve performance before moving to a dedicated server. Check out this article: http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html
It seems that you're after a robust deployment strategy as opposed to a development one. But, correct me if I'm wrong.
In terms of 'code writing tool', and
IDE choice is a subjective
discussion. Feel free to work with
the one you are most comfortable
with, for me this is Netbeans.
As for a deployment strategy, I think it was best summed up in this answer.
Your point about scalable hosting is fairly broad. We will need much better forcasted metrics to give better advice. However, for now, if scalable hosting is a worry then maybe look into some sort of Cloud Hosting.
Have you looked at using wamp/xamp/mamp/lamp for development locally? Uploading via ftp for every change is a pain.
You could do that for local and see that everything works, then push it to your test domain and run through it again and then finally push live.
Might want to look at something like SpringLoops for doing your version control - this has the advantage of doing the deploy and then if it goes pear shaped you can revert it (free account gets 3 deploys a day).
I wouldn't worry about scaleable hosting just now, just focus on the site and the coding, you've only got a few users - wait till it starts becoming a problem before moving (however, I suggest looking into options) but don't try and get all cloud ready - might not ever be a problem.
ps, go with Linode over Slicehost.
I think use Aptana Studio ( http://www.aptana.org ). It is an Eclipse based IDE with all the tools you need integrated in it. It has integrated PHP development tools, GIT or SVN for version control.
I've used shared hosting as well. Once an other site on the same server had DoS atacks and my site became unreachable as well. Otherwise it could work in reasonable speed after some optimization. It served 1000-3000 users per day.
Dedicated servers are much better. Or you can use Amazon web services. I know they are more expensive.
1 - code writing tool
Zend Studio. I would recommend Linux as well if you are going to use linux servers.
2 - version control / management
SVN + phing (if you are going to build serious applications).
3 - scalable hosting
Amazon or RackSpace.
For your editor, just use what you are comfortable and productive with. You most definitely should have version control in place. You never know when you need to rollback a version or two.
I always keep at least 3 versions on the production server. I use symlinks to point the web server at the latest version. If there is a problem, you just need to recreate the symlink to point to an older version.
As for shared hosting, you'd be surprised out how much bandwidth you can get. I have a $10/month shared host that gets about 500K page views a month. Generally, it's not that your shared host can't handle the load, it's that the hosting provider puts too many "shares" on the same server. So it depends on how much resources everyone else on the same server is using. If you are having issues, you can always ask to be moved to a different server.
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My friend and I accepted simple PHP job, he has some experience working with a small team of developers and I'm new to this (and PHP to be honest :).
When I asked him about his environment I found out they (he and his previous team) never used source control, just a shared FTP server with a lot of mess. Now beginning this project I want to do it properly and use source control, I did some research and it looks like SVN is the simplest to use and fits our simple requirements.
My problem is that I don't really have an extra box to create a server... I have two options, one is to use my main windows machine as a server (it's always on so that's not a problem) BUT I can't always guarantee that it will be on when I'm far from home and I don't like how it will waste CPU cycles (It's also my gaming rig), the other option is to use an old laptop I have lying around (a Pentium 3 with about 128-256MB of RAM) and install the slimmest version of linux on it and the SVN server. it has the advantage of being simple, cheap and easy to maintain, but it has the disadvantage of being alow performing old laptop and having some uncertainty about it's reliability (I guess I'll set up some backup to my main machine).
Which option is better? I would prefer using the laptop but I'm unsure if its specs will slow us down, if I do use it, what version of linux would you recommend, and how simple is it to add some regular backup to it (I have almost no linux experience but I'm glad to learn).
PS. forgot to mention, both of us developing on windows machines.
EDIT: Most of you recommend Git and Mercurial, I think I'll go with mercurial because I read that git is more complicated, I really want the simplest solution that I can find. Unless git has some major advantage over mercurial? or maybe mercurial is the better one for the job?
Look at distributed version control systems like git and Mercurial (hg). Both have free/cheap hosting services (e.g., http://www.github.com and http://www.bitbucket.org) and are well suited for multiple developers working independently.
Also both have good tooling on Windows.
Why not use bitbucket/mercurial (hg)? You can set up (apparently) free private depots. Mercurial is crazy easy to use and is a lot newer (and rapidly gaining popularity) than svn.
Use git. It was designed and written by the guy who started Linux and he knows what he's doing.
You don't need a server for git, each user has a copy of the whole repository and you sync to each other. There is a bit of a learning curve, but if you're smart it will make you better developers.
DVCS like git is cool because you do not even need server. You basically just "synchronise" your code between each other here and there and due to fact that each repository has data from all repositories once is "synchronised" you do not need extra backup or server in most cases.
I found nice feature whit git (probably whit other VCS-s too) is that since they are just file based you can use any (free) cloud storage / ftp / git_server to backup your files in case of cataclysmic catastrophe.
I would highly recommend Mercurial (hg) as mentioned above, simple, easy to use and distributed. Personally, I prefer it slightly to Git and secondly its Windows support is better.
Bitbucket also lets you have free private repositories whereas Github is only free for public repos. Which I am guessing will be a factor if you are producing commercial code.
Why not go another route and get GitHub.com (pretty cheap, but costs a little) or BitBucket.com (this one is free for up to 5 users and unlimited repositories). You'll avoid a lot of headaches from maintaining your own servers.
If you want to host it yourself, check out subversion edge. Its a packaged svn that comes with apache and some management tools.
If you dont want to deal with admin stuff, check out beanstalk. They do hosted SVN.
Or, you could use something like git and github; but if you're really set on svn, check out beanstalk
Unfortunately, I've never had a senior developper or mentor to show me some of the best practices. So I develop sites (php/mysql) on my Windows machine with WAMP, I test in hidden (password restricted) folders on the production server and finally move sites to production folder.
I would like to have a more fluid/practical/error-proof setup so that from development > test > production, there is no hiccups.
The important points/questions are (you probably can come up with a lot more):
Ease of use
Easy to dev/test modifications after site is live (to avoid tests on production site)
No server difference between local/test/prod (error reporting, apache setting, etc)
Avoid problem with DB differences (ex: if columns were added, how do you add them to prod DB.?)
Do you skip the test environment or do dev AND test on the same.?
etc...
How do you guys develop PHP/MySQL websites.?
Do you use SVN.? Do you use IDEs.? Do you use VMs.?
Thanks.
This is a kind of frequent question - this is why most seasoned devs do not reply on - and generally end up in a flame war with torrid opinions. So, be careful about that.
But you seem to be an nice guy intending to get on the right paths, seeking for some really productive paths. And I recognize a little about myself on this a few years ago.
OK, first thing to keep in mind is: do not blind follow anyone on anything. Anyone can claim to be a great master, but you can find at least 10.000 guys far way better and completely anonymous. So, for anything you hear about do the following: listen, test, and take your own conclusions. If there is just one golden rule this is it. Everything else is crappy until your own conclusions appear. You are your final judge.
That said, let me begin for the one of the most current question: IDE. What you should use? You should use the one you can produce more and makes you more comfortable. Netbeans, Eclipse, VIM, Notepad++, Notepad, gedit, kate, quanta plus.... You have many options, and each person has it's own opinion. Test what you think interesting and go ahead with the one you choose.
This is true also for any methodology, framework or tool. Use, learn, and get critic about it. Stick with the one which makes you more comfortable and productive.
Same thing for developing environment. Does not matter that much if you develop on Windows, Mac or Linux. The important is get the resources you need available. The resources you need can and generally do change from one project to another.
So the best environment to develop a certain project is one that reflects the real environment where the production will run. What if you develop with PHP 5.3 OOP resources and at the end you get on a PHP 5.1? That's the point. The final environment is who tells you what is the best environment to develop, not the inverse.
For testing, you should trace a strategy. I'm talking about that as a 5 years Test Team Lead inside IBM. This because there are a LOT of testing you can perform, but not all can be really interesting to the current project.
First decide, according to project needs, what you are going to test. Security, performance, UI display, UI effects, error handlings, load and balance, usability, accessibility...
Take notes of what you are going to test (what, when, where, success criteria), and make a report of success and failures.
As I said before, the project needs is what guides you on every step. Testing is not different. If you just need to check the display on different browsers, feel free to use different machines, or VM's.
Generally this is sufficient. But if the project requires performance or load testing, then you will need specific load testing softwares. I will not get deep in this subject as it is very extensive.
It takes some time to find a ideal process and tools match, and after achieve that, you will always discover a new tool to test or a process to make you save a little time. This is IT.
Here's my recommendations:
have a dev environment purely for development. keep a staging and/or a live environment based on the resources you have at your disposal. the staging environment is where you test and ensure there are no serious issue(s) with your application. the live environment is basically your production setup. in fact, the staging and live should ALWAYS be the same. It is useful to reproduce issue(s) on the staging and do a bit of troubleshooting without modifying the code. Bear in mind, this also holds true for any associated databases.
Use SVN or some form of version control. This way you will have the ability to fall back to any stable version of the application if someday the world falls apart!
If you are using Linux environments you can write simple scripts to synchronize the setup with your latest (STABLE) development environment. Ideally, you do your development and conduct unit tests to ensure everything works as per design. Run a script and the staging environment is updated with the latest codebase. Conduct functional tests on staging and ensure that everything works as per specs. Run another script and your latest changes are moved into live/production environment.
My development process is still a bit rough, and I am looking forward to the answers also.
What I do for large projects is setup a git repo on my linux desktop and my windows desktop. I will test locally if possible. As components as finishinged I will push my changes to the centrally hosted git repo (private git hub account usually), or pull them to dev (i setup dev as a repo and pull from ssh). All MySQL updates are stored in update files, and I use netbeans for development (although I have used eclipse and others, netbeans just works for me).
I think you hit on all the important points. Personally, I
run the same OS and server software on the production server and my development system. Same versions of PHP, Python, MySQL, Django, etc.
I don't change DB structure often. I set up the DB tables on the dev. system, then use mysqldump to produce the table creation SQL. I install it on the sever using mysql <name_of_sql.file. When I do make changes, I back up the DB and then just do it through the command line interface. For PHP, I use Doctrine just for the table structure/migration support.
I write everything in Kate (Linux), Komodo Editor(Mac), or Notepad++ (Windows). I don't like IDEs very much, I much prefer to-the-point text editors.
I upload files to a staging dir, and check them with diff before copying them to the actual location.
This isn't the most sophisticated set up, but it's worked quite well for me. I'm the only dev working on the projects I'm involved with, which probably explains a lot. The most important part, that isn't really just personal preference, is the first one - match your dev/test system as closely to the production system as possible, including the OS.
We are just beginning the process of looking for a source code control system. I realize we are behind, but better late than never. None of the members on our team have experience with any systems in their past so I was hoping I could find out some basic things to look for as we begin investigating different tools. Here is a little background on our team:
Our group consists of developers and designers
We work primarily on PC's with one or two on Mac's
Many are not comfortable with command line based systems
The majority of our development is for the web
We develop in ASP.NET, ColdFusion, and PHP
A few we plan on looking into:
SourceGear Vault
Concurrent Versions System
Subversion
Microsoft Visual SourceSafe
PVCS
Rational ClearCase
Team Foundation Server
Git
Tourtoise SVN
Bazaar
Any experiences with any of these would be helpful to hear about.
Do not use Source Safe! It's not only bad for source control it's just bad for the world.
I use Subversion with Tortoise. I love it. Rather easy to get up and running. Branching/Merging can still be a nightmare though.
Visual SVN is good too.
If you havent had a single sourcecontrolsystem so far, I rather doubt you can see the improvements of GIT etc.
Start simple and with a lot of support: use Subversion as Server and Tortoise as Client.
Its a easy setup and easy to use.
Subversion is especially suitable for web development because of the 'differencing' algorithm it uses for binary files. Web development isn't just about code. Binary resources come into play a lot (images, PDFs, etc).
Subversion tracks the differences between files and records those. Contrast that with CVS, which essentially stores another copy of the binary file, and the benefit becomes apparent as your binary resources and check-ins increase.
I use the TortoiseSVN plug-in, which is decent enough for me. As you specifically tag asp .net, you might want to look into VisualSVN, which does a great job in mitigating the biggest problem in version control - a colleague forgetting to add a file to the repository.
I also used Visual Sourcesafe back in the day. Don't know if it's still the same now, but its exclusive checkout per user was a complete nightmare in a team of multiple devs. Constantly had to remind people to check stuff back in or, alternatively, convince a friendly admin to log me in under their credentials whenever someone was out of office.
You may want to take a look at Perforce.
http://www.perforce.com/perforce/products.html
You should go with subversion, or maybe git or mercurial.
It's clearly not worth it for you to buy anything, I think you can remove commercial solutions from your list right away.
Also, you should probably get some 3rd party hosting instead of running your own server.
I work at a client where they use TortoiseSVN as the client and installed VisualSVN (Subversion) as the server component. At one point we had this master plan to use nANT and CruiseControl to keep 3 different environments for a .NET website in sync, but we haven't gotten approval on that yet (shock). So until then, we use our Subversion server to hold all the source code and keep the different environments in sync manually. Its not the best scenario in the world but it gives everyone access to the code and our development group is small enough that its easy enough for everyone to know what is being worked on.
Subversion as a server, and tortoise svn as a client, could fit very well for your requirements, althought I hear that GIT is newer and has a lot of improvement.
I'd second using Tortoise SVN, avoiding SourceSafe and add another to the list:
Perforce - This what was used at one of my former workplaces. It wasn't bad though the merges were painful to do in that it took 1-2 developers a day to get the code merged to move from one environment to other,e.g. dev->test, test->staging.
Tortoise SVN has a lot of built-in windows explorer options that can be used instead of the command line so I rarely use the command line with Subversion.
If you do go with SourceSafe do beware that there is an admin tool to analyze the DB to see that should be run periodically and can be a little annoying as I don't think anyone is supposed to be using SS when the analyser is running. The branching in VSS is kind of weak, especially in contrast to seeing how well things work in SVN.
Another point is to consider if you have a bug-tracking system and want to have an integration between the two.
i personally use git with cygwin. i prefer it over svn because of the pain that svn has caused me in the past with merges. git was designed with making merges painless and it does a very effective job at adhering to that.
if cygwin isn't your cup of tea and you need to have windows explorer integration, please check out the ToroiseGit project. It has the look and feel of ToroiseSVN so it's easy to pickup. you can even run ToroitseGit and TortoiseSVN side by side if you desire.
also TortoiseGit has built in support for SVN repos so you can check out an svn repo and get all the benefits of local branches and what have you.
It true that VSS should not be considered - it is a dead product and just plain bad. However, Team Foundation Server - especially 2010 should be given a look. It not only does source code control but it has a work item tracking system, CI and build server and has some really great tools for testing. For example, it will run automated scripts and record the session in an mpeg movie so that you can actually see what the screen looked like when/if the test failed.
If that's more than what you want, go with SVN.
First advice: Don't use SourceSafe. It's a nightmare. I think even Microsoft developers don't use it internally!
You could go with SVN using TortoiseSVN as a front-end for the people not comfortable with the command line. But you will have to host your own Subversion server or to find an hosting provider for your repositories.
Also, there is SVN plugins for the most used IDE out there.
Another +1 to Subversion. Have used with a variety of languages, including ColdFusion. Tortoise is great for windows, the best graphical clients for Mac are not free, however.
Would also recommend against Rational Clearcase. Their client is kludgy and there aren't near as many plugins for different ide/platforms.
I'm currently working with Rational ClearCase and I cannot complain (at least, 'till now).
Before that we used ChangeMan Dimensions, that's a regular CVS tool with many resources but in my opinion, it makes source control become very burocratic, to say the least: it features the infamous exclusive checkout. I also don't like the design.
ClearCase has a Windows-Explorer look and once you get used to it, it becomes very simple to use. It also has a nice and easy integration with MS Visual Studio.
SourceGear Vault is a great tool. Its interface is similar to VSS, but it doesn't have all the problems.
If you use .net and visual studio or are in a heavily MS environment you may really like TFS. It has very good integration with Visual Studio. It also has lots of other functions like tracking tasks, bugs, etc. and automating builds. It is expensive, especially in the world of SCMs where you can get a lot for free (svn, git). Since you mentioned .net though it may be worth a look.
You need to make a decision as to whether you want to pay for it or have one for free. I know SVN and CVS are free and there are great UI clients and IDE plugins also available for free.
We started off with CVS and then transitioned to SVN a few years ago. The advantages we had were that a. SVN repo was smaller, b. It was accessible over the net through both http and https, c. Had great client UI tools (i use SmartSVN), there are also great plugins for eclipse and intelliJ. d. transitioning from using CVS to SVN was very easy as a user.
I've used QVCS by link text they have fair and much cheaper prices, for different versions.
I've used and tried subversion, and I personally do not like it, but if people like it and use, that's awesome for them.
I say you should find one that has the features you need, and price range that is reasonable, and has a good support system..
The hard part is getting everyone on your team to use it, and use it wisely...
Personally, I really like Subversion and the tortoiseSvn client as many have already noted. One site I found that I really like is http://www.springloops.com. They offer cheap SVN hosting, but they also integrate with BaseCamp which I love for managing projects. If you like Basecamp and also use Svn, its worth a look
Git with GitHub for Windows and/or TortoiseGit.
I tried TRAC before and knew how powerful it is
But I'm having lots of difficulties to to put it on an online host, it needs lots of resources and can't put it on a regular paid host
So I wanted to know if there is a TRAC-Like but written with PHP or something, I need it to have SVN, Wiki, Ticket issuing and maybe Forums
Redmine (RoR)
Retrospectiva (RoR)
jotBug (PHP + Zend)
FusionForge (PHP)
If you have Ruby on Rails support, you might take a look at Redmine. It has all of the features that you require. I've recently started using it and have been pretty happy with it. I was never able to find one written in PHP that suited my needs.
Maybe InDefero? It's written in PHP and tries to be a clone of Google code. It has support for git, svn and Mercurial.
I would recommend InDefero too. Clean and fast.
I used to have same issue, but I badly wanted Trac and nothing else. I finally rented a small Windows-based virtual server at €20/month (the linux ones are cheaper) on which I do all my development stuff: Subversion, a test Apache environment, and Trac. It takes some time to set up, but I'm quite happy with it and can recommend it. Also, on standard shared hosting, your problems might not end with Trac: Subversion is a rarity among hosting providers as well. Depending on where you are based, e.g. 1and1 rent cheap virtual servers in europe and the US.
I have a web server which can run PHP and Ruby.
I would like to know if there is a PHP program which can do version control of my code similar to SVN?
I know there are already open source project hosting sites which provide this service already but I would like it to be installed on my own host.
I don't have the access to this server to install additional packages either
I'm not aware of any version-control system written in PHP. But even if there were one, I'd stay away from it. Version control isn't one of the things a scripting language is best used for.
Edit: I suggest installing Subversion on your local machine and develop all the code there, that way the SVN on your local computer can be used for version-control.
Edit 2: If you are collaborating with others and want them to have access to your repositry, I suggest getting subversion hosting somewhere for your project. There are some free hosts out there that support it, just google it and you should find some results.
For the same reasons - want to store the data on my own web site, which only supports PHP - I've created phpEasyVCS. It offers a web interface and WebDAV access.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/asvcs/ - Haven't tried this. But this sounds like what you are after.
For what I know WEBSVN is just a way to view your SVN repository
Regards
Why on earth would you care about the language of a tool that you use? That's like complaining that the builder of your house used a wooden ladder instead of a metal one.
Use Subversion or Git or anything you want, they'll all work fine.
Just use an online service such as http://unfuddle.com/ or http://cvsdude.com/
They have free basic plans and even their paid plans are cheap enough to make it worth it.
If you need VCS somewhere that is not your computer and the production site is not under your control either, I would agree with nandos that you should use online service.
Then in order to put changes in production you could make PHP script on production site that accesses the online service and downloads the newest version via HTTP (http should be generally available with CVS, and SVN uses it natively) rather than using specific VCS protocols.
You will have limited options, but that's not what generally is expected to be controlled from production anyway.
Ok I think nobody has really answered to my question.
I said that I don't want any hosting facilities like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_software_hosting_facilities.
So I think I will use http://websvn.tigris.org/
Thanks.
Guillaume
Why must the VCS be written in PHP? You could use SVN as the VCS and serve the files using apache. I can't think of a single benefit of wrestling with yet another version control system. What you could do is get a virtual machine appliance for source code control and issue management like vmTrac and either run it directly or pick it apart and figure out how it was put together
I know this is old, but for reference, since you have FTP access, you could use Bazaar over FTP, and use something like Redmine as a webviewer. Using FTP would be slower than installing the Bazaar smart server on the server (FTP is known as a "dumb" transport), but it would meet all your requirements.
Hope that helps someone
-Scott