Merging Branches with MLAPP files - Can't merge layout changes

I have been developing some pretty complicated matlab apps, and have begun collaborating on them with a colleague, but we've found that the merge tool does not allow for merging the automatically generated code e.g. layouts, adding callbacks etc. I have read multiple issues posted to the community, and the closest one to an answer describes unzipping the mlapp file merging, and rezipping. This can work, but is far too risky if the way App Designer ingests data changes in the future, which would render our code unusable and unedittable.

Of course, we could export to an M file and merge there, but then we lose the ease of changing layouts in App Designer. This all seems like a lose-lose situation, is there any prospect of adding the ability to merge the whole mlapp file?

[Daniel Bauer]

Same issue here... Do you have any solution by now?

[Ahad]

I've had the same issue as well.

If origin/main accepts a pull-request from origin/feature_2 and origin/feature_1 does a rebase, how do they rebase their /feature_1 branch from /main if there are edits to the "Design Viewer" portions of code that the MATLAB code comparison can't merge in from generated sections of code?

While the Comparison and Export tools are useful, I've discovered that they're not enough to resolve merge conflicts with multiple developers contributing to a single App. What does Mathworks recommend in this situation?

Answer 1

[Ashutosh Thakur]

Hello Joel,

I understand that you are facing issues with merging MLAPP files using version control tools like Git. Starting from MATLAB R2020b, you can use the MATLAB comparison tool to merge different MLAPP files. The following documentation link provides tips for successfully merging different files: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_env/compare-and-merge-apps.html.

Additionally, MATLAB supports version control integration, which also works for MLAPP files. For more information, refer to the following documentation link: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/source-control.html?s_tid=CRUX_lftnav.

This MATLAB Answer provides more information regarding merging and integration with version control in MATLAB: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/524615-can-i-integrate-mlapp-files-from-app-designer-with-git-source-control?s_tid=answers_rc1-3_p3_Topic.

I hope this information helps you!

[Joel Berkson]

Thank you for your response, but this is not the issue that was described in my post. All of the comparison tools to not allow for merging generated code (function callbacks, gui layout etc) and it causes a huge pain for us. We have no other problems other than that