Forum Moderators: phranque
For example, I post an article and she logs into the site and adds her edits to my document then saves it to the site.
Can someone give me an idea of how I should go about designing this and what programing laguage would be best to use? I'm not fully versed as a programmer and would probably need suggestions on a template to start out with.
A free and easy way to do that would be to share a free e-mail account (hotmail, yahoo, etc).
Of course, no one else would be able to see it without the username + password.
If you do not need word-processor formatting, there are some very powerful tools that do version comparison and merging (CVS, Subversion). I use these for programming projects, but our books require formatting like footnotes and electronic indexing marks, so they are saved as binary files (Word, WordPerfect, etc).
Basically, we edit, upload via FTP and use the version tracking features of the word processing software. You can either get a domain and some server space or you can just upload to a free geocities site or something like that depending on how much space you need.
We also have a project database that we keep online, using php/mysql but I doubt you need that unless you're building a big data set, so you may be able to get by just fine with geocities. I'm sure there are similar services.
If, like us, you can't really use something like CVS, then the key thing is to not work on files at the same time. Basically, have some way of "locking" a file. This can be as simple as an email saying "I'm working on file 1" and trusting your colleagues to leave it alone.
For each upload, upload to a dated directory, using dates in the form "2004-08-11-Bill" so that the most recent folder is on top and you know who created it. Delete the old ones as you run out of space.
There are also document management systems. We have access to one by Xerox on our university computers, but it didn't seem to add anything for our small team except hassle.
I have not found anything that can do for Word files what CVS can do for plain text. If you find something, let me know.
Does that help at all?
Tom
Otherwise, there are some hosted CVS solutions (or you could run it yourself)... You could also use the versionning available with openoffice.org...
This is an old, old problem that programmers have had to face, and it's one there are plenty of good solutions for. I wouldn't re-invent the wheel unless there was a really compelling need.
there are plenty of good solutions for.
As you say, plenty of good solutions for programmers. I've found that there is a dearth of solutions for people dealing with more complex documents. I haven't found anything yet that could be considered "the writer's CVS".
It would make my life so much easier if I could figure out something that would allow CVS-like collaboration on documents that are not stored as plain text (i.e Word, WordPerfect, Open Office docs)
- allow multiple users to have files open and try to merge changes automatically
- only require manual intervention in the case of a conflict.
- retain versions and allow quick generation of diff output
- function over the net with a repository and checked out copies.
Basically, I'd like the Word versioning with the CVS repository concept. I don't know whether the original poster is looking for anything that complicated, but the Wiki concept is going be rather painful with a complex 500-page document.
Tom
Damn, I wish I weren't so busy... :(
My writing collaborator isn't up to speed on all the latest technology so I'm looking for the easiest possible interface, which might be the blog idea. I've fooled around with WordPress a little bit for blogging, I just need to set up another MySQL database. There I like the ability to list topics on the main page and easily clicking to new topics/documents. FTP is an option but I like the idea of being able to quickly access many parts of our project from the main page (i.e. Drafts, Ideas, Final Drafts, Notes).
It would be cool to set up a mind mapping page where we could graphically display and rearrange topics/ideas, but that might be a bit too involved. I imagine it would mean some Flash work, which I don't time for at the moment.
Sorry to add in a lot "noise" in this thread. I thought you were looking for something for larger, more complex documents.
OO.org's document format is open(!) and properly documented XML
Which gets one thinking.... That opens the possibility of versioning that would even differentiate formatting and content changes. Like you, though, I doubt I'll ever see that getting to the top of the priority list, but it would be sooo nice.
Unfortunately, the layout control in Open Office (kerning, leading, that sort of thing) is not very good, so I'm not sure we could use it.
Tom
