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Product Review: Code Spaces: A New Kind of Version Control Service

URL: Code Spaces

At 1:20 PM on Dec 4, 2007, Michael Urban wrote:

When I am not developing for DZone / Javalobby, I spent a lot of time doing development on my own personal projects. Of course, what I really want to do is concentrate on building my software products, so the last thing I want to do is maintain my own subversion repository, issue tracking system, and backup system. Of course, there is no shortage of commercially hosted systems out there, but for the most part, all of the ones I have tried are basically the same. They are all just some variation on the subversion + trac + WebSVN theme. For those of you who have used the subversion + trac + WebSVN combo, I don't have to tell you that it's really nothing to write home about, and it feels rather hackish instead of like a well integrated tool that helps me work. So for the most part, all of the commercial offerings I had tried had left me pretty unsatisfied.

Enter: Code Spaces
The other day, I ran across Code Spaces, a fairly young startup company that is trying a new approach. Instead of the hackish trio of svn / trac / WebSVN, they have built an integrated system written in Ruby on Rails on top of subversion. The heavily "AJAXified" system they have built offers project management, repository management, issue tracking, user management, and source code browsing all from a well integrated Web based interface. But it also offers much more, including a Wiki, and a per project Forum system which is very useful especially for development teams. There is a lot to like about Code Spaces.

Projects:
Depending on the plan you buy (plans range from free, to $89.99 a month), you get anywhere from one to an unlimited number of projects. You can create and assign multiple subversion repositories to each project. Repositories can also be added and removed from a project through a simple side by side interface. You can also add and remove users from a project using the same type of simple side by side interface. Users, of course, only have access to the projects they are assigned to. A simple pull-down menu at the top of the page allows you to to select which project you want to work on out of the list of projects you have permission to access. Changing the selected project changes which repository you will see, which forums you will see, which work items will show up in your list, which milestones you will see, etc. It's a really nice way to keep everything organized so you only see what currently matters to you for the project you are currently working on.

The Dashboard:
The Dashboard is one of the views you can select from the tab, and it gives you a high level summary of your project. From the dashboard, you can see a timeline of the most recent events in your project, which you can drag back and forth. You can also see A list of project milestones, and the latest subversion commits. You can click on any of the commits to browse the changes in a nice way well designed "diff" like view. On the right side of the page, is an AJAX based pulldown list where you can see things such as the most current work items and any subversion repositories attacked to this project.

The Source Code View
The source code view allows you to see a tree view of your source code, as well as provides you with a nice browser to view your source. I only tried it with Java code, but the syntax highlight worked well. and automatically detects the correct file type. It also allows you to browse the source code for any previous revision.

The Work Items View
The work items view is similar to Trac, but like other parts of Code Spaces, uses a lot of AJAX to avoid page reloads and prevent a nicer interface. As once would expect with an issue tracker, you can add issues, comment on them, change the status, assign them to users, etc. If you don't like the default status value that it gives you, or the default priorities, you can customize the existing one and add new ones. Of course, you can also add component types.

The Forum View
One of the nice features of Code Spaces is the forum. Basically, for each project you have, you can create a project forum. If you work in a distributed team, this is a really nice way for the developers on your team to discuss various issues regarding the project.

In addition, there are some very other nice features to like about Code Spaces. For example, it creates backups of your repositories every time a checkin is made. And unlike some other services that back up your data, but charge you a service fee if you actually need to access those backups for some reason, Code Spaces makes all of the backup archives for your projects available right in the admin tab of the Web applications.

A Few Problems / Areas for Improvement
Of course, there are a few areas I found where the application needs some improvement. Fortunately though, I have discussed these issues with the founder of Code Spaces, and many of these issues are being addressed for version 1.1, which is due out in three weeks or less.

One of the biggest problems I found, is that as of right now, there is no way to assign permissions to users other than they are either a member of a project or they are not. If they are a member of the project, they automatically have full access to the subversion repositories for that project. However, version 1.1 will address this issue, giving more fine grained control over what users can or cannot do. For example, it will be possible to create a "forum only" user, who can participate in forum discussions, but has no access to the code. It will also be possible to allow guess access to the issue database so they can file bug reports and such.

Currently, although it is possible to subscribe to an RSS feed that will notify you of code checkins and new issues and changes to issues, it's not possible to get email notifications of checkins / issues. However, once again, this is being addressed in 1.1 and it will soon be possible to receive email notification of events.

Another issue, is that usernames must be unique across the system. not just across your own account. So, for example, I was not able to create an account with the username “mike” because someone else already had it. It's not clear if or when that will change yet, although Floyd did say that it would certainly be possible to change without much work. So I suspect as they grow and get more users, it probably will change.

The AJAX interface is a little buggy and non-intuitive at times, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy to use. The main bugs I ran into were when using it on Mac. The cursors sometimes didn't show up in the text fields, so it was hard to know where you were typing. On Windows, however, everything work fined.

Summary
Overall, I'm very impressed with Code Spaces. The creators have done a very good job of taking version control and issue tracking, and integrating it into a very nice easy to use AJAX based Web interface. Most of the problems I mentioned are being addressed right now, and are scheduled to be fixed in version 1.1, which should be out in less than three weeks. Overall, I've been very happy with Code Spaces. If you are looking for an off-site version control / issue tracking / backup system for your projects, Code Spaces is definitely worth checking out.

Learn more about Code Spaces here