In the last article we installed and configured the Subversion server using Visual SVN.

Today I am going to show you how to interact with the server from the client side.

What you will need to download the Tortoise SVN client application.

Download and install and after a restart (bummer) we are ready to start working!

The Tortoise SVN adds its functionality in the Windows Explorer Context Menu.

Verifying the connection to the SVN Server

Before we start working we will have to Verify the connection to the SVN Server. Right click on any folder in the Windows Explorer and select TortoiseSVN -> Repo-browser

you will be asked for a path to the repository enter : file:///C:/<The location of the repositories>/<The repository name you selected> in my case I will enter :

file:///C:/Repositories/Test/

what you should get is this:

If you got this it means that you can connect to the SVN Server.

If you are trying to connect to a remote server you will have to enter the following when asked for the URL of the repository:

https://<The ip of the Server>/svn/<The Repository Name>

You should get the same results.

Getting the files from the repository

To get the files from the repository we created earlier (in the previous article) we will have to create a new folder, which I presume everyone knows how to do :).

After you have created the folder, right click on it and select the "SVN Checkout…" option from the context menu. You will see the following screen:

If you followed all the steps the address of the repository should be already written here. All you have to do is click "OK"

This means we have checked out the files successfully and we can start working!

The directory should look like this:

The Green V marks mean that nothing has changed inside the directory. Lets add a new file to the trunk (main branch) directory. We will then Right Click on the trunk and select "Commit"

The SVN Server has detected that you have added a new file and you will have to check the Checkbox next to it in order for it to be inserted to the repository.

Lets try and edit the file and add some text in it. Both the file and the Directory will get a red exclamation mark saying they have been changed:

To send the Changes to the Server you can right click any of them and select "SVN Commit…" from the context menu. Doing it on the Folder will make the Commit recursive to all the files inside it.

That’s it! You are ready to work with you very own version control. In my next post I will show some advanced features of the SVN system.

As always if someone needs any help don’t hesitate to comment.

Enjoy.

Amit