alternative to versioning system
 

We have flat files database that need high scrutiny, every change must be recorded. We've found the most likely solution to be some version system but this is unsuitable due to the complexity involved for the user. What we need is a system that is transparent to the user, is there anyone with suggestions? It's quite ok if there is some programming involved.

Typically, a user would edit files by hand and do all the actions involved in editing: change, move, delete, insert etc.

Than you very much for your help.

Why don't you have a look at ZOPE ???

It looks good, seems to be in line with what we need. Will have to study it a bit, it's not a small thing. Thank you for that.

There is also Filemaker (something from the Mac world).
Server is running under linux. It is not free but as far as I know it is a kind of Content Management System (CMS) and it works fine.
Look also for free CMS ... don't know if there are of the kind.

regards

Why not just use subversion, and write a wrapper for it similar to trac? Users could browse resources online, check an item out, modify, and commit back to subversion without much hassle.

Your suggestion to search for CMS made me discover that we we're looking for is more DMS (Document Management System), i"ve found a few that need investigating.

A wrapper for subversion. It's probably a good suggestion but I've got no idea how to do that. I'm prepared to learn if I know what to learn, can you give me a hint?
Thank you for the idea.

Well, svn just uses some very simple commands: svn co (check out), svn ci (commit), etc. I'm sure using something like perl or PHP you could create a tidy little app which handles all the for you.

On windows you can also use TortoiseSVN, an Explorer plugin for subversion.

And then there's trac. You could limit the functionality in that to just allow document management.

usually CVS Systems are not that good for office (word) documents and kind of binary stuff

DMS is new t ome but not surprizing me at all, as it sounds like sister of CMS

if you find something useful please send me a link ( may be directly to my mail)

regards