Best practice for integrating Mantis and Subversion

Question

I would like to integrate Subversion into Mantis, so when I make a subversion commit, the appropriate Mantis issue is updated. With Mantis' Source Integration Plugin, this becomes a cinch to pull off with WebSVN. However, none of the documentation I've read clearly explains a) what exactly is the link between websvn and Mantis Integration or b) what security implications there are for configurations other than simple repositories with no access controls.

The most pertinent webpages I've read are:

• http://www.unitz.com/u-notez/2009/10/subversion-svn-integration-mantisbt/
• http://blog.crazytje.be/mantis-svn-integration-in-the-1-2-x/
• http://noswap.com/blog/integrating-git-svn-with-mantisbt

In short, I'm reticent to give Mantis the keys to Subversion without fully understanding the implications.

Answer 1

The integration works like this:

• A user opens an issue
• A developer performs a commit providing the issue number in his comment
• Mantis now knows about the commit and tries to fetch svn metadata
• Mantis stores the metadata internally and links the revisions with the issues based on the commit comments.
• You can also manually link issues to revisions

What you need to know:

• You need to set read permissions in all you repositories for the user mantis will connect to svn.
• Anyone who has access to your configuration file may use the stored user/pass to gain access to the svn repository.
• Anyone who has access to your mantis database can see full statistics and detailed data about all the commits made to svn (files, users, comments etc)
• The suggested post-commit hook only informs mantis that a new version exists
• The plugin has an allowed/denied server list that prevents/allows hosts to connect to your repository
• You can also set up https/ssl for both servers (setting up the ssl-keys is a bit more tricky)

I've used this setup for a long time and it works like a charm.

I also suggest using websvn as it's the best way to instantly view the diffs, one click away from your mantis issue

Hope I helped

J.