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Lines not to cross when developing in a secondary branch

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    Lines not to cross when developing in a secondary branch

    I was wondering if someone would give me the rundown on what I can and can not do in a development branch so I don't affect the live store.

    I changed category hierarchy in a dev branch and killed the category tree in the primary branch, so now I'm kind of paranoid about where the line is between primary and dev branches.

    I'm guessing that the only safe changes when developing on a dev branch are template and readytheme item changes, right?

    Unsafe changes would include parent/child category structure, module settings, and what else?

    I love the idea of dev branches, just want to make sure I don't make any more mistakes.
    M.A.D.* since 1997

    http://www.scotsscripts.com

    *miva application developers

    #2
    One point of interest that I had a problem with...
    After creating a branch I installed colossus and it unknowingly screwed up the google analytics code of the primary store.
    Mark Hood
    Vermont Gear

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      #3
      Yeah that Google Analytics thing is a bug which should be addressed in 10.00.03 coming out soon.

      All the product data and category data are global. So it applies to all branches. If you delete a category or add a category it impacts all branches. Branches are specifically designed to only be the User Interface. This includes Page Templates, CSS, JavaScript and Managed Properties (new in 10) - ReadyTheme Components, Product/Category Header & Footers, Category Tree & Buttons.

      So in regards to navigation you should be able to safely add/modify navigation sets and it will only impact the current branch. But because theme components must exist on all branches and are inactive on the branches they are not displayed on, deleting a navigation set will remove it from all branches. We're adding a warning in the next update as well.

      You can create new branches and apply frameworks to them, however the big things to watch out for here is Frameworks intentionally create test/fake category data and since categories are global it can impact the live site, so you want to be careful with that.



      Brennan Heyde
      VP Product
      Miva, Inc.
      [email protected]
      https://www.miva.com

      Comment


        #4
        Yes, underline that in red: If you activate a framework in a branch, the temp categories it creates (category one, category 2, etc) WILL mess up the live store if the category tree is displaying everything or there are other various conditions where they don't expect more categories to appear.

        Brennan- it could be useful to have some sort of option when applying a framework to tell it whether or not it should create the temporary categories and other possible temporary data (whatever it might be) during the process.

        I'm working on an old cssui store that's using toolkit for everything and simply applying shadows to a dev branch really messed up the live store due to the weird way they are using toolkit and grabbing categories.
        M.A.D.* since 1997

        http://www.scotsscripts.com

        *miva application developers

        Comment


          #5
          It would be nice to have a warning list, just a list, of items to watch out for. The docs are great, but a simple numbered list is even better just so people are aware of the ways their live store can be affected by a branch. At least for now since the feature is so new.
          M.A.D.* since 1997

          http://www.scotsscripts.com

          *miva application developers

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