mtalexan's avatar
mtalexan
Senior Member
7 years ago
Status:
New Idea

Manually specified file version selector names when uploaded from client via Git

Problem:

I upload changes as a commit range in git between a reference branch (master) and my current HEAD.  I then later need to rebase my current HEAD against an updated reference branch (master) and re-upload the changes.  It cannot be differentiated in the file version selector during a review which versions of the file are reference branch (master) and which are HEAD versions.

Generically, client tool uploaded differences from git commit ranges automatically label all versions of files as seen in file version selector drop down, with check-in time and non-human readable git object hash (not commit hash) only.  Rebasing changes against the latest version of the reference branch, or merging the latest version of the reference branch into the changes, between a first and second upload to a review causes the "before" version from the reference branch to be different during the second uploaded of files and have a newer timestamp than the "after" version of the file from the first upload.  The "before" versions therefore can't be differentiated from the "after" versions in the drop down.

 

Solution:

Add optional command line argument for "addgitdiffs" that will allow user specified names to be added to the before and after versions of all files included in the commit range. Conflicting names are automatically appended with standard "(1)", "(2)", etc for a given file based on upload order.

 

For example, if I have changes on a "work" branch that originally forked from "master" branch and changed fileA and fileB, my upload command would be

ccollab addgitdiffs --before-name="master" --after-name="work" ask master...work

which would upload all changes made on the work branch since it split from master by uploading fileA and fileB from the commit on the master branch right before the work branch split, and fileA and fileB from the head of the work branch (currently).  The extra arguments would add labeling for all the files from master as "master" and those coming from the work branch as "work" (new).

When my review continues for a while and I need to rebase my work branch against the since-updated master branch I'll need to re-upload my changes relative to the new reference point on the master branch.  Running the same command as before accomplishes that but causes a problem.

When the differences in fileA are viewed without this feature, what's seen in the file version selector drop down is (larger numbers with the timestamps indicate newer timestamps):

"<git object hash> <commit timestamp 1>" <---- from master branch in first upload

"<git object hash> <commit timestamp 2>" <---- from work branch in first upload

"<git object hash> <commit timestamp 3>" <---- from master branch in second upload

"<git object hash> <commit timestamp 4>" <---- from work branch in second upload

 

With the recommended feature this list becomes much more clear:

"master    <git object hash> <commit timestamp 1>" <---- from master branch in first upload

"work      <git object hash> <commit timestamp 2>" <---- from work branch in first upload

"master(1) <git object hash> <commit timestamp 3>" <---- from master branch in second upload

"work(1)   <git object hash> <commit timestamp 4>" <---- from work branch in second upload

 

 

No CommentsBe the first to comment