emded revision control in Python application?

[Prasad, Ramit]

>        I have an application that would benefit from collaborative
> working. Over time users construct a "data environment" which is a
> number of files in JSON format contained in a few directories (in the
> future I'll probably place these in a zip so the environment is
> contained within a single file). At the moment there is one individual
> constructing the data environment, and me occasionally applying
> corrections after being e-mailed the files. But in the future there
> might be several individuals in various locations.
> 
> As a minimum requirement I need to embed some sort of version control,
> so that changes committed by one individual will be seen in the local
> environments of the others. Some of the work involves editing graphs
> which have restrictions on their structure. In this case it would be
> useful for edits to be committed / seen in real time. The users will not
> be particularly technical, so the version control will have to happen
> relatively quietly in the background.
> 
> My immediate thoughts are to (somehow) embed Mercurial or Subversion. It
> would certainly be useful to be able to revert to a previous version of
> the data environment if an individual does something silly. But I'm not
> actually convinced that this is the whole solution for collaborative
> working. Any advice regarding the embedding of a version control system
> or alternative approaches would be appreciated. I haven't tried anything
> like this before. The desktop application is written in Python (2.6)
> with a wxPython (2.8) GUI. Given the nature of the application / data
> the machines involved might be locally networked but without web access
> (if this makes a difference). TIA.

Why not just stick the configs (binary blob or JSON string) in something 
like a sqlite database and store that database centrally accessible[1]? 
Something like subversion might be overkill.

A table like the following would work if you want to track each file 
separately:
table_name(  revision_number, file/config name, data, username, timestamp ).

Otherwise, if you want to track "environments" and not files:
table_name(  revision_number, data, username, timestamp ).

Where revision number can be a sequence used to track / change
current configuration. I recommend storing each file separately in the
database.

[1] http://www.sqlite.org/faq.html#q5


Ramit


Ramit Prasad | JPMorgan Chase Investment Bank | Currencies Technology
712 Main Street | Houston, TX 77002
work phone: 713 - 216 - 5423

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