# Repository

> **Note**
>
> The repository is where a documentation team keeps its sources. This page explains [why the choice matters](#why-the-choice-matters), [compares the main kinds of repository](#repositories-compared), and points to the article that answers [each decision you need to make](#decisions-to-make).

## Definition

Content is a company's intangible asset and must be protected accordingly. It can be managed in various repositories, such as directories, enterprise content management tools, and version management software.

## Why the choice matters

The repository decides much of what a team can do with its content:

- **Working together.** Whether two writers can change the same content without one losing the other's work.
- **Recovering content.** How precisely a lost or unwanted change can be restored, and by whom.
- **Changing everything at once.** Whether a change across all files, such as the path of every image, is a single operation.
- **Managing versions and languages.** How translations and parallel versions of the documentation are organized.

## Repositories compared

The question of [which repository suits group work](https://docs.redaction-technique.org/en/tech-writing-process/which-repository-for-group-work/) is critical: [shared network directories](https://docs.redaction-technique.org/en/tech-writing-process/shared-network-directories/) present significant limitations, [CMS platforms](https://docs.redaction-technique.org/en/tech-writing-process/cms-workflow-and-reliability/) offer workflow convenience but with reliability trade-offs of their own, and [version management systems](https://docs.redaction-technique.org/en/tech-writing-process/version-control-systems/) offer a far more reliable alternative.

| | Working together | Recovering content | Changing everything at once |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Shared network directory** | Open files are locked, or the last save overwrites the others | Directory by directory, from backups often only daily | Impossible while files are locked |
| **CMS** | Writers download a local copy and upload it; the CMS locks files being modified | Reliability must be tested and backed by a backup strategy | An SQL-based CMS cannot search and replace across all content |
| **Version control system** | Files are not locked; branches let writers work in parallel | Very fine-grained; every Git clone holds the full history | An ordinary operation on text files |

Version control has trade-offs too: it compares files line by line rather than XML node by node, and its paradigm can be challenging for less technologically inclined users. A CMS remains relevant when contributors cannot work with text files and version control.

## Decisions to make

### Can the team share files safely?

  - [**Which repository for group work?**](https://docs.redaction-technique.org/en/tech-writing-process/which-repository-for-group-work/): Why concurrent edits overwrite one another in a folder, and why file locking blocks batch changes.
  - [**Shared network directories**](https://docs.redaction-technique.org/en/tech-writing-process/shared-network-directories/): What goes wrong when a team works directly on files stored on a network share.

### Which kind of repository?

  - [**Version management systems**](https://docs.redaction-technique.org/en/tech-writing-process/version-control-systems/): Git or Subversion: history, branches, and tags for text sources.
  - [**CMS: workflow as a bonus, but reliability to be tested**](https://docs.redaction-technique.org/en/tech-writing-process/cms-workflow-and-reliability/): What a CMS or EDMS adds, and why its reliability for archiving must be tested.
  - [**SQL database**](https://docs.redaction-technique.org/en/tech-writing-process/sql-database/): Why a CMS database limits changes across all content, and when a database is still the right source of data.

### One repository or several?

- [**A single repository?**](https://docs.redaction-technique.org/en/tech-writing-process/single-repository/): All content in one repository maximizes reuse, consistency, and quality. Why few companies take this step.

### How to manage versions and translations?

  - [**Using branches in source management systems**](https://docs.redaction-technique.org/en/tech-writing-process/using-branches/): When to use branches for translations, and why variants are better handled with conditional text.
  - [**Translation**](https://docs.redaction-technique.org/en/tech-writing-process/translation/): How translation shapes the organization of the repository, from the start of the project.

### How to work with content in Git?

- [**Git: from file to content**](https://docs.redaction-technique.org/en/tech-writing-process/git-from-file-to-content/): Think in content rather than files: branches to work around validation bottlenecks, and a clean history.

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Source: https://docs.redaction-technique.org/en/tech-writing-process/repository/