Promoting branches

Note: Promoting merges changes from the child branch up to the parent branch.

Promoting is the process of updating an ancestor branch with changes made in the selected branch. When you finish making changes to source files, and are ready to share your changes, promote the branch. This ensures the ancestor branch includes the most current files and other users have access to your changes.

For example, Michelle is working in her private, workspace branch. She finishes developing the new features assigned to her and completes informal testing. She knows the QA Manager, Jack, wants to start formal testing. She promotes her branch. Jack then rebases her changes into the QA Build branch so he can start the testing process.

You can promote changes to any ancestor branch. For example, Pat finishes making bug fixes in the Version 1.5 branch. This branch was created from Version 1 but he does not want to promote changes to Version 1. Instead, Pat promotes to WysiApp, which is the parent branch for Version 1 and the grandparent branch for Version 1.5. When the team begins development on Version 2, the branch is created from WysiApp. This ensures Pat’s Version 1.5 bug fixes are included in the Version 2 code.

  1. Select the branch you want to promote. Choose Branch > Promote Branch.
  2. The Promote Branch dialog box opens.

  3. The Branch field is read-only.
  4. Select an Ancestor to promote to from the menu.
  5. You can promote changes to any ancestor branch.

  6. Enter optional comments about the reason for promoting the branch.
  7. Select Skip server auto-merge to promote all files, overwriting any changes in the ancestor branch.
  8. Optionally click Preview to view more information about the files being promoted.
  9. For more information, see Promote preview.

  10. Click OK to promote changes.
  11. The Promote Status dialog box opens. You can view the files that were promoted, files that were not promoted, and files with conflicts. You can also access commands to help resolve conflicts and successfully promote files.

  12. Click Close to close the Promote Status dialog box.