Take Control of Your Workspaces: Introducing Manual Merge

Collaboration is vital in orchestration and automation. The Merge feature automatically checks for conflicts during deployment, preventing overwrites and ensuring data integrity. 

​We have enhanced Merge capabilities with the Manual Merge feature, which allows you to trigger a workspace synchronization on demand to align local changes with the database when it suits your workflow, giving you more control.

Using Manual Merge: A Quick Guide
​Whenever you want to pull the latest updates from the server into your current workspace, simply click the new Merge option from the Deploy button.

Once triggered, the system analyzes your workspace against what has been saved on the database. Here are the two main outcomes you will encounter:
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Scenario 1: Direct Updates (Automerge)
If colleagues worked on non-overlapping item definitions, the system detects no change or non-conflicting changes, and the latest definitions are automatically merged when selecting the Manual Merge option.

Scenario 2: Resolving Conflicts
If you and a colleague modify the same item definition properties, or if structural changes (like deleted tasks) occur, the system pauses for your input.

A clear tree structure highlights discrepancies. Review conflicts navigating the tree view to select the version to keep, preventing critical logic loss. 

​You can simplify the merge process by either accepting all incoming changes or discarding them completely, using the buttons located right above the tree view.

Alternatively, you have two options for resolving specific conflicts: click on them directly within the tree view, or use the "Select all" button to choose all conflicting items.

How It Works: Intelligent Conflict Resolution
This feature uses the same Merge logic to ensure accuracy. It performs a three-way comparison to understand the full context of your changes.
To do this, the system tracks a "base definition"—a snapshot of what the item looked like when you first started working on it—and by comparing it against both your current workspace and the latest version on the server, the system can accurately identify how the item has changed.
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Here is how the system handles different scenarios:

• Automerge: The system recognizes as non-conflicts all those non-overlapping changes made by different users, and “automerges” those with no user interaction.
• Conflict Detection: If two users modify the same property, the system flags a conflict and presents a side-by-side comparison to choose the value to keep.
• Structural Changes: The feature detects added or deleted sub-items even if you did not modify a deleted sub-item, the system alerts you to ensure awareness of the deletion before proceeding.

Why "Manual" Merge Matters
While the system performs a check during deployment, the Manual Merge option puts the control in your hands. You no longer have to wait until the final deployment step to find out if your changes are compatible with the team's work. You can perform a manual merge at any time to pull in the latest updates, resolve conflicts early, and ensure your workspace is perfectly aligned with the production model.
For these reasons the Manual Merge feature represents a significant step forward in how teams collaborate on orchestration logic. By enabling you to handle conflicts granularly and visually, we are reducing the risk of errors and overwritten work.

Key Benefits:

• Confidence: Deploy with the certainty that your changes are compatible with the latest model versions.
• Control: Decide exactly when to sync your workspace rather than being forced to do so only at deployment.
• Clarity: The intuitive tree structure clearly highlights where conflicts exist, whether they are property changes or structural deletions

This feature streamlines your development process, making workspace management safer and more efficient.

Note: This feature relies on saving specific version data within the workspace. Therefore, it is available for workspaces created starting from UnO 2.1.4 and HWA/IWA 10.2.7.

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Lucrezia Lucia Lenci, Software Engineer
A member of the HCL Software team since 2021, Lucrezia is a Front-end Developer for the UnO WebUI Team. Outside of the IDE, she likes to spend hours watching anime, reading books and mangas, playing (or "backseat gaming" while her boyfriend plays) videogames, as well as spending time with her two beautiful cats Dakota and Orenji Jin (better known to friends as Jiji).
Because she apparently didn’t have enough textbooks the first time around, she is currently pursuing a second Bachelor’s degree in Biology (yes, she’s a freshman all over again!)

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