Merging content from various branches

shweta_komal

Hi,

We have a setup, where SitePublisher is implemented in 3 branches of TeamSite; all of these branches are identical (same files, same directory structure inside WorkArea) and have only 1 workarea in each (restriction imposed by SitePublisher). We have 3 different teams working on each of these 3 branches.

Every 1-2 months, we would need to merge the content of these 3 branches into one. Please suggest the best merging strategy for the same.

Thanks in advance,
Shweta Komal.

Sailesh

When you say "merge" what do you mean? Are you referring to actual content of each of your .pages? or files?

Where do you deploy this content?

Rick Poulin

Whoever came up with the three branches idea should have come up with your answer before users actually started using the system. If that person is no longer around, you're in a world of pain.

Your question is about 15% technical problem and 85% business problem. There's so many business rules hidden behind your question that I think it's improbable that anybody here will be able to answer it. You need someone who knows TeamSite backwards and forwards AND understands all of your business requirements before you can even design a solution, let alone implement it.

If you thought you could just merge three branches into one, well.. Which branch takes precedence in conflicts? Which branch contains the "original" copy that determines whether another branch applied a change? Is the decision purely time-based? Where are you storing the merged copy? Where do the three branches deploy to, and how does that affect your merged copy? Are your users aware that there are cases that cannot be merged without user intervention? etc..

claudiag

Agree with Rick fully on this one - this is a business problem, not a technical one.

I have seen it done in the past and it ended up poorly even with all the business logic mapped out - sub branches that merged up into a parent branch. I believe there was a migration script of some sort (this was a good 7 or 8 years ago).

What's the logic behind the three separate copies of the same content? Is it that they're frustrated with locks? They don't trust the teams to work in one workarea together?

Take this back to whoever needs this functionality and get answers to all these questions, along with Rick's, and then you'll be able to propose alternatives that won't end up in a cluster.