What version control system do I use with CF Builder2?

[gabrielv19076245]

I'm a new CF developer and I've been working with Visual Studio and team foundation for several years prior to migrating to Coldfusion, so in advance please pardon my ignorance.

We are going to be using ColdFusion Builder 2 as our primary development IDE on our initial development environment. Where my confusion begins is with version control and the potential for additional required software. We will have multiple developers working on various pages, templates, etc. and we've been trying to figure out how to best handle version control. Despite my research I really can't figure out what version control tools(Apache Subversion, TortoiseSVN - Home, etc.)  are directly compatible with CF Builder or which are the most recommended. I've reached out to Adobe for their recommendations and haven't received a response, so I figured I'd ask here.

[Charlie Arehart · Accepted solution]

I’ll share some thoughts which I hope may help, Gabriel.

Well, first, the two tools you mention are related to Subversion/SVN. Are you saying you’ve settled on that? Your other wording makes it seem you are considering options. There are indeed still other alternatives, as version control systems go (let alone the tools to connect to them), like git, which has become the most popular in recent years it seems. You may find many more modern references to git versus svn.

But then your question is about how to connect to “a VC system” in CFB (whichever you may choose). And the first thing to keep in mind is that Adobe will not recommend any. Adobe don’t make any such tools, because CFB is actually just Eclipse under the covers. As you may know, Eclipse is an open source IDE. So you need to ask what tools work with Eclipse, not CFB.

And if even then, if you start looking around, you’ll find many answers. You’ll first find people debating which VC system to use (SVN, git, or something else), and then within those, you’ll find people debating which tool they prefer to use to connect them (whether within Eclipse or not).

And even then, you may not even find many firm, clear recommendations for “which tool to use in Eclipse to connect to a specific VC system”. You’ll find lots of opinions, though.

But most of all, to your original question, you will very likely not find much about which is best to use in CFB specifically. It’s too small a subset of the wider Eclipse world. And you really do not need to (and should not) limit yourself that way.

So just widen your search, open your mind to finding many possibilities, and pick one and try it out. Really, nothing will really prepare you adequately to “make the right choice up front” for picking either a VC system or a tool to connect to it. Everyone’s different, some will prefer one over another (based on experience, familiarity, recommendations, resources on staff, resources readily found, etc.)

I know that’s not the answer you sought, but my experience tells me it’s what you will find as you embark on your journey. I do wish you well in it.

/charlie

[gabrielv19076245]

Charlie,

Thank you so much for your help and the detailed response. At this point I'm not settled on any specific VC system and named the few I had found so far. I completely understand Adobe not recommending any, I guess I was hoping at the least they could provide a list of compatible version control tools. Thanks for recommending GIT, I looked at it and I actually like it much more than the others.

Thanks again for your help.