We want to make your Git development process easier in Bitbucket Cloud and so we’re excited to announce new support for your team’s branching workflow.
We heard that branches being named inconsistently was a common problem which resulted in a slower workflow and general confusion. Even when you’ve decided on a naming scheme, there is repeated effort naming branches, and errors can easily slip in.
With the new Branching model it’s easier to make consistent naming decisions when creating branches.
When enabled, the default branch type names are set to Bugfix, Feature, Hotfix, and Release. These can be individually turned off, or edited, to match your naming convention.
If you occasionally need to create a branch with a different prefix, you can use the Other option, in the create branch screen.
You can minimize errors and enforce team rules by using this Branching model and Branch Permissions, together. By combining them, you can make sure all branches of a certain type can only be merged by nominated team members.
It gets even better when you’ve got Jira and Bitbucket connected. When you create a branch from Jira Software, you can take advantage of smart mapping which automatically selects the relevant branch type depending on the Jira issue type, for bugfix/ and story feature/
We’ve made this feature available for all Bitbucket repositories. We don’t want to surprise your team working on existing repositories, so you’ll need to enable it to enjoy the benefits. However, new repositories will have the feature enabled by default (this can be changed in repository settings).
Many of you use Gitflow, and take advantage of feature branching for efficient continuous delivery. This update supports consistency for your naming conventions whether you are creating branches via Sourcetree, Jira Software or Bitbucket.
This is the first step in a set of features to help your teams work with branches more easily, so we’d love to hear from you your feedback!
Find out more about the new branching model in Bitbucket Cloud.