Possible to configure local history location??

Permanently deleted user

Created February 28, 2013 15:01

I'm not a developer like most people on this site :)
I do websites -- html, css, etc.
About to start working on a super-complicated site, billions of files involved.

I plan to keep the working files in Box and ftp them to the web server.

How/where can I configure local history's' location so I can easily find it??
IDEALLY I want them in a sub-folder within the project folder, or in a sibling folder if necessary.

Thank you, Tom

Message was edited by: Tom Lyczko -- changed 'backup' to 'history' to become more accurate question

6 comments

Andriy Bazanov

Created February 28, 2013 15:19

Hi there,

"Billions of files" ... good luck with your site :) (may take a while to complete it)

On a serious note: use VCS (Version Control System) to keep track of all changes to your files: git, mercurial, svn, cvs, bazaar -- choose whatever suits you best, PhpStorm/WebStorm has integration with all popular VCSs

In any case: how to backup / where to store backups of your files has nothing to do with PhpStorm/WebStorm.

Permanently deleted user

Created February 28, 2013 15:23

Sorry for misleading you -- I meant changing local HISTORY localtion and typed 'backups' by mistake.

I read in the docs that php/web-storm has the ability to save files in local history as a "simple" VCS system...

http://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/webhelp/using-local-history.html is what I want to know if I can configure its location.

I've edited the thread title to make my question clearer.

Thank you, Tom

Andriy Bazanov

Created February 28, 2013 15:58

Yes and No.

Yes -- they are stored in /system/ subfolder (depends on your OS -- check IDEA files locations for details; on Windows 7 for v5 the path would be "C:\Users\USERNAME\.WebIde50\system\LocalHistory") and you can specify path to that whole (!!) folder in INSTALL_FOLDER/bin/idea.properties file; Alternatively you may use symbolink link just for that folder that will point to another location .. but that may not always work (at very least it had some issues in the past with some config/cache filesubsystems; possibly fixed by now).
No -- files tightly linked to indexes/caches and may not "survive" upgrading (definitely not major upgrades, e.g. v5 to v6). It also not on per-project level, but rather all projects merged in single index (check the actual files to confirm). "File | Invalidate Caches" will empty local history as well.

Because of the "No" nuances, it makes Local History not so reliable as you/me/everyone would like (not real replacement for proper VCS, even for such simple operations). Proper VCS would definitely be better.

Permanently deleted user

Created February 28, 2013 16:53

Thank you for explaining...that info should go into the local history documentation page I cited, or someplace near it.

I'm now reading about github etc., not fully clear on how it integrates with local files which must be ftp'd to remote webserver for testing, normally I have dev and production servers but this particular site is a hosted ecomm site -- hmmmm -- just realized I could try one of those website-saver tools...maybe that would work for local dev etc.

Thank you, Tom

Andriy Bazanov

Created February 28, 2013 17:00

I'm now reading about github etc., not fully clear on how it integrates with local files...

The VCS called git while github is a website/service that offers git on internet (simply speaking).

Permanently deleted user

Created February 28, 2013 17:02

I know git is local, github is internet...if I use github it doesn't matter what computer I'm on.

I found http://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/webhelp/registering-github-account-in-webstorm.html :)

Thank you, I will mark this answered and give points...

Thank you, Tom

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