Cloudogu presents SCM-Manager 2 – Modern source code management for Git, Mercurial and Subversion repositories

Cloudogu has fundamentally improved and expanded the SCM-Manager. The most important new features are the code review functions, which put SCM-Manager 2 on a par with proprietary SCM solutions. At the same time, it offers the additional advantages of being free of charge and the possibility of on-premises operation. In addition, there is a modern, clearer user interface and a whole range of additional functions.

Cloudogu GmbH, provider of the open source development platform Cloudogu EcoSystem, has substantially improved and extended the SCM (Source Code Management) Manager (scm-manager.org{:target="_blank"}{:titel="Visit SCM-Manager website"}). The most important innovation is the code review functions. They put the SCM-Manager 2 on a level with proprietary SCM solutions with the additional advantages of being free of charge and the possibility of on-premises operation. In addition, there is a modern, clearer user interface and a whole range of additional functions.

The new code review features provide more opportunities for improved collaboration. Developers can now use workflows for code reviews and create pull requests in which they describe their changes and add or request reviewers. Reviewers can add comments for the entire pull request, individual files or lines of code, and set tasks to be completed before the pull request is accepted. The detailed view shows, among other things, diffs of the changes and conflicts.

The user interface of SCM-Manager 2 stands out with a modern and clean design that simplifies navigation. The frontend stack is based on React and Bulma. Clearly defined extension points allow for easy extension of the interface.

A new package format for plug-ins eliminates the plug-in installation problems of the first version of the SCM-Manager. Cloudogu already migrated 25 popular plugins to the second version and developed some new ones. Many functions can now also be used via the browser, e.g. adding and deleting files in repositories, create readme files for repositories and edit files. In addition, developers get an interactive overview of the tool's API.

Up to now, developers were limited to the distinction between admin and user when assigning rights. Roles could only be assigned for individual repositories. With the SCM-Manager 2 it is now possible to assign finely graded permissions, both globally, for namespaces and also repository-specific.

SCM-Manager and Cloudogu EcoSystem

The SCM-Manager emerged from the open source SCM-Manager project, and since April 2020 Cloudogu has been the official owner of the project. Nevertheless, the SCM-Manager remains free and Open Source software.The previous owner Sebastian Sdorra leads the SCM-Manager team as CTO at Cloudogu. The SCM-Manager is a central component of the Cloudogu EcoSystem. This virtual, pre-configured operating platform enables developers to operate individually selected tools with minimal administrative effort and to use efficient processes for software development. In the Cloudogu EcoSystem, the SCM-Manager forms a continuous delivery toolchain together with an issue tracker (Redmine or JIRA), a CI server (Jenkins), static code analysis tools (SonarCube), an artefact repository manager (Sonatype Nexus) and numerous other tools. This allows numerous processes to be automated, e.g. builds including code analysis with every push or documentation of issues via commit messages. The system also offers backups for the entire platform.