As stated on its website, VisualSVN is a plugin for Microsoft Visual Studio for seamless integration with Subversion.
This is an early review since I’ve been using it for less than a week. Many think to Scott Bellware for making me aware of this product because it has made my day just a bit easier. Up until now I’ve been using TortoiseSVN, a windows shell extension, for my integration with our Subversion source control repositories.
VisualSVN wraps TortoiseSVN and makes all the commands available from within Visual Studio 2003 or 2005. I’m using VS 2005, so I have not tried it with 2003. I am very pleased with my experience so far. VisualSVN puts a colored diamond next to each file (green/yellow/red for unchanged/changed/conflicted). I can show a diff, revert, etc from the solution explorer. I can also update commit either from the menu or the Solution root. The user experience is the same as Tortoise since VisualSVN doesn’t introduce a new way to update/commit. VisualSVN actually pulls up the TortoiseSVN window for update/commit. TortoiseSVN is actually doing the work, but VisualSVN pulls in access to it into the IDE. This takes away the need to switch back to Windows Explorer for source code interactions.
In short, I’m very impressed with my trial so far, and I plan and laying down the $19 for the great tool. After Christmas, they plan on setting the price back at $49.
I’m currently using PuskOK to manage my visual studio 2005 code. However, where are the options for branching and creating tags, etc? I need multiple staged development and I can see the options for this in the Windows Explorer side for Tortoise but can’t locate them in PushOK. Does anyone know how to do this?
I also like the Pending check-in window a lot, especially when in the tree mode rather than the flat one. I don’t know about VisualSVN, but Tortoise has the “Check For modifications” command that, if run form the project root, does the same job, just a few more clicks away
I am tempted by PushOK for its simplicity, since most of the dev here are used to the VSS check-out check-in model, but SVN gives you so much more ….
We use TortoiseSVN and PushOK SVN SCC. PushOK SVN SCC gets the job done and is fast, but has some issues, mostly related to using both TortoiseSVN and PushOK together. The issues are not really PushOK issues but rather VS.NET issues since PushOK is just an SCC provider and must adhere to VS.NET’s SCC mechanism (read-only flags, checkin/checkout).
One thing that is really key for us is the Pending Changes window. This shows you all checked out files and provides a good UI for checking them in without having to search for them throughout the solution. This is built in to VS.NET which PushOK can leverage since it’s a SCC provider.
VisualSVN and Ankh don’t seem to offer this feature.
I too I am getting my company to switch from VSS to SVN.
It’s true that Ankh is free and VisualSVN not, but what are $49 when VS cost thousands and VSS hundreds!
Forget about the cost. Which one would you choose as a VS plug-in ?
TSVN and the CMD line work fine for me, especially if just need to diff and merge into the trunk, but I want the integration in the IDE to be as smooth as possible for all the folks that were used to VSS.
I have reviewed the pushOK SCC provider but discarded it since it simple, way too
simple, plus we are still going to have all the VSS legacy for a while, so it will be nice to access both repositories without continuously switching SCC provider.
Any comment ?
Patrick,
The express editions don’t support plugins. That’s a restriction Microsoft places on them to encourage professional developers to upgrade to the Pro version.
Thanks, but what if you’re running VS Express Edition?
Hi, Patrick!
If you install VisualSVN you can just rename files/folders in solution explorer — VisualSVN intercept it and execute appropriate Subversion operations.
I’m trying to put VSS behind me and learn SVN. I’ve installed Tortoise, and read a few tutorials, but I can’t seem to find any answer to a question about renaming. If I rename a file in Solution Explorer, then it won’t be a real svn rename, so svn will not reflect my change. But if I do a real svn rename via Tortoise, then my project/solution files will be messed up, right? How do you deal with renames/moves/etc for VS solutions? – Many thanks for any help you can give!
The one big thing VisualSVN doesnt offer at the moment is detection of newly added files, and that is a must for an integrated ide source control tool imho
Ankh offers quite a lot for the price (free). I’m not knocking Ankh at all. It’s a good tool that I used for quite a while. With VisualSVN being only $19 (almost nothing), I have to say it wins when competing head-to-head with Ankh. In this situation, we have several good tools as well as the freedom to choose which one to use.
Yeah I use AnkhSVN in combination with TortoiseSVN. TortoiseSVN is far superior, but for the basic daily usage, having the core functionality available within VS 2003/2005 for free is nice.
Why would I want to pay for VisualSVN? What benefits does it have over Ankh?
Ankh is awesome! It does 95% of what I need, and I hardly ever need to use Tortoise.
BUT two problems I run into occasionally:
1) It has difficulty when the project or solution are updated & sometimes needs a HUP of VS.
2) Newly added directories don’t always update inside VS until a HUP.
jpalermo is right – Tortoise does more, but having most of the functionality I need available directly within VS makes Ankh much more useful.
As a daily user of AnkhSVN and TortoiseSVN I’d love to know what you think is missing from some of the latest builds of AnkhSVN – about the only feature I head over to TortoiseSVN for is the superior log functionality.
[)amien
I have tried Ankh, back with VS 2003, and recently again with 2005. I stopped using it. TortoiseSVN is superior.
Have you tried ankh? Same type of svn integration tool, but free.
http://ankhsvn.tigris.org/