Can bitbucket be used as a web-based source repository only (no Sourcetree/Git)?

[Jeremy Damstrom]

We currently develop code-based macro files with .ISS extension (CaseWare IDEA) using a programming language quite similar to VBA called IDEAScript. We are looking to use bitbucket as a source code repository so that we can track two key attributes:

• date the macro was last modified
• file changes / "diff"

Using the tutorial README.md file which comes pre-populated in the sample Source repository, I can see that it is possible to directly edit a file within the web browser and also track the two attributes I listed above, but currently, the only option I see to upload files via the browser is through the Downloads folder, and the files stay in this folder instead of migrating to Source.

Please share any solutions or recommendations.

[John Fetzik · Accepted solution]

I have only used the Cloud version of Bitbucket, but you can, sort of, but it is not great. You can create a new file and use the online editor. As far as I know you cannot directly upload files to a specific location via the web interface in Bitbucket Cloud.

Biggest downside of this approach is the editor is very basic, but for short scripts it might be ok.

On the page for the repo make sure Source is selected on the left. Then click on the the three dots at the upper right. Click "Add file" from the pop-up menu. If you have multiple folders in your repo navigate to where you want the new file to show up.

You will then get the online text editor where you can enter the filename and edit the file. When you are done click the Commit button at the bottom right.

[Jeremy Damstrom]

John, your solution works, though as you probably figured, to get my macro into the repository, I would need to open the macro file on my desktop first and then cut-and-paste the raw code into the edit window presented after clicking the "Add file" option.

Assuming this is a workable solution, is there a way to .zip and download my entire repository, or better yet, download a single file, from the web interface?

Comparing to Github, since I'm evaluating both platforms, I'm able to drag-and-drop my macro file directly into my repository, and I'm able to click a download button which zips my entire repository of macro files -- from my point of view, the Github solution is much easier to use currently. 

[John Fetzik]

If you need to do things from only a web interface, with no local Git client, GitHub is probably a better choice.

In general most Git hosting providers do not have a web interface that will do what you want. The whole point of using Git, and all distributed version-control system, is that you have a complete copy of the repository locally and you sync up to the host server when appropriate. So working only directly on the server kind of defeats the purpose of a distributed version-control system.

[Jeremy Damstrom]

Understood, thanks again for your help! We will probably use a git client at some point, but these macro files are, for the most part, 'code once', and then our main focus is to use the repository simply as a storage location w/ visibility of change history & last modified dates.