#PreviewBlogs 2019.2 - File Change Management (Workflow File Diff). We need your voice!
Please provide your valuable feedback about this feature! Our product team is hungry to build upon the basic functionalities so feed them your ideas
New features are awesome! This is why we wanted to get your thoughts on our new Workflow File Diff introduced in the latest version 2019.2. It allows you to see the changes made to the file on SVN or TFS before you check it back in to the repository.
How it works and why would you need it?
Imagine you need to update some annotations in the Main.xaml file from your project. You check it out from the repository and then you edit it. When it is done, you want to save and check-in the file and go for a coffee
You cannot do it yet though - you have to first carefully re-check if everything is correct to make sure that you will not introduce breaking changes.
This is where the new features comes into play!
Before checking in your file, choose this magical option first called Show changes…:
You can now see an overview of all the changes made to the file:
From here, you can either decide to check-in the file if everything is correct, make further edits to fix anything your cat broke by walking across the keyboard or undo the changes entirely.
The point is, you have saved yourself a headache by having a nice Workflow Diff experience
Naturally, this is not the only example of how useful this future can be!
See below for a few more:
-
it can display which packages have been added or removed from your project (project.json)
In this case, the package UiPath.Credentials.Activities was removed from the project -
it can showcase exact changes to the properties of any activity:
In this case, the SimulateType checkbox was selected -
it can display new variables and/or arguments that were created and/or modified in the workflow:
In this case, a new activity Get Secure Credentials was added together with two variables,username
if type String andpassword
of type SecureString
Workflow Diff window structure
An example comparison could look like that:
-
Basic controls will definitely come in handy when managing your longer workflows:
Previous - Navigates to the previous change in the compared files.
Next - Navigates to the next change in the compared files.
Collapse All - Collapses all nodes in the.xaml
files.
Expand All - Expands all nodes in the.xaml
files. -
The main panel displays the direct comparison of the two versions of the file.
On the left, you can see the remote file on the server
On the right, you can see your local, modified copy
It will include all elements added to your workflow -
The secondary panel displays properties of the currently selected element in the main panel.
It will include all changes within one particular element from your workflow -
To keep things simple, every change is color coded as follows:
For more information, you can also check our documentation of this feature available here.
Please provide your valuable feedback about this feature! Our product team is hungry to build upon the basic functionalities so feed them your ideas
A few things that they already have on their menu:
- ability to run the Workflow Diff on two files within your project at any time
- ability to easily merge your edits
(being able to edit and check-in modified workflows directly from the Workflow Diff window) - display Workflow Diff comparisons as a tab in Studio
Don’t be shy, click on below and tell us what you think!
As always, thank you for reading and happy automating!