Hi folks, I hope you're well!
I've been investigating how to get our documentation into our Source & Binary RELEASEs without requiring the duplicate work of trying to maintain two sets of documentation. I noticed the 'advertisement' from Infra@ plugging their willingness to help projects, and so I reached out, and they recommended `svn:externals`. Before I proceed, I'd like to get your input on how we should proceed, or if anyone has a 'better' idea. I'm leaning toward including the source MarkDown in the distribution via `svn:externals`, perhaps with a README file pointing at the web for better rendering of the docs. Here's a link that discusses including common code in an SVN project: http://tortoisesvn.net/docs/release/TortoiseSVN_en/tsvn-howto-common-projects.html#tsvn-howto-common-externals That page has three recommendations: 1. Use svn:externals 2. Use a nested working copy 3. Use a relative location I won't get into the details on those three recommendations, and I'm sure there are other solutions, but `svn:externals` seems logical and simple. The other two aren't appropriate for one reason or another. In a nutshell, we'd effectively `svn include` the documentation into the respective repos by setting an svn property like this: === SAMPLE - BATIK === $ svn propget svn:externals batik documentation/ //svn.apache.org/repos/asf/xmlgraphics/site/trunk/content/batik/ === === SAMPLE - COMMONS === $ svn propget svn:externals commons documentation/ //svn.apache.org/repos/asf/xmlgraphics/site/trunk/content/commons/ === === SAMPLE - FOP === $ svn propget svn:externals fop documentation/ //svn.apache.org/repos/asf/xmlgraphics/site/trunk/content/fop/ === NOTES: - the above use RELATIVE TO SCHEME PATHS, which require Subversion 1.5+… ABSOLUTE URLs are the Subversion pre-1.5 alternative, which causes issues when switching between HTTP & HTTPS - We can't use `svn:externals` for the parent XML Graphics Project, since it is also the parent for Batik, Commons & FOP docs, unless we tie it to specific files (which requires Subversion 1.6+). There are other Subversion 1.5+ options for specifying the `svn:externals` PATH (e.g., using RELATIVE or ABSOLUTE paths since their on the same system), but I'm not convinced of the benefits: === SAMPLE - BATIK (ABSOLUTE URL - Subversion pre-1.5) === $ svn propget svn:externals batik documentation/ http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/xmlgraphics/site/trunk/content/batik/ === === SAMPLE - BATIK (ABSOLUTE PATH - Subversion 1.5+) === $ svn propget svn:externals batik documentation/ /repos/asf/xmlgraphics/site/trunk/content/batik/ === === SAMPLE - BATIK (RELATIVE PATH - Subversion 1.5+) === $ svn propget svn:externals batik documentation/ ../site/trunk/content/batik/ === === SAMPLE - BATIK (RELATIVE TO SCHEME - useful for those accessing via HTTP or HTTPS - Subversion 1.5+) === $ svn propget svn:externals batik documentation/ //svn.apache.org/repos/asf/xmlgraphics/site/trunk/content/batik/ === There is a recommendation that specific revisions are used for `svn:externals`, which helps when you don't have control over the other system. I don't think this is necessary or helpful for TRUNK, although I wonder how tagged branches would be affected… It's possible tagged branches would need a revision to ensure they are STATIC respective to their code/documentation versions. This may require the added step to the RELEASE process of switching the specific Documentation Revision to keep it in sync w CODE. BTW, I did notice that the Batik portion of the documentation is ~330MB. I was going to start with XML Graphics Commons and see how it worked, before I went to FOP and eventually Batik... Warm regards, Clay
