At iLovePhotos, we’ve been working with our Mac desktop application for a long time. Internally, we use Subversion as our version control system. One of version control’s best features is merging. If I am working on a file, and over in Hawaii, Chad is also working on that same file, I can make my changes, and Chad can make his, and SVN will handle mixing our changes together.

This works great on source code files like Objective-C’s .m files, but falls short on NIB or XIB files. NIB files are created by Interface Builder and store how your interface will look and the connections between code and UI. The problem here is that NIB files are not merge-able. Now, the true answer is for Apple to make their NIB and XIB format allow easy merging, but as we can’t control what Apple does, what we as Mac devs have to do is moderate who edits the NIB manually. Only I can edit the NIB before Chad can start making his changes.

This process can be difficult because communication can be difficult amongst large groups. To partially solve this problem, I have created a very simple website that you can internally install on your server that will easily allow you to manage who is working on a NIB file. It’s called Who’s Using the Nib?.

The site allows you to easily tell your entire team that you are using the NIB. Once you are finished you simply tell the site that you are done, and everyone will have a chance to now start working on the NIB.

You can grab the source code right here. The site runs on PHP (4 or 5). I’d love to hear any thoughts or other solutions to this problem.