Assembla’s system is super flexible to meet the needs of almost any team or project. In order to get the most out of your Assembla projects, here are some tips and tricks to help you and your team work smarter and faster.

Sections:

Code Repositories (SVN, Git & Perforce)
Collaboration Tools
Other Tools and Project Configurations

Code Repositories (SVN, Git & Perforce)

Import an SVN or Git repository from another provider into an Assembla repository.

For SVN, visit the Import/Export subtab of your repository and follow the import instructions. Learn more here. For Git, you can edit your local Git config file which is under the hidden folder named “.git”. Change the url line to the Assembla Git repository url and save the file. Now commit/push your repository to import.

Note: If you need to add a new SVN or Git repository you can do so in the Admin Tools section. Learn more here.

Use simple commit commands to reference or update tickets.

Link your commit to a ticket by using re #ticket_number such as re #122 or use <status> #ticket_number to update a ticket status such as Test #4 will change Ticket #4 status to Test. The status name in this case is not case sensitive.

Protect specific branches of your SVN or Git repository so only certain team members are allowed to push commits to a given branch.

Visit the repository’s tab within Assembla > Settings sub-tab > Protected Branches section and define what team members are allowed to perform what action to given branches.

Fork a Git repository.

Visit the repository’s tab within Assembla and simply click on the Fork button on the top right of the page. You can choose to fork the repository within the existing project and create a new project with the forked repository. Learn more here.

Have more control over your repository code by installing server-side hooks.

Visit the repository’s tab within Assembla > Settings sub-tab > Server-Side Hooks section for a library of ready-to-use hooks like reject commits if they are empty or reject commits with shorter commit message than MIN_LENGTH. If you want a different server-side hook, you can submit your own and we will add it to the ever growing library.

Use Assembla’s merge requests for code review when working on multiple branches or repositories.

Visit the repository’s tab within Assembla and click on the New Merge Request button. There you can specify the source branch and the target repository and branch. The Create merge request button will enable only when there are changes between selected branches. Once created, team members can easily get changes, discuss, vote, and ultimately merge a request. This can be combined with the protected branches feature so only certain team members can merge to specific branches like the master branch. Learn more here.

Use Assembla’s compare feature to see changes in code between different branches, tags, commits, and even repositories.

Visit the repository’s tab within Assembla and click on the Compare button in the top right or the Compare sub-tab - both will take you to the same page. Select what you want to compare. From a comparison, you can easily create a merge request.

Review code using inline comments from both merge requests and the commits page.

If you’re in a merge request, open the Files Affected tab and expand the file diff you would like to comment on. Pick the line you want to comment on and click on the line number. A comment box will be shown and you can even mention other team members from your comment. If you’re in a commit page, the process is almost the same after selecting the diff you want to comment on.

Collaboration Tools

Use tags to mention different teams or groups like @marketing or @support.

Go to the Team tab and click on the Tag column for any team members. Once tags have been added, such as support, you can type @support to get the support team’s attention.

Send an instant email to a user or an entire group (see labels above) using an exclamation point at the end of any @mention.

After any @mention, put an exclamation point with no spaces like @adam! or @support! and that user or group will receive an instant email with your request. Learn more here.

From a ticket or the Files tool, you have the ability to select a file from your computer OR attach a Google Doc or Dropbox file. When selecting a Google Doc or Dropbox file, Assembla’s on demand permissioning will instantly share the file with any team member when they click on the file link.

Use Assembla’s markup language to quickly reference tickets, commits, files, embed images inline, and much more inside of wiki pages and messages.

Reference a ticket by typing in #{ticket number} such as #112. Link to a file with [[file:{file name}]] such as [[file:screenshot.png]]. Directly embed an image inline with [[image:{file name}]] such as [[image:screenshot.png]].

Other Tools & Project Configurations

Change your email notifications settings to determine what events and at what frequency you want to receive emails.

Visit your project's Stream tab > Email Notifications sub-tab to adjust the desired email alerts and frequencies.

Link to other commonly used websites and tools from within your Assembla project with the Custom Tab tool.

Visit the Admin tab of your project > click on the Tools section > scroll towards the bottom and click on Add or Add another next to Custom Tab. Now click on the new custom tab in the main navigation and configure. You can define the url and set it to open as an iframe within the Assembla project or open a new tab on click. Learn more here and here.

Reorder the tool access bar to make the most important tools easily to accessible.

Visit the Admin tab of your project > click on the Appearance section > and scroll to the Navigation section. Drag and drop to rearrange the navigational order and select the desired tool in the default landing tab is dropdown. When you have made the desired changed, scroll down and click on Save Changes.

Need help? Please contact us at support@assembla.com.