Android Question [B4X] Problems in github with multiple contributors

[Blueforcer]

We have some problems if we using github for a B4XPages project.

Especially when several people are working on it.
For single private projects on which only I work I have no problems.

If one worker adds a new module, it reanges all indices in the .b4a file. wich makes it very hard to merge and even harder if you merge multiple branches where some branches adds and others deletes or move modules.
Someone always need to add the module again manually into the right group.

Is there anything wrong with our setup?

 

[Blueforcer]

Is there really no one working on a project with multiple people via github?

 

[FrostCodes]

While I don't use github for multi users, I would advice that you avoid relative module paths and copy all modules locally to the project folder.

This makes sure everyone has the right file setup and the same files that are up to date.

 

[Sandman]

There is nothing wrong with your setup. I think this is because of design decisions from several years before tools like git became popular. We will probably get more and more posts like this over time, I know I have posted a couple of them. I also remember that Erel did some updates recently (last two years?) which helped remove some unneeded changes to files.

It's probably not overly complicated to solve the actual problem, but it would also break backward compatibility, something I know Erel works hard to avoid.

Your best bet at this time is probably to post a wish for it.

 

[DonManfred]

On the MASTER of the Github should merge submodules.
Only the single Modules itself should be in a github so the master can import the repo if he wants to do that.
The B4J/B4A files are problematic i guess..

 

[Blueforcer]

While I don't use github for multi users, I would advice that you avoid relative module paths and copy all modules locally to the project folder.

This makes sure everyone has the right file setup and the same files that are up to date.

this wont work for B4X projects, but you still have the same problem if everything is in the root folder.
the main problem is how the "meta" data is saved inside the actual project file. There are always parts wich github cannot merge automatically, even it was a simple task. So we always need to fix the merge manually, wich costs a lot of time.

Of course we always use branches, and if its working we merge into the main repo.
Were working with Visual Studio in the past without any problems. (Besides it already contains a full git integration and Teambrowser)

I will open a post in the Wish section. I think for the future a good git compatibility is very important since the community is growing and growing.
Also with bigger companys.
In our company we now working on a heavy and big project in B4A. It already contains over 200 classes and it will grow further.
But we working with 5 People on it on different branches at the same time.