Git merge
Designer uses branches to allow multiple users to work separately and simultaneously within the same project.
After committing and pushing your changes to the remote branch, you can use Merge to integrate changes from that remote branch to a local copy of another branch. This action combines the changes from two branches and creates a new unified version of the code. Read Git overview for more details of how Designer manages the work of multiple users with Git features.
Merge changes from another branch
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Remote branch to merge from (theirs) | A drop-down list that displays all branches in your project. This is the remote branch you want to merge your changes from, also known as the source branch. The latest commit on the selected source branch is also displayed. |
| Local copy of this branch (ours) | This is your current branch, also known as the target branch where you want the changes from a remote branch to be merged into. You can't edit this field. |
| Merge commit message | A text field that is autopopulated by a default merge commit message, which is editable. |
How to merge two branches
Note
It's good Git practice to ensure your branch is up-to-date with the latest changes before making any changes to your branch, committing, and merging. To do this, use the Pull remote changes action.
When merging, note that the changes from the remote branch designated as "theirs", are being merged into the local copy of your current branch, designated as "ours". This means you can validate the changes in your local branch before pushing it up to the remote repository.
To merge the work you have done on one branch to a different branch:
- Commit the changes you have made while you are on your current branch.
- Push your local commit to the remote repository.
- Switch to the branch you want to merge changes into, i.e. your target branch.
- Click Merge from the branch menu on the project bar.
- The Merge changes from another branch dialog shows the remote branch you are merging from ("theirs") and the current branch you are merging into ("ours").
- Select the remote branch you want to merge from. The Remote branch to merge from drop-down will display every branch in the current project.
- Enter a Merge commit message. You can leave the default message, or replace it with one that has more detail about your changes, but you can't leave the field blank.
- If there are no merge conflicts detected, click Merge. Otherwise, see How to resolve merge conflicts, below.
- Once you click Merge, you should see the remote changes integrated into your current branch.
How to resolve merge conflicts
A merge conflict occurs when you try to perform a merge of two branches that each contain changes to pipelines of the same name.
Since a branch can't have two pipelines of the same name, when you merge the branches, only one of the pipelines can be kept. The Merge changes from another branch dialog will warn you when there is a merge conflict, and require you to resolve the conflict before proceeding.
The Merge changes from another branch dialog will list every pipeline that exists in both branches that contain conflicts. For each listed pipeline, choose which version you want to keep: "ours" (the one in your current branch) or "theirs" (the one in the remote branch you are merging from). Once you have selected the versions to keep for each conflicted pipeline, you can proceed with the merge.