Where do you start when upgrading a website with an active community around it? How do you preserve the data for thousands of users and nodes? How do you move away from obsolete modules? How do you limit downtime to a few hours? These are common questions we have to answer when upgrading websites from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6 and adding new functionality on top of it!

If you've ever visited a Drupal camp or conference before, chances are you came upon someone mentioning the necessity of using "version management" and you probably watched in awe as all the coders in the room nodded their heads gravely.

If you ever wondered why this is so, this session's for you.

I had this experience over a year ago and decided to look into the pros and cons of version management and how I could accomplish it without using a command line interface. In the process I even succeeded in finding tools that emit a decent web2.0ish, designy feeling.

Slides as file:  SubversionDesignersSlides.pdf