how to handle multi-release of a project

Question

I have to maintain three separate releases of a project, (1) development (2) UAT (3) production. For each i have separate DB, Servers, and machines.

Project is the same one that all 3 releases are based on.

Now what could be the best way to handle below:

1. Do i need 3 separate CVS repositories ?
2. When applying fixes ? how to maintain fixes and applying one by one
3. In long run, how i keep them separate so that if issue appear on one place , it should not effect others, Or to apply fix at one place only.

thanks

Answer 1

If the only difference between these three environments is just in settings for database servers or other configurations, you can still keep the code in same repository or branch for easy maintenance.

Instead, what you have to do is having a configuration file with different settings for different environments. For example, this practice or concept is used widely in Zend Framework project.

application.ini

; Production site configuration data
[production]
webhost                  = www.example.com
database.adapter         = pdo_mysql
database.params.host     = db.example.com
database.params.username = dbuser
database.params.password = secret
database.params.dbname   = dbname

; Staging site configuration data inherits from production and
; overrides values as necessary
[staging : production]
database.params.host     = dev.example.com
database.params.username = devuser
database.params.password = devsecret

Answer 2

You Can Have Single Repository Scheme ,In which You Can Follow A Following Fashion.

[1] Create Your Own Different Folders For Each Of Dept. Say Dev/Prod/UAT. [2] Maintain Version For EveryTime Update Or Change [3] You Can Look For Harvest Or Any Other Popular Tool/Software For Repositorites

http://webhelp.esri.com/geoportal_extension/9.3.1/index.htm#hrvst_manage.htm