Workspace branches

Workspaces are versioned using branches. Every workspace will have 1 or more branches, each independent of the other. Automation and apps can be created or updated on one branch without affecting other branches.

Main branch

Workspaces are created with a main branch. This is a special branch - it is the default branch, intended for your production apps and automations. Some features (such as scheduled workflows) will only run on your main branch, while other actions (such as app deployments) can be run from any branch.

Other branches

In addition to the main branch your workspace can have as many other branches as you wish. These other branches can be used to develop new apps and automation without affect your main branch.

For example you may wish to create a new branch for each new feature you develop, deleting the branch once the feature is merged into main. Or you may have a dev branch which you use for all your development, merging into main periodically. You could even combine the two by having single-feature development branches which are merged into a beta branch for testing before going into main.

You can also use branches to create snapshots of your branches, making it easier to revert back to previous versions of a workspace, or so you can reference older versions more easily.

Creating new branches

To create a new branch you need to pick one of the workspace's existing branches to fork. The new branch will be cloned from the existing committed version of that existing branch. You can do this via the more menu on the version control panel.

When forking we will use the committed version of branch. Uncommitted changes will be ignored.

Merging branches

There are lots of reasons you will want to merge branches. For example:

• You have completed development on a new feature and want to push it into your main branch
• You want to test features from 2 branches to ensure they work together
• You want keep a development branch up-to-date with changes that have been merged into you main branch (good practice to avoid merge conflicts with long-running development)

You can merge branches using the Merge branch option in the more menu on the version control panel:

1. You will be prompted to select a Target branch. This is the branch you want to merge INTO another branch (eg the development branch you want to merge into main).
2. Select the Destination branch. This is the branch you are merging into (eg in the above example this would be main).
3. Decide if you want to delete the target branch after the merge.
   • For example if this branch was created just for developing the new feature you're merging in you may want to delete the branch to avoid it continuing to appear in the UI.
   • However if you want the branch to remain after the merge (eg if it's a generic dev branch you're doing lots of development in) then don't select this option.
4. Click the CREATE button.

Merging conflicts

Occasionally a conflict will occur when attempting to merge 2 branches. This typically happens when an entity (an activity, app page etc.) has been modified in both branches since the newer branch was created. If a conflict occurs during a merge you have the following options:

• Use target branch version When a conflict occurs it will use the version of the entity that exists in the target branch. The version in the destination branch will be overwritten.
• Use destination branch version When a conflict occurs it will use the version of the entity that exists in the destination branch. The version in the target branch will be ignored.
• Advanced If the workspace has a remote reprository you can use a Git client or IDE to perform a manual conflict resolution.