How to browse HTML correctly from SVN repositories

I just committed a bunch of HTML files to SVN, then realized that they don't display as HTML when you browse the repository. After painfully reconstructing the solution, I figured it would be good to jot a note on how to deal with this.

First, you need to fix the svn:mime-type property on all of your committed HTML files. To do this, use your SVN client to select all of the HTML files under SVN control, then set their svn:mime-type property to text/html, then commit these changes. That fixes the current files.

To ensure that all of your current and future HTML files are committed from the get-go with the svn:mime-type property set to text/html, you have to use the SVN auto-props feature. What that basically means is that you have to edit the file called "config" in your local SVN installation, and uncomment the following line:

enable-auto-props = yes

Then you have to add a new line that looks like this:

*.html = svn:mime-type=text/html

Finally, you (potentially) need to instruct your SVN client to consider auto-props when doing its commits. For example, in SmartSVN, you have to go to Projects | Default Settings | Working Copy and check "Apply Auto-Props from SVN 'config' file to added files".

In TortoiseSVN, there is a "Setting" menu that allows you to edit the 'config' file in a similar manner.