Data Depot

The Carlson Data Depot is a document management system to allow tracking of the changing states of files and projects over time and merge the contributions from multiple users providing data integrity, productivity and accountability for the managed products. Also, having a central project repository helps with data back-up eliminating the fear of losing data due to local drive failures. The Carlson Data Depot protects against productivity loss due to re-implemented work, not only avoiding losses of data, but also making each user's work readily available to other users on the project. The general process for implementing your preferred document management system is:

  1. Install and initialize one or more of the version control software products listed below.
  2. Instruct Carlson Software to utilize one of these services by establishing the needed settings in the Set Project/Data Folder command.
  3. Assign a project to the Data Depot through the use of the Project Explorer command.
  4. Subsequently open or update any Data Depot project through the use of the Get Project from Data Depot command.

Carlson Software supports the following version control systems:

Subversion (SVN)

Subversion is a powerful revision control system which is actively evolving and is part of Apache web-server project

The home page of this project is http://subversion.apache.org/, with a book on setup, use and administration available in print and online at http://svnbook.red-bean.com/.

Carlson Software supports Subversion release 1.5.6 or newer.

While there multiple ways to setup Subversion repository and connect to it, the most typical scenario is setting up Subversion server and connecting to it through the web-server. Local directory setup is also available, but not useful in group environments. Running the shared directory on the network should not be attempted since it could lead to the repository corruption and permanent data loss.

Setting up a Subversion server on Windows host

For users who run Windows on their host there is a nicely integrated front-end to a standard Subversion server (included): VisualSVN server (http://visualsvn.com/server/). There are two licenses available for commercial users: free basic edition and reasonably priced enterprise edition with additional features larger sites will find attractive. This document will concentrate on install of the basic edition.

Download and run the VisualSVN install Select option to install VisualSVN server Specify repository directory where the data will be stored. This should be secure and backed up location since this is where the data will be stored. The server port and https:// setting are standard and most users will want to leave them untouched. The authentication setting is a matter of the site preference. Enterprise edition of VisualSVN offers additional authentication options like using Microsoft Active Directory server.

Upon completion of the install the manager interface will be displayed. Create a new repository by right-clicking on the Repositories: Give new repository a name. You may choose to have several repositories, each containing data of the similar kind or covering an area of your business. Do not toggle on "Create default structure" since these folders will be created under a particular project. Create users and set passwords (if using Subversion's own user authentication) Run "Manage security" command by right-clicking over whole repository to set defaults or right-clicking on specific folder to set specific permissions: Add users or user-groups and set specific permissions for the folder you selected: This completes the server side installation of Subversion.

Setting up a Subversion server on Linux host

Subversion is a project which was born on Unix platform, so it is fairly straightforward to setup and run on the Linux host. Specific details may vary for different distributions, but 
below is a quick summary of steps for Redhat or CentOS based hosts, which should at least point you in the right direction.

Install needed packages

The following packages should be installed:
httpd - Apache web server for access to the subversion
subversion - the Subversion command line and administration tools
mod_ssl - support for secure connections
mod_dav_svn - integration between the Apache and Subversion

Create repository folder

Run the following command to configure the Subversion file structure:
svnadmin create --fs-type fsfs /var/lib/subversion/repos
where 'fsfs' refers to the type of the file storage being selected and last argument is the future location of the repository data files on the system.

Configure Apache to be handle Subversion calls

Apache configuration file httpd.conf is typically located in /etc/httpd/conf folder. Please modify it to contain a section like this:

<Location /repos>
DAV svn
SVNParentPath /var/lib/subversion/repos
AuthType Digest
AuthName "Subversion"
AuthDigestdomain /repos/
AuthUserFile /var/lib/subversion/svn_passwd
Require valid-user
SSLRequireSSL
</Location>

Restart Apache server. This should let you reach your Subversion server with URL like this: https://server_name/repos.

User control

The configuration above assumes the authentication for the domain "Subversion" handled by Apache itself. Much more powerful options are available, but since these are standard Apache features, plenty of documentation for is readily available.

To add new users, please use the following command:
htdigest -c /var/lib/subversion/svn_passwd "Subversion" user_name
where -c is for "create" and only should be used first time. Supply user name for whom the password is being set.

The permissions are controlled by the svnserve.conf typically located in /etc/subversion directory. The equivalent configuration to the Windows example above would look like this:

[Projects:/]
Carlson.Readonly=r
Carlson.User=rw

For further documentation please refer to the book mentioned above or to the numerous Subversion resources online.

Creating a local Subversion Repository

The Windows MSI installer with the basic win32 client binaries can be downloaded at:

http://www.collab.net/downloads/subversion/

Running this installation file installs the required binaries to create the Subversion repository on the server or local machine under "C:\Program Files\Subversion" using the default options.

To create the Subversion repository:
  1. Click the Windows Start > Run and then type cmd into the resulting dialog box as shown below and click OK:
  2. At the DOS prompt, navigate to the Subversion install directory by typing:
    cd "C:\Program Files\Subversion"
    and press the Enter button to complete this step as shown above.
  3. To create the Subversion repository under the "C" drive, type:
    svnadmin create c:\svnrepo
    and press the Enter button to complete this step as shown above. This will create a "svnrepo" folder under the "C" drive (c:\svnrepo); see the Notes section below for important information. The path and the name of the repository could be path to a network drive as well. For setting up a Subversion Repository on the server, refer to the http://subversion.tigris.org documentation.
  4. Type the word exit and press the Enter button to dismiss the DOS window and complete the command as shown above.

Note: Once you have created a Subversion Repository, do not add, delete, or modify files in the Repository folder unless you know how to avoid corrupting the repository

Setting Subversion URL in Carlson

In order to connect Carlson to Subversion repository, please go to Settings, Configure Carlson, Project/Data Folders settings. Set the project type to Subversion and click Setup button. Specify server location like
file:///c:/svnrepo
for local example above, or
https://server_name/repos
for network server as described above. Other URL types supported by Subversion for the scenarios beyond the scope of this document are permitted as well.

Accessing Subversion through a GUI Client

There are various graphical-user interface (GUI) client applications available for accessing the SVN repositories on the Internet for free:

Once a supported document management system has been properly installed and configured for each computer work-station, continue with the Data Depot configuration by initiating the Set Project/Data Folder command.

ProjectWise

Please see your ProjectWise Administrator for instructions on configuring ProjectWise Datasources.

Data Depot File Status

Pulldown Menu Location(s): None

Keyboard Command: None
Prerequisite: None