Id love to have my mind changed on this, but I personally dont see any place for github or other version control for the types of sites that I make and maintain.

Im a bit of a version control newbie but I do use it at my job, where I do mainly front end coding. I use drupal for freelance projects that I do outside of work. I use a fair few contributed modules but I dont create my own modules or write extensive php or javascript. As most of my changes are therefore in the database I cant really use the diff feature of version control.

I also dont make sites with any hardcoded links. With the pathologic module, when I move my site all I have to do with flush the cache and all the paths update to what they should be. This means I can duplicate the site's files and database (changing the database name) and keep working on the new one, leaving the old one as a backup. I find this is a good way to make backups as they are working sites. So if I run into an issue down the line I can 'go back in time' and see if this problem always existed or if it was caused more recently and so must be due to a change ive made.

As might be obvious my freelancing projects are pretty small scale so the budgets mean that I need a quick and easy workflow. Am I missing a trick here? I do have a slight phobia of using the command line which im sure isnt shared by proper developers (im more of a themer). Thanks

Comments

John_B’s picture

Are you missing a trick by not using git? No. For a freelancer themer you don't need it. Are you missing a trick in having a phobia of command line? Yes. Many times I have been faced with a crashed Drupal site. I have no idea how people manage who do not use command line: it must take hours to recover. My clients expect a crashed site to be back up in minutes, and without command line I would probably fail to do that. The trick you are missing is that from command line many tasks are exponentially faster to complete.

Digit Professionals specialising in Drupal, WordPress & CiviCRM support for publishers in non-profit and related sectors

hyperdogmedia’s picture

Hi jdin,
I couldn't agree more - there are many cases where a full version control system isn't needed. I've run into a couple of cases where it was really really nice it was there though too. It's those cases where version control proves itself necessary. But the way you are backing up data is the best way for smaller projects: It's the right balance between cost and best practices.