Rails - Nov 2013 - Is it possible with Rails to interact with SVN Server and/or the server's shell?

Hello! I''m fairly new to Ruby and Rails, and currently I don''t
have any
knowledge on interacting with the server''s shell or a SVN server, but
now I
have to develop an app where admins allow/restrict access to files and 
folders from the app and some sort of version control of the files is need 
so I thought, to install a SVN server also and from the app allow users to 
access files they''ve been authorized to. I''ve been searching
about this but
I can''t seem to find a concrete answer. Could some please tell me if
this
is possible and if so, point me in the right direction, what sort of stuff 
should i look into first?

Thank you. 

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On Nov 6, 2013, at 8:21 AM, Monserrat Foster wrote:
> Hello! I''m fairly new to Ruby and Rails, and currently I
don''t have any knowledge on interacting with the server''s
shell or a SVN server, but now I have to develop an app where admins
allow/restrict access to files and folders from the app and some sort of version
control of the files is need so I thought, to install a SVN server also and from
the app allow users to access files they''ve been authorized to.
I''ve been searching about this but I can''t seem to find a
concrete answer. Could some please tell me if this is possible and if so, point
me in the right direction, what sort of stuff should i look into first?
> 
> Thank you. 
I built something vaguely similar to this a number of years ago, and while I
didn''t go down the SVN path, what I did was this:

1. User authentication with Devise, authorization with CanCan.
2. Files stored with Paperclip (in this case they were all PDF) with text
scraped from each file into a keywords field on the parent model.
3. Files versioned with vestal_version, which provided forward/back in time
navigation. (I did have to hack Paperclip to never delete an attachment, and to
rename each attached file to include the version info.)

I''m not sure if SVN would have been a saner choice here, I did end up
reinventing the wheel. The benefit for me was that everything was in one (Rails)
mental model, so I didn''t have to create a bridge back and forth
between my user management and file management.

Walter
> 
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Monserrat Foster wrote in post #1126580:
> Hello! I''m fairly new to Ruby and Rails, and currently I
don''t have any
> knowledge on interacting with the server''s shell or a SVN server,
but
> now I
> have to develop an app where admins allow/restrict access to files and
> folders from the app and some sort of version control of the files is
> need
> so I thought, to install a SVN server also and from the app allow users
> to
> access files they''ve been authorized to. I''ve been
searching about this
> but
> I can''t seem to find a concrete answer. Could some please tell me
if
> this
> is possible and if so, point me in the right direction, what sort of
> stuff
> should i look into first?
Issuing system commands is as simple as:

system svn <command>

Or when you want to capture the command''s standard output into a
string:

out = `svn <command>` # These are back tics

And, if you decide to use a SCM as a backed to store your files what not 
choose a SCM that isn''t a steaming pile of sh*t. Like git 
(http://git-scm.com). Just saying...

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Robert Walker wrote in post #1126590:
>
> Issuing system commands is as simple as:
>
> system svn <command>
My apologies, but you need to quote the command part:

system ''svn <command>''

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Hello all, thanks for replying.

Explaining a little further what I need is to set the permissions to 
determined users from the app, however, the files aren''t in the same
server
as the app and it should be relatively easy to the users to access the 
files, and the admin wants to be able to see what files and exactly what 
was modified by that user on that file and when, etc,etc (That''s why I 
thought of an SVN server or something similar) . My idea was adding the 
permissions to a folder via the app so, the user in whatever SVN client he 
has, is able to download the lastest file and modify it and at the same 
time, the admin would be able to view who, what and when the files were 
modified. The app would only keep a record filled by the user but that 
wouldn''t be 100% accurate due to users (because they can pretty much
write
whatever they want). 

On Wednesday, November 6, 2013 9:37:08 AM UTC-4:30, Ruby-Forum.com User 
wrote:
>
> Robert Walker wrote in post #1126590: 
> > 
> > Issuing system commands is as simple as: 
> > 
> > system svn <command> 
>
> My apologies, but you need to quote the command part: 
>
> system ''svn <command>'' 
>
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/. 
>
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Monserrat Foster wrote in post #1126594:
> Explaining a little further what I need is to set the permissions to
> determined users from the app, however, the files aren''t in the
same
> server
Keeping in mind that what I''m about to say is completely off the top of
my head...

Given that your documents are stored on a separate server from the app 
thing get a little more tricky. For sake of reference let''s call them 
"Doc Server" and "App Server".

Assuming you have enough control of the Doc Server that you could 
install a service application that''s probably the approach I would
take.
I would hide all access to the files behind a service application with 
some sort of HTTP interface. It would be REST based if I were to build 
it returning JSON responses. It would also provide secured access to the 
requested files. So we have JSON for the file metadata and HTTP access 
to the file data.

The service app would have a multi-part form upload used to receive 
incoming files from a user. The service app would need to know the name 
and email of the user, the path in the local git working tree along with 
the file data.

git add --all

Used to add any new (untracked) files to the git repository.

git commit --author="John Doe
<john-hcDgGtZH8xNBDgjK7y7TUQ@public.gmane.org>" -m "Changing a
test
file."

This would commit all change setting the commit author to "John Doe 
<john-hcDgGtZH8xNBDgjK7y7TUQ@public.gmane.org>".

git log --author="John Doe
<john-LezKZOMPA8NBDgjK7y7TUQ@public.gmane.org>"

This would filter the log output to just John''s commits.

git log --author="John Doe
<john-LezKZOMPA8NBDgjK7y7TUQ@public.gmane.org>" --name-status

This would also include a list of files changes and the status code for 
the type of change.

All of this power would be available to the service application via the 
Ruby system command (or back tic):

-------------------------
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
git_user = "John Doe <john-hcDgGtZH8xNBDgjK7y7TUQ@public.gmane.org"

out = `git log --no-color --author="#{git_user}" --pretty=full`
puts out
-------------------------

$ ./main.rb
commit 58359794f4443985279cdd1627cdf944fd140d24 (HEAD, master)
Author: John Doe <john-hcDgGtZH8xNBDgjK7y7TUQ@public.gmane.org>
Commit: Robert Walker <robert-hcDgGtZH8xNBDgjK7y7TUQ@public.gmane.org>

    Changing test file.

M  test.txt

Notice I used --pretty-full in this example to illustrate the difference 
in the author vs. the committer of the change. The committer would 
always be the service app, or whatever is configured in your git config. 
The author is provided by the service application.

Now it''s just a matter of writing a Ruby class to parse the git output 
and create the JSON metadata that the service application would return 
to the application running on the App Server.

Secure the whole this with some sort of basic single sign-on or API 
token.

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