We branch for each new feature that is developed on a web product, so in TFS 2010 the folder structure looks something like this…
$/Product/Mainline/…
$/Product/Branches/…
$/Product/Releases/…
$/Product/Merged Branches/…
Mainline folder only ever has the 1 solution under it that is the ‘trunk’.
Branches contains branches of the mainline that are features in development.
Merged branches contained branches that have been previously merged back into the mainline.
Releases contains exactly that – releases. Branches that were merged into the mainline and then released.
Once a branch reaches the end of its life i like to archive them in the ‘merged branches’ folder, however the ‘Move’ option never seems to be available, its always greyed out.
Coming from Vault this is odd behaviour, i could always move any folder in vault, regardless of whether i had it locally or not.
Also, sometimes the situation does arise where we stop work on a branch if the feature has been cancelled/put on hold by a customer. Obviously the lifespan of a branch should be as short as possible, but this does happen and being able to move branches still seems necessary.
I get the feeling im missing something regarding workspaces? or simply you’re not meant to move branches, just delete them once they have been merged into the mainline.
Anyone experienced this? or have advice on better practice?
Is this TFS 2010? If so, delete those branches. If not, upgrade and then delete those branches. You don’t lose history and in 2010 you can see the branch history from the mainline (or visualization) even after the branch is deleted. Delete them… soon.