Getting Started

Basic Concepts

Left Pane (1)

The left pane shows various views of the files on your local file system and also in the git database.

The buttons will:

• Toggle between flat view of files (no directories) and hierarchical view

• Refresh the view

• Select one of several view modes. These are the view modes for the left pane:

• Git status of all files in the current repository, that includes untracked (new) files

• Git status of all files, but not including the untracked (new) files

• Git view of its repo database; this view is not related to the actual local files you may have

• Local file view shows all files on your local file system

• Local files that are not part of the current repo or files that might need to be added

Files in each view can be sorted by extension or alphabetically.

Right Pane (2)

The right pane shows pending and submitted changelists (git index and log), branches or a list of repositories in the current workspace.

Pending Changelists

A changelist contains a list of files ready to be submitted. You can add and update files in a changelist by dragging them from the view pane and dropping them onto a changelist.

You can also create several changelists and move files between them by dragging them.

Context click with a right mouse button to see the list of available operations on a changelist, or click on the Changelist option on the main menu.

The files listed in the changelists are at the git index stage. You can submit batches of files separately since GitForce specifies files individually when committing and will treat each bundle as a separate list of files.

Submitted Changelists

This view shows the log of changes for the current repo based on a specific branch.

The toolbar buttons on the right side will:

• Refresh the view

• Set a filter to limit the list of changes based on certain constraints

• Reset a filter

• Select a branch to view

Double-click on a change to see its description and more options related to changed files.

From there you can further examine file differences, revision history etc.

Branches

Branches show local and remote branches. You can double-click on a branch to switch to it. Right-clicking on a branch will show you more options as will selecting Branches option from the main application menu.

Repositories

Repos list a set of git repositories available within the current workspace. The red arrow specifies a default repo which will be opened with this workspace, and the green arrow shows the current repo that the GitForce is using at the moment. Double-click on a repo to switch to it and make it current.

As usual, you can use the right mouse button to get the context menu or access all the options by selecting the Repository menu from the main application menu.

Status Window (3)

Status window displays status information and lists various commands that are being executed and the results of execution.

Toolbar

Toolbar contains shortcut buttons for various operations. All commands can be accessed through the main application menu as well, and many file operations may be performed through context menus (right-click) or by dragging and dropping. Simply try what feels natural in the terms of using an UI and if something does not work as you would expect, please post your suggestion in the forum.

File operations on the files listed in the left pane:

After one or more files are selected on the left pane, these shortcut buttons allow you to:

• Add a new file to the index

• Update modified file

• Update all files that are modified

• Revert a file

• Open a file for a delete

• Remove file from the file system

• Edit a file

Pull from and push to a remote repo:

The right pane displays several different things. To change the right pane display, click on the corresponding toolbar button:

• Pending changelists (index)

• Submitted changes (log)

• Branch specifications

• Repositories

The remaining toolbar buttons are assigned to:

• Break a long operation

• Open the settings Options dialog

• Open the dialog to manage SSH keys

Remote Repos

GitForce can work with one or more remote repos. Through the Settings menu you can select the current remote repo to be used for push and pull commands.

Edit sub-menu lets you edit specifications of remote repos and check their SSH access rights.

This was just a brief overview and in no way a comprehensive one. If, even after trying, something is still not clear, or there is a bug or a feature you wish to see implemented, please post your thoughts in the forum hosted on SourceForge: https://sourceforge.net/p/gitforce/discussion/