Setting SVN Repository Using TortoiseSVN + Dropbox in 5 Minutes

SVN is a very common version control system in software development. However configuring SVN server normally takes some time and it adds cost for maintaining the server (at least man hour will have to be consumed). Also, as a small project with only a couple of team members, a very simple and basic version control mechanism is enough for the beginning of the project. It is becoming popular now as the concept of “cloud” prevails. Dropbox is a great tool for data storage on a cloud, and it is also getting popular for sharing data with different users on different platforms. TortoiseSVN, which perhaps most of the readers have used before, is an intuitive, easy-to-use tool on Windows platform. Combination of these two tools will make an SVN repository in 5 minutes.

0) Download and install Dropbox and TortoiseSVN. (This does not include in the “5 minutes” we mentioned above, network connection does not count!)

1) You need to create a directory in your Dropbox folder. It servers as the repository while Dropbox serves as the host.

2) Set the folder to “repository” by right-clicking the folder and selecting “TortoiseSVN –>Create repository here”.

3) Once the repository is created, you may go to your working directory (somewhere you want your code version-controlled).  You may create a new one to avoid confusion. Right-click on your directory, select “SVN Checkout”.

4) In the field “URL of repository” of new dialogue, put your path to repository in your Dropbox folder. Here in my case, I put “file:///d:\My Documents\Dropbox\proj\”, remember to put “file:///” in the beginning. Choose “Fully recursive” and “HEAD revision”, and then click “OK”. It will checkout from the repository.

5) Done! After previous steps you know what to do next (add files in working directory, modify the codes, commit, check-out…).

OBS!: You should not modify the repository folder on Dropbox! Keep it untouched once the repository is created.

Now here comes the advantage of  “cloud” storage of Dropbox. You may share your repository folder with your team members thus everyone could check out their codes with their Dropbox shared folder. (It is suggested to put the repository folder in a shared folder, rather than sharing the repository directly.) You can go mobile on different computers with Dropbox installed and your account signed in, and get working.

2014-06-18: Dropbox is completely blocked in China.