Forks and Merge Requests

Feature Requests
#1

For collaborating on an app, it would be great to have the ability to create a fork and submit merge requests for review.

I currently use gitlab or github for this and it’s a painful process.

7 Likes
#2

Update: this is far less painful now and I no longer consider this request necessary

#3

Far less painful now in GitHub?

I’m starting my first collaboration project and it looks like all I can do with collaboration in anvil (on the business plan) is share the same repo in either read only or full edit mode. Not exactly fun for those used to forking and pull/merge requests.

#4

Yes, less painful via github. Some of the things that used to cause problems have been fixed.

#5

Just a curiosity: what is the advantage of involving github?

I have all my apps cloned to my pc. Sometimes I work on a branch online, sometimes on my pc, then push and merge to prod online, sometimes I merge prod offline and push it.

I understand that adding github introduces more moving parts, more complexity, more points of failure. But I don’t understand what advantages brings.

#6

Collaboration. If I’m working with somebody else, it adds several capabilities that a single developer doesn’t need - most importantly, code review (via pull requests).

3 Likes
#7

I think there’s still value in this feature for those who want to collaborate and develop using the Anvil IDE. Either this or some more granular collaboration permissions like protecting the master branch or app settings. I’d pay for the business plan for that.

Giving a new developer full edit access to my production environment just so they can commit some code isn’t something I’m comfortable doing.

#8

I absolutely agree.

The first thing I did after trying the new git UI, was loving the freedom it gives you, compared to the old one.

The second thing I did was asking for read-only branches.

Adding pull requests, forking and other advanced capabilities would help teams and advanced users comfortable with complex workflows. Allowing to make a branch read-only would be a minuscule improvement that would help everybody, including beginners.

2 Likes