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I'm looking for advice on the development process of a new feature that will not be part of the next release.

We have releases in May and December. Currently our team is working on a large feature that will not go into the May release but the December release. We are about to start work on it and I'm wondering what is the best approach in terms of branching and whether we should be developing this feature on trunk.

Surely if its not part of the next release we should be creating a branch and merging the changes after the May release?

Decrypter
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  • is it possible to develop on trunk and release in the May package, but leave it dormant in whatever state it is come May? – Mike Hogan Feb 21 '13 at 00:08
  • I would have thought having it branched would allow the feature to be tested and previewed before merging to Development? – Decrypter Feb 21 '13 at 00:15
  • You could use a Feature Toggle - http://martinfowler.com/bliki/FeatureToggle.html – Mike Hogan Feb 21 '13 at 00:16
  • Its quite a large feature and its all java based. Feature Toggle seems suited to smaller changes? – Decrypter Feb 21 '13 at 00:22
  • It being Java based should not matter. Its up to you to decide how large the feature is and whether it can be toggled. I'd move heaven and earth to avoid a 6 month branch though. Without knowing your case I can't say more. – Mike Hogan Feb 21 '13 at 00:24

3 Answers3

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Yes, you should and must separate development in own branch. Just don't forget sync this branch with trunk regularly to avoid merge-hell later (once per trunk-commit ideally or per day - frequency depends in general on the intensity of revisions of trunk and may differ from place to place).

"Feature Toggle" is ancient as mammoth's bullshit technique for pre-SCM ages, now it can make (and really make) life only harder and code less manageable: branching does not contradict CI, and CI is not a dogma, but a tool

Lazy Badger
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Usually people differentiate two types of branches in SVN: release branches and feature branches.

Release branches are defined by needs and schedules of a particular release. Feature branches are defined by development process of a particular feature.

So if you are going to develop a single feature, create a branch for it and merge to trunk when the feature is completed, not when some release is done.

If you want to develop some features, but not include them in some particular release, create a branch for that release and merge there only things which are in scope of that release.

maxim1000
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Yes, I believe that is the best option. At least that's how we would do it. Create a new branch.

petko_stankoski
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