Development Branch
When dealing with significant structural updates, you might prefer not to expose partial changes to end users until a project is complete. To address this, we’ve introduced the Development Branch.
The primary goal is to keep changes hidden from end users until your work is finished. The branch serves as a copy of the original database, sharing the same underlying data. You can make (almost) any changes within the branch. Once your work is complete, you have the option to promote these changes to the original database. If you choose not to promote the changes, the development branch can be deleted.
Please note that TeamDesk does not combine changes. You can either accept all changes from the development branch, overwriting changes in the original database, or you can maintain the original database unchanged. A single development branch can be linked to a database at any given time. If you need to create a new development branch, you must either delete or promote the existing one.
Create Development Branch
To enable the Development Branch, navigate to Setup > Database > Create development branch.
The development branch is a separate snapshot of database settings that shares data with the current database. You can make and test setup changes in the branch and then promote it to the production database in one click when ready.
When creating a development branch, the system performs the following steps:
- Creates a snapshot of database settings that shares data with the current database.
- Removes roles from all users within the development branch.
- Disables all email reminders, view subscriptions, periodic, and time-dependent triggers in the development branch.
When promoting changes to the production database, user roles will be restored and triggers re-enabled.
If the Disable all Users option is selected in the Add users field, only you will have access to the development branch and be able to promote it.
To add users to the development branch, select the Enable selected user(s) option and choose the users. The selected users will be able to make changes and promote the branch.
Click the Create Development Branch button to initialize the development branch.
When the DEV red banner is displayed next to the database name, it indicates that you are working within the Development Branch.
As previously mentioned, the branch and the original database share the same underlying data. The primary advantage is that you can implement changes within the branch while other users continue working in the original database. You can make adjustments within the development branch for as long as needed. Once your work is completed, you can promote the changes to the original database. However, please note that TeamDesk does not combine changes. You can either accept all changes from the development branch, overwriting changes in the original database, or you can maintain the original database without modifications.
Promote Development Branch
To promote changes, navigate to Setup > Database > Promote development branch link.
Please be aware that data sharing entails certain restrictions. You won’t be able to modify the existing text column width, uniqueness, or requiredness of columns in shared tables (though these restrictions won’t apply to new tables) in both production and development branch databases. The system will also disable periodic and time-dependent triggers and notifications on shared tables within a development branch and re-enable them when changes are promoted.
Clicking the Promote Development Branch button replaces the original database with the development branch. Consequently, all changes are implemented, and all database users will operate within this updated database.
Delete Development Branch
If you choose not to promote the changes, you can simply delete the Development Branch database by selecting the Database tab and clicking the Delete Database link from the setup menu. Doing so will leave the original database unchanged.