Is it possible to use SVN and still be able to change files on FTP directly?

Question

i am developing websites using php on my local computer. after i finish some work, i upload files to destination ftp. we also have another guy who does the design stuff. he makes changes on ftp directly. i am finally tired of synchronizing data between ftp server and my local computer every time i need to make an update (firstly i need to download template files and styles, then make changes, then upload changed files back to ftp - extremely annoying)... so i was thinking about using SVN or something.

the question may seem a bit stupid, but is it really possible to use svn when someone keeps changing files directly on ftp? if changes are not made using commit, svn server won't know about this changes? or maybe there is some other way to make it all work?

Answer 1

I think the best way is for both of you to use SVN. Probably you can setup svn in the same web server and both can be using it.

If asking the other person to use svn is not an option for you. Here is a wacky way to do what you intend. May be you can make your webserver use the svn working copy and you can write a one line code in your cron/scheduler to commit the code at a given frequency. which would commit the changes he has put into the working copy. Similarly if you do a ftp into the server this would also get committed.

Below link might help you understand things better. http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/using_subversion_pt2.html

Answer 2

You guys can have a common svn. He can check in data and you can check in data. If you guys are working on different parts of the same file, SVN will automatically sync it for you. If there is a conflict, svn will highlight it for you so that it is easy to merge. There are several free svn out there. Linux has rapid svn

Moreover, when you guys are done with the updating, just upload the whole thing in one go using ftp.