Professional environments focus on high development standards in Source Code Management. E.g. by usage of server side commit hooks to check for minimum acceptance levels on code and documentation quality including commit message structure and content.
TortoiseSVN offers only a free form text field to edit inside the Commit Dialog. Developers might recall situations when struggling with commit message structure and fighting the server side commit hooks instead focusing on message content! Thus being annoyed instead of feeling an incentive to deliver high quality descriptions here.
In such situations a helpful structured form instead of a free form multi-line edit field is missing.
The SVNStartCommitHelper is a client side start commit hook script (as a first version written in Python / Tkinter) exactly offering a well-structured form to fill in. The edited content is transformed and forwarded to the SVN commit dialog then. You still have full control on the commit message then. While using the helper you focus on message quality now instead struggling with message structure.
- the edit form can easily be adapted to your needs.
- the resulting text structure as forwarded to the TortoiseSVN commit dialog can easily be adapted.
- Thus you get much higher acceptance rates on controlling and filtering server side SVN commit hooks.
- Easier creation of well-structured commit messages will be experienced on your side while matching higher QA and SCM standards.
[[img src=svnstartcommithelper-howto-install.png alt=TortoiseSVN_Installation_Settings]]
The image shows a sample install of the start commit hook script 'svnstartcommithelper.py'. In the TortoiseSVN settings dialog select 'Hook Scripts', then 'Add...' the script using the settings shown. In the command line text field adapt the values according to your valid locations.
If migrating from previous versions then please be aware that the format of the messagebody template in .svnsch/svnsch.conf might have changed. In this case please backup your configuration file first. Then you might need to remove or manually modify the configuration file.
- http://tortoisesvn.net/ - TortoiseSVN is an easy-to-use SCM / source control software for Microsoft Windows implemented as a Windows shell extension.
- http://code.google.com/p/tortoisesvn/source/browse/ - TortoiseSVN source code.
- http://flavio.castelli.name/2006/02/16/svn-commit-helper/ - Svn-commit is a command line utility for making rapid commit with subversion.
- http://python.org/ - Python Programming Language – Official Website.