Branching/Merging feature requests

robe070 · Post by **robe070** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:27 am

I'd like to request the following:

Firstly, when a branch is created you have no indication of which version of the origin was branched. Yes it can be worked out by going to the branch and seeing where the branch occurred and the previous version was the branch and now you can go back to the origin and look at that version of the file and compare it to later versions in the origin. So, how about Vault automatically assigning a label to the Origin version. The structure of the label could be something like the action name that the Branch receives e.g. "Branched to $/MyBranch <date> <time>". (Need date/time in the case of mutliple creations/deletions of the same Branch structure from the same Origin.)

This label can then be seen when merging changes from the origin to the Branch making the task a little easier.

Secondly, when merging from a Branch back to the Origin, there is no record of which changes have been synchronised back to Origin. If you presume that the merge is done in order from the point at which the Branch was created (already listed in the Merge dialog) contiguously up to a later version, then it would make sense to put a label on that point as part of the merge. Thus the next merge can simply merge from that point onwards. The label could be something like "Synched to $/MyOrigin <date> <time>". Obviously date/time are required to cope with multiple synchs.

These changes don't require any further magical inventions from SourceGear and the labels would be very useful throughout the rest of the Product just like any other label.

regards

Rob Goodridge

lbauer · Post by **lbauer** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 3:24 pm

Thanks for the suggestions; I'll log them as a feature request.

Beth · Post by **Beth** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 3:29 pm

These are all good ideas. I've logged them. Thanks for the feedback.

robe070 · Post by **robe070** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:57 pm

Two acknowledgements from SourceGear! Must be a VERY GOOD idea

Beth · Post by **Beth** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 12:15 pm

Ooooppps. Sorry. It is a good idea, but the double post is probably more of an indicator of me being spacey for a moment.

robe070 · Post by **robe070** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 11:41 pm

Maybe I'm pushing my luck a bit here, but how about adding understanding of these labels to the Merge Branches Tool?

The label could be stylised so as not to clash with user labels. It could even be a configuration option, on the Server - system-wide, to choose a unique prefix for the labels.

The tool could then identify those versions that have been added since the branch and of those which have been merged already and thus automatically selecting the remainder, even if they are not contiguous. Or maybe displaying them in a different colour so its obvious what still needs to be merged.

The labeling of what has been merged may need to be changed from my 1st description to being on each version if it is to cope with listing changes that have not yet been merged when a later version HAS been merged. This would of course lead to many labels but I don't think that would be a usability issue. Maybe the Synch labels could be optionally hidden in other label locations and in the Merge Branches tool be represented by the user interface change discussed above like a change of colour.

Fingers crossed

lbauer · Post by **lbauer** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 8:02 am

Thanks for the further suggestions. We'll add your comments to the feature request