Streamlining Multi-Project Workflows: How SmartGit Empowers Software Contractors

Stuart Corrans

Vanestum Consulting

Software consultant maximizes productivity by unifying Git workflows across multiple clients using SmartGit's consistent, feature-rich interface and seamless integrations.

Managing multiple client projects with different Git hosting providers and development processes was a significant challenge for Vanestum Consulting. SmartGit offered a unified solution, simplifying workflows and adapting to their diverse project needs.

Challenge

  • Using different Git tooling for different customer projects.
  • Integrated Git tooling in popular IDEs is limited in functionality.
  • Using the git command line as a last resort.
  • Switching between desktop IDEs and Git Hosting sites to manage Pull Requests, perform code reviews, and update issue tracking systems.

The SmartGit Solution

Using SmartGit’s seamless integrations into popular Git Hosting and issue-tracking services, the developer can:

  • Receive notifications about pending Pull Requests inside SmartGit.
  • Compare differences between files and commits in a consistent desktop user interface.
  • Submit comments and approve or reject Pull Requests without switching to the Git Hosting provider’s website.
  • Link commits to JIRA tickets and populate commit comments from Bugtraq compatible issue-tracking systems.

Impact

  • Completing pull requests and closing tracking system issues are all done from within SmartGit, saving time when switching between desktop and Git hosting web apps.
  • A familiar SmartGit user interface means no need to learn different tooling when switching between projects in different languages and Git hosting vendors.
  • Access the full power of advanced Git features, such as interactive rebasing, commit-graph visualizations, and rich diff comparison views without switching between tools.

SmartGit Features

  • Deep integrations with Git hosting services such as GitHub, Azure DevOps, GitLab, and Atlassian BitBucket.
  • Integration to JIRA and Bugtraq enabled issue tracking systems.
  • Enhanced Compare Views, enabling collaborative commenting on Pull Requests.

Conclusion

Software contractors often work with multiple technologies, applications, and Git hosting services. Switching between Git tooling in IDEs and remote hosts such as GitHub, Azure DevOps, GitLab, or BitBucket can lead to a loss of focus and increase the chance of making a mistake. SmartGit extends the lifecycle of the typical ‘desktop’ software development task activity to include issuing pull requests after pushing commits, performing code reviews, and merging pull requests from within SmartGit while at the same time linking commits to JIRA tickets. SmartGit eases the learning curve and context switching by integrating with common on-premises and Cloud-hosted Git and Issue-tracking applications, allowing contractors to focus on the customer rather than the tooling specifics.