Sublime Subversion
We’re still a ways away from the release of Sublime 1.3 but I thought it would be a good idea to provide a sneak peak into what we have in the works.
Apache Support
Although Sublime currently supports Active Directory authentication with Apache it requires you to install and configure Apache manually. Starting in Sublime 1.3 we will manage the installation and configuration process automatically. No more mucking around in configuration files – Sublime 1.3 will provide the same easy-to-use management interface that we do for the rest of Sublime’s features.
Hook Script Management
Sublime 1.3 will support hook script management for repositories. Administrators will be able to make certain hook scripts available and even enforce that all repositories use certain scripts. This is useful for enforcing policies or integrating with other systems such as bug trackers. Once these scripts are available repository owners will be able to easily enable or disable them for their repositories.
Minor Features and Updates
Sublime 1.3 will also include the following minor updates:
- Delete a Repository – administrators and (optionally) repository owners will now be able to delete a repository directly within Sublime
- Require Commit Messages – owners will be able to enforce commit messages per-repository
- Bug Fixes and other minor features we can sneak into the development schedule
As always, please leave us feedback on our . This is one of the primary methods we use when planning features for Sublime.
Sublime is proud to announce its decision to sponsor the next few episodes of , a podcast featuring stories about technology, technologists, and what it’s like to live and work in this field. Inspired by the storytelling format of , and have created this podcast filled with interesting perspectives, and a compelling behind the scenes look into the more intimate and personal nuances of the developer’s world.
Of course we wish to spark interest in Sublime, and promote it to a relevant and growing audience, but more importantly, we are thrilled to support such a quality independent production. The media landscape is changing, and as consumers we play an integral role in this change. There are more avenues than ever before to find compelling, interesting, and stimulating content, be it independent movies, animated shorts, online comics, blogs, games, music or podcasts. More and more we are not limited to the safe, watered down programming which is chosen by the large corporations for its appeal to the masses. Instead we may be guided by our passions, our interests, our particular (or even peculiar) tastes.
However, if we value this trend and want it to continue, we can’t rely solely on the good will and creative energy of the people behind these productions. When we find products that we enjoy and value we need to show our support. We believe in the product that Rob and Scott are producing, we want to see it continue, and we’re excited to be a small part of that.
We just released a minor update for Sublime. This is mostly a bug-fix release but it does include one new feature. You can install 1.2.2 right over your existing 1.2 or 1.1 release so upgrading should be a snap. See the release notes below for full details:
New Features:
- End-users can Create Folders
In 1.2 we allowed administrators to create folders for organizing their repositories directly within the Sublime UI. In 1.2.2 we have made it possible for administrators to grant this ability to end users.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed error when assigning permissions or editing repository details for repositories not created within Sublime.
- Fixed error on some non-english operating systems when configuring Sublime for the first time.
- Fixed URL in RSS feeds to always contain the full URL to Sublime
- Fixed broken images in repository browser when Sublime is installed as a sub-web
Head over to the downloads page to grab Sublime 1.2.2.
Right now I feel like one of those “I must be crazy my prices are so low” guys on local TV. But that’s because in celebration of the release of Sublime 1.2 we are cutting our prices by 50%! Starting today until the end of Summer (September 21st to be exact) all Sublime licenses are 50% off if you enter the promo code “SUMMER” during checkout.
If you’ve been trying an evaluation version Sublime then now is a great time to buy! Or if you are planning for additions to your team in the future, go ahead and grab some extra licenses now while the price is so low.
Go check out the details in our online store.
We just pushed the final bits live and you can download Sublime 1.2 now! Version 1.2 can be installed right over top of your existing Sublime 1.1 installation so upgrading is a snap!
We are super excited about Sublime 1.2 and feel that it’s the best version of Sublime yet. Version 1.2 introduces a slew of new features and enhancements. Check out the release notes for the complete list of new features and bug fixes included. Below are the highlights:
- Path-based permissions. It is now possible to manage path-based permissions within your repositories.
- Personalized Dashboard. Each user gets their own personalized dashboard showing them their active repositories and activity stream.
- Activity Stream RSS Feed. Keep track of all of your repositories from a single, dynamic RSS feed.
- Active Directory Groups when using LDAP Authentication. Use existing Active Directory groups when managing repository permissions.
- Advanced Repository Templates. Repository templates can contain files and content which will be personalized to the details of your new repository. Included are two new templates for Visual Studio projects. Each template will pre-populate the new repository with a Visual Studio solution file based on the name of the repository.
I LOVE this new feature. I find it to be incredibly useful on a daily basis. And building tools that you yourself find useful and productive is one of the most rewarding aspects of this business.
Sublime 1.2 ships with a new default home page which is personalized for each user. It shows a list of active repositories that you have access to, and an activity stream for those repositories. This makes it very easy to quickly access the repositories you care about, and see exactly who is committing to those repositories – all in one, streamlined view.
New personalized dashboard shows your repositories and latest activity
On the left side of the dashboard is a list of any repository that you have access to, which has been committed to in the last 15 days. This makes it very easy to quickly access repositories that you have access to and it automatically filters out old or unused repositories.
On the right side of the screen is a list of the most recent commits to these active repositories. This single, unified view lets you easily see which users are committing to the repositories you care about.
In addition, this activity stream is exposed as an RSS feed. This lets users subscribe to a single RSS feed for all of their repositories without having to subscribe to each individual repository.
All in all we feel that this is a great feature for developers. It helps everyone easily stay up to date with the activities of their team.
We’re a bit behind releasing 1.2. We had hoped to release in July and we may still, but if we don’t make it before the end of this week we’ll definitely have it ready to go by August 6th. In the meantime, here’s another preview into the new features in 1.2.
Those of you using LDAP / Active Directory for authentication will be pleased to know that with 1.2 it will be possible to use AD groups for permission management. This is accomplished by creating an “LDAP Group” and entering the name of the group in your LDAP directory. For example, if you wanted to add “Domain Users”, you would simply create a new LDAP group in Sublime named “Domain Users”. The group membership will be automatically populated based on the users in the Domain Users active directory group. Sublime will then keep this membership up to date automatically. So whenever you add new users to the group in active directory, those additions will be automatically picked up by Sublime.
Sublime is also smart enough to only give access to users who you want using Sublime in the first place. For example, if you have configured Sublime to exclude all users except those in a given OU, Sublime will respect those rules when pulling in users from your AD groups. So even if a user exists in that group, if they aren’t in the OU you specified they won’t be granted access to Sublime or Subversion.
That’s it for this post. Next time we’ll talk about the new user dashboard and user RSS feeds – promise!
This is the first post in a series on what’s new in Sublime 1.2. Version 1.2 will be released next month but we’re so excited about the new features that we wanted to get the word out now.
First up: Path-based permissions.
This feature has been requested for some time and is finally making its way into Sublime. In 1.2 a repository owner will be able define unique permissions at different paths within a repository. A common scenario may be to allow all developers read/write access to the trunk, but then lock down the branches or tags folders to lead developers or release managers.
Below, we can see the updated Permission Management interface in Sublime 1.2. On the left we see the repository structure and the red icon overlay indicates that a folder has unique permissions applied. Clicking on that folder we can see, and then manage permissions for that level in the repository.
Assigning path-based permissions in Sublime
If you make a mistake and would like to remove all unique permissions you can simply click the “Remove these permissions” link in the highlighted area to the right.
Well that’s it for this update. For our next Sublime 1.2 Preview article we will discuss the new personalized Dashboard.
We’ve been working away here on Sublime 1.2 and have a few interesting features to share with you.
First, we’re going to be offering better support for managing your repository organization from within the Sublime web interface. For example, admins will be able to create folders directly within the web interface instead of having to create them from the server.
Second, we’re expanding our RSS support by creating a “My Repositories” feed. This feed will include commit messages to any repository that the subscriber is a committer for making it easy to subscribe to a single feed and automatically stay up to date across all of your projects. We’ll also be allowing RSS feeds to be accessed anonymously (admin configurable) so that they can be accessed easier from external RSS readers or readers that don’t support authentication.
Lastly, we’re expanding the Repository Template functionality to scan your templates for certain tokens and replace them with repository-specific information. For example, if your template includes a visual studio .sln file, you can name this file %name%.sln and it will automatically be renamed with the name of the repository. This works within the contents of your files as well allowing you to set up complete boilerplate project structures.
We always felt that while very useful, templates always came up a little short in truly jump-starting a project because they couldn’t customize the template to the project at hand. We feel that this update will close this gap and provide a significant productivity improvement for Sublime users.
We’ll be posting more on this feature in the future including a full tutorial on how to create repository templates that leverage this functionality.
Stay tuned for more updates on 1.2. We’ve got plenty of other features and improvements we’re adding including:
- My Repositories view
- Significant performance improvements
- Filtered views for the repository browser
- Active Directory Security Group support
- and more…
Over the last couple of days we have started . Initially these videos focus on how to use Sublime but over time we will expand the scope to cover Subversion topics as well.
Please let us know if these videos are helpful and if you have any suggestions on features to cover or ways we can improve them.
