I am curious to learn how you version control your web development/design work. For example, if you do version your project files, how do you determine a version change? Do you have major and minor version changes (e.g. version x.y)? If so, how do you define a major and minor change?
For me, I do version my project files and I do use major/minor version numbering. I am running a blog site so, I find it fitting for me to define a major change as a redesign of the UI. I define a minor change as change in the architecture.
Currently, I do not distinguish versions that are under construction and those that are or have been published. Do you?
I have no basis for what I do other than it makes sense to me. So, I am wondering what others do.
Definitely a concept to consider. I’ve been in the workflow development paradigm for a while. I’ll share when it feels solidified. Thanks for bringing version control to our attention; I’ve been streamlined until now. My process and clients definitely will benefit from a brainstorming session about version control. Thanks for sharing, much appreciated.
I use a numbering approach and use the “tags” feature in macOS to add dots to my latest versions. So a folder for a recent project has these items, for instance:
The yellow-tagged Sparkle document is my latest revision. The file name uses a date, two hyphens/dashes, and then my initial and a number (“–T1”).
The published site’s folder is named identically, and tagged in green. These folders and files sort in date order on a Mac, so it’s easy to see the logical order of the versions.
Note that I only publish using a separate FTP app (in my case, Transmit), as I am more comfortable with that level of control over roll-outs, but the numbering of the Sparkle documents could still apply even if published/FTP-ed directly from the app, of course.
P.S. I use the excellent Keyboard Maestro macro utility to automate the naming of these files and folders, e.g., typing two dashes and a “d” will generate “2023-01-17” and I fill in the rest!
I always increment the version — either the date, if it’s not the same day, or “T2,” “T3,” etc. if it’s the same day.
If the new version is a tiny text typo that gets updated live using FTP (what I call a ‘hot fix’), and not by republishing the site in Sparkle, then the updated version has an “a” afterwards, e.g., “2023-01-02-T2a.sparkle” (and the same for the published website folder).
