About Merging Streams

You can use Dimensions CM to merge:

Changes across streams or their folders.
Changes from a baseline into a target stream.
Changes from requests owned by another stream into a target stream.

Merge is similar to Update and uses a work area to apply changes and process conflicts. This enables you to safely merge, build, and test before delivering the merge results to a target stream in a repository.

When you merge two objects, for example a stream with another stream, or a stream with a baseline, Dimensions CM looks for a common ancestor. This is a point in time where the streams or work areas diverged. This is typically referred to as a three-way merge. For example, assume you have two streams that were created from the same baseline. Modifications are performed in both streams by different developers and delivered to CM. You now merge stream 1 into stream 2. Dimensions CM looks at the baseline (the common ancestor), finds the modifications that were delivered to stream 1 after that point, and merges those changes in stream 2.

The merging process uses changesets to find the common ancestor. A changeset is a logical grouping of changes that is created automatically every time that you deliver changes to a stream or project in a repository. For details see Working with Changesets.

NOTE

Merging can be automatic unless an interactive (manual) merge is required or there are unresolved conflicts.
A merge operation can be only applied to the work area of a target stream. The source must be different to the target stream (another stream, a baseline, or a request).
An Update operation is only possible from the stream that is associated with a work area. For instance, you can use Update from Request to update a work area with request changes associated with a work area stream. Use the operation Merge from Request to apply request changes from a different stream.
Serena Pulse provides you with an intuitive visualization of changes throughout your development process. You can also open peer reviews in Serena Pulse. Peer reviews enable you to review and comment on the changes in your development projects, collaborate with team members, and get insight into the health of your changesets and streams. For details see Opening Peer Reviews and Build Results