Integration RoboHelp with SVN using PushOk plugin: good solution or alternative recommendations?

Report · Dec 15, 2014

Hello,

we have been working with RoboHelp and SVN for several years now. We manually check in projects out of Robohelp. As only one author works with one project at a certain time, we don’t have any problems. But now we have only one RoboHelp project and 4-5 authors working with this project, so we have to change our working method.

I would like to integrate RoboHelp with SVN using PushOk plugin as described here:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/robohelp/articles/robohelp_subversion.html

But I’m worried because we will be dependent on a third party (PushOk Software). It seems they have not provided any updates for a while now.

What do you think? Would you recommend using PushOk plugin and SVN? Or would you recommend another method or another version control system?

I look forward to learning of your experiences.

Thank you

Melanie

Report · Dec 15, 2014

I would like to add this:

Our developers are thinking about changing SVN to Git. I've read some articles about RoboHelp and Git. It does not seem to be a good solution to change to Git for Robohelp projects. Do you have experiences wih that?

Report · Dec 16, 2014

Melanie,

Hello! We have a 3-5 author environment. We (doc staff) have been using RoboSource Control for some time now (approximately 10 years), but we're experiencing issues in a new project and our dev staff currently use TortoiseSVN (v1.8) so we're looking to make the TortoiseSVN/PushOK plugin switch. Unfortunately, thus far in testing, I haven't had much success getting it to work consistently or reliably. I also share your concern regarding the development/support of PushOK. I'm going to try implementing it again today, although this time using the v1.7 TortoiseSVN client (I previously installed the v1.8TSVN client). I'll try to keep you updated on my findings/experience. If you or any other users have any thoughts or input, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks,

Jason

Report · Dec 16, 2014

Hello Jason,

I would really like to share your experiences! I implemented the integration some months ago with TortoiseSVN V1.7 for testing. I don't know nothing about the integration with V1.8 ...

Thanks,

Melanie

Report · Dec 17, 2014

Update...

Background Environment:

TortoiseSVN 1.8.x already in use by dev staff.
Access to TortoiseSVN is provided via HTTPS protocol (provides domain credential authentication; I have no issues connecting to/running/working in TSVN).
My PC: Win7 Enterprise 64-Bit and Adobe TCS 4 (RH10)

RoboHelp / TSVN Integration via PushOK Plugin Experience:

Late last week, I attempted the integration using the v1.8.x TortoiseSVN client that corresponds to our existing TSVN implementation. Ran into many of the same issues below and then ran out of time. Decided to try again this week, but with matching TSVN and PushOK plugin versions.
PushOK Software provides a 32-bit plugin and 64-bit plugin. Their plugin version scheme aligns with TortoiseSVN’s. They’re latest/most current plugin version is v1.7.13, which is designed for TortoiseSVN v1.7.13.
I tried installing the 64-bit version of the v1.7.13 TortoiseSVN and 64-bit version of the v1.7.13 PushOK plugin (in that order, with reboots after each). Created a new template project in RoboHelp. Tried adding it to version control through the RoboHelp interface. PushOK SVN version control provider wasn’t listed as an available version control provider. It appeared to be in the registry in all the appropriate places. Subsequently gave up and uninstalled both TSVN and PushOK. Rebooted.
I tried installing the 32-bit version of v1.7.13 TortoiseSVN. No go. The installer immediately detected that I had a 64-bit machine and terminated the install process.
I tried installing the 64-bit version of v1.7.13 TortoiseSVN and 32-bit version of v1.7.13 PushOK plugin (in that order, with reboots after each). Tried adding the new template project I previously created, through the RoboHelp interface. The PushOK SVN version control provider was listed as an available version control provider. Couldn’t get it to completely from the RoboHelp UI. Only got it to work by right-clicking on the Windows Explorer folder where the project lives and selecting the “SVN Commit...” option/command (and then following the steps in that dialog). In other words, I had to use the TortoiseSVN tools. In RoboHelp, I then tried editing a topic, duplicating a topic, creating a new topic, creating a new project folder, etc. from within the RoboHelp UI. The only one that appears to work is editing an existing topic. Even then, after I check it in, RoboHelp still shows it as being checked out.

I'm not quite sure where to go with this now. Our TSVN admin is stumped as well. Is there another plugin (non-PushOK) that works well between RH and TSVN? Are there other version control solutions (free or pay) that integrate well with RoboHelp (in other words, they handle all the version control check-ins/outs, locking, etc., auto-magically behind the scenes in RoboHelp)?

I appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

Report · Dec 22, 2014

A brief update...

Unless we learn otherwise, we don't believe that integration with Subversion via the PushOK plugin is a viable solution. We are going to explore RoboHelp source control through SharePoint.

Report · Jan 05, 2015

Has anyone thought about developing an own solution to integrate RH with SVN? That is to say an own plugin to avoid PushOK?