we are developing an application with flex builder and all our code + fla files are in the svn we wont now to work with branches and i what can be done about merging those file between branches or what shode be the working procedure when do so ??
thanks
FLA are not text files (it's a Binary file), and for that we will not be able to use MERGE (neither DIFF) in a Subversion Server.
The best solution is to use the Adobe Version Cue that will have everything you need.
Use the fla files as any other binary file - you will have to overwrite from the latest version or produce a merge manually. There is no other choice when using subversion.
This is what I would do:
Lock the fla files in the branch so that noone overwrites them, this way you don't need to try to compare two fla files that each have been changed. (Explain this to the team, locking in SVN can undone, it's more a reminder than an absolute stop) Instead of changing the fla files add new ones with the replacement functionality, add comments during commit on how these changes could be included in the main fla files.
Split the fla files into multiple smaller ones so you can isolate the changes more easily.
Make sure that commits of fla files are always accompanied by a good commit message that describes what was changed.
Move as much as possible out of the fla's -- images can be embedded using code, and of course no source code should be in the fla.
Make sure everyone on the team knows about the issues with subversion and binary files.
It's not perfect, but this will keep it somewhat manageable.
I have to agree with Simon - careful comments and manual merges are the only way to keep it with the rest of your SVN or CVS files. Version Cue is not adequate.
My understanding is that Version Cue is a fully featured version control that does file locking that is well suited for media files (storing only changes to files for more efficient storage, ranking, lots of thumbnails, etc...). I saw nothing in the docs about merging versions (just that the files are different). In fact, the docs I saw (http://www.scribd.com/doc/7868549/Using-Adobe-Bridge-and-Adobe-Version-Cue-CS4) say that you can discard your edits or the other user's edits, which means no merge. The only tiny piece that is a little better than nothing is that you can open previous versions directly in Flash to do the manual merge.
Concurrent Working Fail.