Joining work areas
Using two work areas is useful when you want to work completely
separate from the live site and have even better control over all
changes on the site before launching it onto the world wide web. When
the site is ready to be launched all the data must be transferred to
the live site. This is done by using the Join button under
the Files tab.
By joining two work areas you merge the two versions of the
same file or directory from each work area with each other. You
cannot join files that have copies in your edit area, they must be
committed first.
Solving problems
The wizard begins by asking you to choose which work area to join your
focused file or directory with. By clicking on Next the
wizard searches for conflicts in those files. The different types of
conflicts and differences you may encounter are described below:
Conflicts
- Different content types
-
The content types in the files
are different. This conflict must be solved before any of the other
conflicts can be handled, because the methods used for solving
conflicts depend on the content type of the file. When a content type
conflict is resolved a new conflict might arise that is due to
something else.
- Unresolved conflicts
-
The same part is changed in both
files.
Differences
- Conflict-free differences
-
For instance:
- New data is added.
- Old data is removed.
- Old data is replaced by new data.
- Doesn't exist in work area
-
File exists in one work
area but not in the other.
Status
- No differences
-
Both files are identical.
- Resolved conflicts
-
All conflicts are solved.
Actions
- Add to work area
-
Select to add the file or
directory to work area.
- Remove from work area
-
Select to remove the
file or directory from work area.
If the wizard finds several files with conflicts, each has to be
resolved before continuing to the final step in the wizard. To resolve
a conflict, click on the arrow to the left of the file name.
Joining several files
The image above shows examples of different problems that may occur
when joining several files from the two different work areas Main
and Test".
Navigation help
To help the user navigate the wizard, words and different colors have
been used to represent different aspects:
- Red
-
Represents a conflict. It is found in the text, to
highlight a conflict and to the left in the wizard.
- Green
-
Represents the repository of your current work
area.
- Blue
-
Represents the repository of the work area you
have chosen to join with.
- Gray
-
Represents old settings or data. When defined as
old it is not considered to be a conflict, only a difference between
the files, the data has been changed in one file but not in the other.
- Old
-
The word Old is set beside an unselected
radio button. It is always represented by gray color.
- Del
-
The word Del is set beside an unselected
radio button. Del implies that the data only exists in one
file.
- Radio buttons
-
A preselected radio button implies that
this is the probable choice a user will make. Select the radio button
in front of data you want to keep and the Del button in front
of data you want to remove. Data with only an unselected radio button
and no Del button in front will be deleted.
By selecting radio buttons the conflicts will be resolved and data
removed or added to the work area. The handling of conflicts and
differences between files is very similar to the update procedure. The
update page contains a few examples.
After solving
To complete the join operation, all conflicts must be resolved in the
join wizard. When this is done, click on Next to enter the
final step in the wizard. Enter a log/commit message to complete the
operation, then click on Ok to finish the operation.
Before selecting Ok to finish the operation it is very
important that you are sure of what you are doing, and that all
choices in the wizard have been made correctly. After all, joining
work areas is an important operation and it is hard to undo
the operation, especially if you have joined several files. To undo a
join operation you have to manually revert each file or delete the
unwanted files or directories. To revert a file, focus on it and
select the Log button under the Files tab.
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