Developing on a public/private server

[eluser]Monotoba[/eluser]
Hi All,

First, let me appologies if this is the wrong forum to post this in?...

My latest project requires that I work with a team member (graphic artist and UI developer) 2000 miles away. We need to setup a development server that will allow us to work on the site but I don't want all of the dev stuff public until it is complete. The distant team member is great with graphics and js but I dont want to ask him to setup VPN access on his machine.

I also need to provide some simple data collection forms on the very same server/site for the client to run some simple polls while we complete the site. To get his team buy-in the client wants to let his staff vote on the site template to be used in the final site and make suggestions and comments regarding their own project.

I would normally setup my development server in house and modify my host files so I could use the corrent url for the site. However, the need for external access without a vpn precludes this practice.

It would be nice if there were some type of A/B switch that would allow serving one site or the other based on a uri/url parameter. An A/B switch might later be helpful in gathering data in regards to site layout and feature use much like Amazon does...

So how would you gents handle this situation? I have a ton of ideas but not sure what would be best...

[eluser]Michael Wales[/eluser]
I am working with a partner from these forums on a project - here's what we did.

I setup an SVN server on my computer, where we commit our changes to the application. Each night a script runs that updates my development environment to the latest version found in the repository. My development environment just also happens to be the root of my web server, therefore we have a live version, nightly, that we can test.