Merging Your Code

Meta

Introduction

If you were a user of our previous merge tool, you will notice that this version is completely different. In order to accommodate networks with significantly greater customization and bigger, better releases we’ve had to completely change the way merging your network works. Instead of attempting to use a web application to notify you of your line-by-line differences, we’re now using a Java Applet to simplify the three way merge between your old standard code, the new standard code, and your customizations into a much simpler two way merge between the new standard code and your modifications. You can then complete this two way merge with your favorite merge tool.

To merge your code follow these steps:

1. Using WebDAV, copy all of the files for your social network to a folder on your local hard disk. This will ensure a fast and easy merge.
2. Access the merge tool by going to http://developer.ning.com/mergeTool.php
3. If prompted to, accept the Java Applet
4. Select the local source directory of the source code for your social network. (Do not select the WebDAV share of your source code.) Click on the ‘Start Merge’ button to begin your merge.
   
5. The merge tool will now identify your original code version, download the appropriate packages, and conduct a file level merge. This may take several minutes. Please wait.
   
6. Note the list of files that conflict. These files both have at least one change made both by you and by Ning as part of our updates. These changes may be as small as an added space but you must still reconcile them.
   
7. There is a new folder created next to your source folder on your local disk. Within this folder you’ll find two subfolders. The first is called ning. This contains all of the files that have no conflicts as well as a copy of Ning’s latest version of the conflicting files. The second directory, called you, contains the same conflict free files as well as the latest copy of the conflicting files from your copy of the source code.
   
8. Use your favorite diff tool to merge the changes between these files. If you’re using Windows you may want to try WinMerge. If you’re on Mac you may want to try FileMerge, which is part of the OS X Developer Tools.
9. As you merge the files you can click on the refresh button to see the list of conflicting files shrink. Once you’ve eliminated all of the conflicts you will see green a ‘No Conflicts!’ message where you previously saw conflicting files listed.
   
10. Once all of your conflicts are resolved, simply upload your merged source code by dragging it into the WebDAV share to replace the existing files for your social network.