tilix4 / pulse

Pulse

Pulse is a version control system designed for creative projects. It allows artists to work locally, even from home, and ensure a coherence in path and versionning.

Why would you need Pulse?

• to work a project at multiple locations, with the exact same path to access files for everyone
• to optimize the network charge, even remote artists with low bandwidth can be involved
• to guarantee your data integrity, by freezing and versionning every published file
• to split the data between storage according to your needs and transparently for the artist

How does this python library look like?

>>> # connect to a pulse database and get a project from it
prj = pulse.Connection("mysql", "127.0.0.1", login="John", password="Snow").get_project("GOT")

>>> # create a new resource in this project, animation of shot 99
shot_anim = prj.create_resource("shot99-animation")

>>> # check out this resource in the user work space
shot_anim_work = shot_anim.checkout()

>>> # add the last Joe's proxy rig to this shot (download it to user space if needed)
shot_anim_work.add_input("joe-rig.proxy")

>>> # publish the new resource version and its related products
shot_anim_work.publish()

Pulse is just a library, it's up to you to automatize and configure it to your needs. You will find a example CLI and a GUI provided with this project Pulse library is written in pure python, compatible with 2.7 to 3.7, for Windows and Linux.

Version Control System

You can think of Pulse as a version control system. Like SVN, the user checkout the resource to get a working copy, and publish to publish a new version. Pulse shares a few concepts with other VCS:

• Pulse manages the versionning, the user doesn't think about it, he just commits
• a committed resource is stored in a repository, it won't be modified anymore, never. You can rely on your data.
• there's a diff system, showing you the change you made since last version.
• there's a lock system, preventing concurrent work

Anyway, there's a big difference with other VCS : Pulse doesn't deal with files, it deals with resources. You can see resource as a files container, those files will be checkout together, worked together, publish and versioned together. A character surfacing is a resource, a shot layout is a resource, etc... The resource is the project's unit : a resource can't be split between repositories, and a resource is versioned as a whole.

But they are also a few differences which make Pulse so spicy...

Path consistency

The best way to ensure that artists respect the project path and naming convention is to do it for them. Every files registered by Pulse must be located into a resource folder, and those folder are created and managed by Pulse.

Unlike other VCS, the user doesn't chose the resource path, it is built by Pulse based on the project configuration. The user just check out the resource by its name, and the files will be downloaded at the very same path for everyone else working on the project.

Tracking Dependencies

Another difference from a classical version system, is the dependencies tracking. If a user needs to add an input to his working copy, he has to declare it. All resources inputs and outputs versions are tracked by Pulse. So when a user checkout a resource, all the needed inputs will be downloaded in the user cache, only if they're not already there. He can even check out all the resources during the night, to optimize his bandwidth. Dependencies tracking also helps to purged unused resources. Pulse have utilities for this based on the unused time.

Repositories

Each Pulse Resource is linked to a repository, and your project can contain many repositories, even from different type : network share, ftp, google drive... Pulse even comes with a plug-in adapter architecture which allow you to write your very own repository type.

Documentation

Pulse documentation is available on readthedocs.

Q/A

My artists work all in the same location, what's the point to use Pulse?

Pulse act like a local cache, it leverages greatly server access even in the same network. The fastest file transfer is the one which doesn't need to occur. Plus, it secures published files and prevent concurrent work.

What's the difference between Pulse and Shotgun?

Pulse is not a production tracker, it does not care about what's approved or done. But it can be easily linked to shotgun with a specific database adapter, or with meta datas