Branches and Branch RuleSets

A branch is a container for RuleSets with rules that are undergoing rapid change and development. The RuleSets associated with a branch are called branch RuleSets. A branch RuleSet is a RuleSet that:

• Is based off of — "branched from" — another RuleSet.
• Contains rules that are in active development in the associated branch.

Because development work is typically iterative, rules are often created and modified quickly on a day-to-day basis. This rapid change can become disruptive to the overall project when this work takes place using multiple teams working in the same application RuleSets. Branches allow such development work to take place within an isolated space (the branch) without affecting functionality in the source rules.

This branching ability is especially useful on large development projects, where multiple teams work simultaneously on the rules in an application, and all members on one team need to see each others work, while also isolating their development changes from the other teams. In this way, one team's rule changes do not affect the other teams until the changes are stable, conflicts resolved, and approval granted to make the new functions available to the entire development project team.

For a description of how to work with branches and branch RuleSets in a development project, see About the Merge Branch RuleSets wizard. For an example, see PDN article 26427 Using branch RuleSets and merging for parallel development.

If your application was developed in v6.2SP2 and uses branch RuleSets, and you want to operate in ABA mode for best performance, note that branch RuleSets appear higher in the RuleSet list in ABA mode than in rules assembly mode. While it is unlikely that this change affects results of your application, some analysis and testing is recommended.

	RuleSet list, rule resolution
	About RuleSets About Application rules How the system assembles and uses your RuleSet list About the Merge Branch RuleSets wizard

Definitions — B