Version control in eZ

Since the days of diff, according to wikipedia "developed in the early 1970s", computer jockeys have been trying to figure out simple ways to track differences in files and maintain an historical record of how a document has changed over time.

Button Click Simple

The version control concept is handled quite simply and elegantly in eZ Publish. The most difficult part is knowing where to find the button! As a veteran of version control scenarios too numerous to count, I was prepared for something much more difficult.

I knew version control was in there, but never paid much attention until the first time I needed it. Based upon past experiences with version control systems, I began by reading a little in the docs, poking around in the interface, doing some research in anticipation of having to learn yet another version control system.

Instead of learning yet another system, I discovered yet another place where eZ Publish has taken the geeky out of the user interface. The eZ Publish online editor may have become one of my favorite editing tools of all time, based purely on the simplicity of version control. It cannot be made any easier or more automated. Out of the way until needed, right there when it is needed.

Great Big WOW

As a veteran of other version control systems, I expected a complex system of check-out, check-in combined with a custom interface for comparing document versions. Nope, just click the button.

Then choose which versions to compare, to load an intuitively marked up document. A very nice job by eZ developers of building the intelligence into the machine to make my life easier. A local eZ install makes a nice version controlled text editor intranet app. Distributed authoring and versioning capability, webDAV, is icing on the cake.