Chora is our tool for viewing code repositories that are managed using the CVS or Subversion source control systems. It aims to provide a high degree of integration with CVS, SVN and the other Horde web-based tools.

Right now, Chora comes close to matching existing CVS-Web scripts feature for feature, and provides a solid base for future development. Some exciting new features include a visual branch viewing tool, which intelligently displays the branch history of a given file. Branches have traditionally been a source of confusion when using CVS, and this feature aims to make it a bit clearer and easier to use.

Other features include:

• Directory-based views, with a summary of the most recent activity.
• View full log history on a single file, with the ability to stick to a single branch.
• Request arbritrary differences between versions and branches. These can be viewed in a variety of formats, ranging from raw diff output to human-readable HTML.
• Visual branch viewing for a single file, which graphically represents the history of the file with respect to branches from the main trunk of development.
• Annotation (otherwise known as 'blame') support, which shows which authors are responsible for which portions of a file's contents.

Chora is designed from the ground-up with customisability in mind, since Version Control Systems are used in a variety of different ways. Because of this, all the repository manipulation logic is abstracted away in our VC library module. The main PHP scripts are simple HTML rendering scripts, while the complex repository logic is hidden away in the library. This library can be used for a variety of other uses, such as searching for commits, graph generation, change collation, etc (all features planned for eventual inclusion into Chora).

If you are interested in helping develop this module, or just want to ask questions and keep an eye on its progress, be sure to join our mailing list!