[Radiant] Developing Radiant site

[Mohit Sindhwani]

Chris Parrish wrote:
> Joe Van Dyk wrote:
>>
>> So, how does that work?  I mean, how do you deploy changes?  Just by
>> copy/pasting the updated snippets and css stuff to the live site and
>> enter it into the form?  How do you version control it?  
>
> You pretty much have it right and it's this way for two reasons:
>
>   1. Radiant's design objectives have always been for small teams like
>      a small business, brochureware kind of site.  If you think about
>      it, those almost never exist under version control (and the small
>      business folk who maintain it wouldn't understand it or have time
>      to bother with it in many cases).
>
>   2. While #1's true, there are still situations where some kind of
>      archiving is called for.  But developers and the core team have
>      been busy with other stuff and there are different possible
>      needs/approaches. So you'll tend to find some
>      extensions/scripts/misc to get it done in a well-enough-for-now
>      fashion.
>
> As I see it part of the problem is defining the real need:
>
>    * There's importing/exporting which helps with deploying but could
>      also be tied in with a backup or source control process.  The most
>      well known one is Sean Cribbs import-export extension:
>      
> http://github.com/radiant/radiant-import-export-extension/tree/master
>      and a recently forked version at:
>      
> http://github.com/nelstrom/radiant-import-export-extension/tree/master.
>
>      There is also a plugin for taking a local copy in SQLite and
>      deploying to MySQL at:
>      
> http://blog.radixhound.com/2008/4/28/backing-up-radiant-cms-using-sqlite3
>
>    * Then there's just backing up things for archive purposes.  Aitor
>      built the Snapshot Extension
>      (http://snapshot.rubyforge.org/svn/trunk/).  You can read about it
>      here:
>      
> http://www.nabble.com/-PREVIEW--Snapshot-extension%3A-serve-Radiant-sites-statically-tt13392910.html 
>
>
>    * And finally there's version tracking.  Part of the problem here is
>      are you just handling drafts while another live "version" is
>      actively published, or are you trying to track every save that was
>      ever made.  The other issue is working it into Radiant's elegant
>      UI.  All the other approaches are more admin tools.  This one
>      would involve the user and versioning can really affect usability
>      and workflow.
>
> To my knowledge, there isn't anything existing to tackle the third 
> item yet (though it's mentioned as being on the development 
> timeline).  There'd be some happy campers if you want to roll out a 
> first-class solution here (all the free beer and pizza you want at the 
> big Radiant gatherings).
>
> Hope this helps (though I kind of wrote all this to document 
> everything for me too).  And if I've missed anyone's great extensions, 
> please chime in.
>
> -Chris 

Chris, this would make a good entry on the Summer Reboot documentation - 
I'm just not sure yet where :)

(sorry, my computer's been down for a few days - coupled with events and 
a flu, I've been out of action.  Sorry that I haven't been able to 
follow up on the Summer Reboot for a while)

Cheers,
Mohit.
7/22/2008 | 10:07 PM.