protecting files with multiple authors in Git

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lisalys
Jr. Propeller Head
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2016 3:05 pm

protecting files with multiple authors in Git

Post by lisalys »

Hi all,

I just got Git up and running this week. We will be using Git without binding to Flare, and I'm wondering what's the best way to keep things safe.

Background: J and I recently started at a company where we replaced the previous writers. We are each responsible for one product line, and the flare projects are currently separate. J's project has a very messy SVN implementation bound to Flare, and mine wasn't actually backed up. :shock: We decided to get my stuff in Git, then add a clean version of J's project. I created/linked a global project with our shared styles & pages, and got my project into Git and tested the heck out of it. I use the Git command line mostly, but I have SourceTree as well.

Sometime soon we will get J's project in Git linked to the same global project. At this point with just the two of us, we know better than to do anything with the other project without permission. But what do you do when there's more people or you're both working on the same project at the same time? If Git doesn't do checkouts, how do you protect the information? Somebody mentioned branching and merging, but doesn't that get messy? We were already planning on using branching to segregate different release versions.

I appreciate any advice!

thanks,
- lisa
LeslieT
Propeller Head
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:32 am

Re: protecting files with multiple authors in Git

Post by LeslieT »

Hi Lisa,

Basically, you would use the same mechanisms that the developers use to protect the files in their code base.

For the most part, writers should probably work in their own branch and then merge to Master when things need to be combined. Master is usually a "protected" branch. If you are using a Github or Bitbucket hosting service, you can set permissions so that no one can merge to master without a "pull request" and a review by a peer or a designated administrator. (Both Github and Bitbucket have a really good interface to review file changes and provide feedback for questionable items; however, you need to be comfortable looking at your Flare files as text.) After one branch is approved to merge and the master is updated, other branches should merge down to absorb those approved changes. If needed, they can resolve any conflicts within their own branches.

This paradigm is hard for some writers, but gone are the days of "this is my guide" --- it is all content and it should work together no matter who needs to make a change. This is where guidelines for content development becomes a necessity. It is better to start that now when there are two of you than to wait until chaos ensues with a larger team. Changes to shared template files should always be tested across projects before they are pushed for update across the team. Just as developers do, it is crucial to run builds of all outputs and check the logs for warnings and errors before committing and pushing changes.

I hope this helps :flare:

Leslie T.

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Leslie T.

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Nita Beck
Senior Propellus Maximus
Posts: 3667
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:57 am
Location: Pittsford, NY

Re: protecting files with multiple authors in Git

Post by Nita Beck »

My team and I use Git (hosted on BitBucket) quite happily for projects that we've bound with Flare and for which we commit, revert, push, pull, and sync directly in Flare. Can't speak to the merits of branching and merging as Leslie describes. We all pull from and push to the trunk and have had no mishaps. Just saying that the use of Git doesn't necessarily dictate anything complex; the complexity should be driven by one's needs (hence Leslie's different usage from my team's).
Nita
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RETIRED, but still fond of all the Flare friends I've made. See you around now and then!
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