How To Install, Configure And Use SVN (Subversion)

To access your online repository (http://dev.w3syntactic.com/poemsandgifts/) from your Windows based operating system, you should install one of the SVN client applications. Here, we will be discussing about TortoiseSVN.
To install TortoiseSVN client application on your system, you can find it at http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org or rather at http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads.
There you will find two types of installers – one for 32-bit operating systems and another one for 64-bit operating systems. To check how many bit operating system you have – click here.
TortoiseSVN Download
Once you have downloaded the right version of TortoiseSVN. Get it installed with the default selections with the installer on your system. If successfully installed, it will ask you to restart your system. Thus, get your system restarted and in the meanwhile, let me take a small break 😉
So, once your system is back and running, move to the next step…
The Tortoise SVN adds its functionality in the Windows Explorer Context Menu
TortoiseSVN – Windows Explorer Context Menu
Verifying the connection to the SVN Server – Right click on any folder in the Windows Explorer and select TortoiseSVN -> “Repo-browser”. You will be asked for a path to the repository, enter the path to the SVN repository. Below is an example to demonstrate the same:
TortoiseSVN – Repo Browser
If you already have the folder of your project with any of the files in it on your local system then you can straightaway move to next step otherwise, lets create a folder preferably at C:wampwwwyourprojectfoldername and create a file named as index.html or phpinfo.php
Importing files to online SVN repository for the first time – In case, you are uploading the files to this new project to the SVN for the first time, right click on the folder from which you have to move the files to the online SVN repository and a context menu will come up, select “TortiseSVN > Import” and the following screen will come up:
TortoiseSVN – Import
Once you have imported the files to SVN repository and now, if you check the same online it should look somewhat like this:
Browser – SVN Revisions
Getting the files from the repository – To get the files from the online repository, right click on the project directory on your local system and select “SVN Checkout…” from the context menu. You will see the following screen:
TortoiseSVN – Checkout

If you followed all the steps the address of the repository should be already written here. All you have to do is click “OK”

TortoiseSVN – Checkout 2

This means we have checked out the files successfully and we can start working!
The directory should look like this:

Windows Explorer – Directory Structure Using SVN

The Green tick marks mean that nothing has changed inside the directory on our local system. Let’s add a new file to the base folder / directory and name it “readme.txt”. We will then “Right Click” on the base folder and select “Commit”.
The new file that has been just added by us will look like this:
TortoiseSVN – Adding New File
SVN Commit – Come to base folder, right click and select “SVN Commit…” from the context menu. The SVN Server has detected that you have added a new file and you will have to check the Checkbox next to it in order for it to be inserted to the repository.
TortoiseSVN – Commit
Committing and Commenting – One must practice good commenting before committing anything on the live repository.
TortoiseSVN – Commenting

Once committed successfully, it will look like the following image:

TortoiseSVN – Commit Dialog Box

Let’s edit “readme.txt” file and add some text in it. Once edited, both – the file and the directory will get a red exclamation mark saying they have been changed:

TortoiseSVN – Edit

To send the changes to the server / repository, you can right click any of them and again, select “SVN Commit…” from the context menu. Doing it on the Folder will make the Commit recursive to all the files inside it.