DEV Community: Fred

GitLive's Tool Window Just Got a Major Upgrade in PhpStorm

Fred — Tue, 31 May 2022 08:53:54 +0000

With the new tool window, you can now see all work in progress across your entire team in a single view, it's like a branch-based version of github.com/pulls but updated in real-time directly inside PhpStorm 🤯

The tool window shows every branch ahead of the default branch for every repository in your organization, grouped by the author (the last commit to a branch determines the author).

You can expand a branch to see a list of the changed files and click on a file to open a diff compared to the default branch of the repository.

All this works completely offline but if you sign in, you'll unleash the full power of the tool window!

Sign in with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket or Azure DevOps (support for other services will be added soon) and you'll switch from offline to real-time mode.

Compare the screenshot above to the offline mode screenshot and you'll notice the following additions to the UI:

The online indicators on avatars, branches and files will show you which of your teammates are online, their current branch and the file they currently have open in their editor.
The modified indicator (*) will show you which branches and files contain changes that have not yet been committed or pushed to the remote. These changes are also visible in the diff opened by clicking on the file.
See the related issue for a branch along with the option to open the issue directly within your issue tracker once you've connected one.

Enhanced team filters

With the tool window now showing you every branch ahead of the default branch from all the repositories in your organization it can easily start to be a case of information overload.

So we’ve added 4 new filters in the tool window, in addition to the existing pushed/unpushed changes filters, to help you find the teammates, branches and changes you are interested in.

To open the team filters, click on the eye icon in the menu bar.

🔸 Pushed Changes. Turning off pushed changes will hide teammates, branches and files without any local, unpushed changes.
🔸 Unpushed Changes Turning off unpushed changes will hide teammates, branches and files without changes that have been pushed to the remote repository (marked with an asterisk).

^{👉 Both pushed and unpushed changes are on by default and you can turn off either but not both, unpushed changes are only available if you're signed in.}

🔸 Todo. This option will show the issues assigned to a teammate that are not yet associated with a branch.
🔸 In progress. This option shows issues associated with a branch and branches without an associated issue.

^{👉 In progress is on by default whilst todo is off and requires you to connect your issue tracker, you cannot turn both off.}

🔸 Stale. By default the teammates, branches and issues that have not been modified in 3 months are hidden, turn this on to show them.
🔸 Offline. Turning offline off will hide teammates who are currently offline and the branches of online teammates that they are not currently working on.

^{👉 Stale is off by default whilst offline is on, you can have either on or off. Note that turning on stale can result in a lot of results!}

That’s it for now, we would love to know what you think of these updates and how we can make GitLive better for you, so please reach out via the comments section below.

Don't have the GitLive plugin installed yet? You can find it here, and if want to learn more about the latest release check out this blog post.

Cherry-Pick Your Teammate's Changes Without Push 'n Pull-ing To Your Repo In VS Code

Fred — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 13:08:40 +0000

You asked your teammate for help with a piece of code and they showed you the solution in their editor. Now you need to fetch those changes. Usually, this would mean a series of tedious Git commands for both of you (not to mention that the changes will forever grace your git history), but no longer - GitLive allows you to cherry-pick your teammate's changes straight from their local files without having to push and pull to Git.

In VS Code, open up the team tab by clicking on the GitLive icon on the activity bar.

This will show a list of your teammates, if they are online (or away) and the issue they are currently working on. Click the arrow on the left-hand side of the teammate that helped you to see the repositories they have cloned, locate the one they made the changes to and click the arrow beside that too.

Here, you can see the list of files changed by your teammate on their branch compared to the main branch. Files with dots next to the name contain changes made locally by your teammate that have not yet been pushed to the remote repository.

Since we are only interested in their local changes, click the filter icon at the top of the team tab to filter to only the unpushed changes.

Now we can see the single file that contains the solution we want to copy! Clicking on it will open a diff of the changes so we can make sure it contains only the changes we need. Now all we need to do is click the cherry icon next to the file in the team tab to cherry-pick the changes. And voilà - no need for any git push- or git pull -ing!

You can also perform the cherry pick at the level above if you want to pick all changes from multiple files at once by clicking the cherry icon on the repository.

Don't have the GitLive extension installed yet? You can find it here, and if you want to learn more, check out this blog post or the GitLive docs.

How To Enable Real-Time Merge Conflict Detection in WebStorm

Fred — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 14:30:10 +0000

Ah, the dreaded resolve conflicts popup. You've finished crafting the perfect code, just a quick merge in of master (ahem, main) before you submit your PR, and then... 💥

If only there was an early warning system for merge conflicts so you could be better prepared or even avoid the conflicts in the first place I hear you say? Well if you are a WebStorm user today is your lucky day!

Firstly, you'll need to install and set up GitLive. Then if you right click the gutter on WebStorm, you will see the option to “Show Other's Changes”.

It will be disabled if the file open in the editor is not from git or there are no other changes to it from contributors working on other branches (aka you are safe from conflicts). If it's enabled there will be one or more change indicators in the gutter of the editor.

These will show you where your teammates have made changes compared to your version of the file and even update in real-time as you and your teammates are editing.

If you've made a conflicting change you will see the bright red conflict indicator. These conflicts can be uncommitted local changes you have not pushed yet or existing changes on your branch that conflict with your teammates’ changes.

Click your teammate’s icon in the gutter to see the diff between your version and theirs, the branch the offending changes are from, and the issue connected to that branch if there is one.

From this popup you can also cherry-pick your teammate’s change directly from their local version of the file. For simple conflicts this can be a quick way to resolve them as identical changes on different branches will merge cleanly.

Unfortunately, it's not always possible to resolve a conflict straight away but with the early warning, you'll be better prepared, avoiding any nasty surprises at merge time!

Check out this blog post or the GitLive docs if you want to learn more.

How to See Which Branch Your Teammate is on in Webstorm

Fred — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 12:44:29 +0000

“What branch are you on?” is often the first question you ask when a teammate says “The tests aren't passing” or “The build failed”. Here’s how you can get an answer to that question without even needing to ask.

In Webstorm, open up the Team Window by clicking GitLive on the bottom tool window bar.

This will show a list of your teammates, if they are online (or away) and the issue they are currently working on. Locate the teammate you are interested in and click the arrow on the left-hand side of their avatar.

Now you will see all the repositories they have cloned including the name of their current branch!

NOTE: If an issue has been connected to the branch you’ll see the issue name instead, if that's the case just hover your cursor over the issue name and a tooltip will appear showing you the branch name (and even the commit hash)

Don't have the GitLive extension installed yet? You can find it here and, if you need help setting it up, follow the instructions in GitLive docs.