This page gives a detailed technical explanation of why certain issues affect Subversion users.
On this page:
Introduction
When accessing Subversion via FishEye, you may see references to tags in the branches drop-down menu. In the example below, we can see tag1 and tag3 in the drop-down menu but not tag2:
Screenshot: The Branches Drop-Down Menu in FishEye
In actual fact, the branches drop-down menu shows only branch names. It does not show tags, but in some instances FishEye will synthesise a branch name to record certain operations. To understand how this occurs, you will need some background knowledge on Subversion tagging (introduced in the following segments of this page).
How Subversion Processes Tags and Branches
An Example from a Live Subversion Repository
For example, consider tag4 in this screenshot:
Screenshot: Subversion Tag Changes in FishEye
There are two changes here. The first creates the tag and the second adds a new file in the tagged area. This will result in the creation of an artificial branch, called "tag:tag4" within FishEye.
Avoid Modifications in the Tag Area
In general, it's not good practice to make changes in the tag areas of a Subversion repository. Such changes can easily get lost if they are not applied to trunk or a current branch. It is preferable to make the change in trunk or a branch and then create a new tag to capture the update. Nevertheless, since Subversion tagging is merely a convention, this is sometimes convenient. FishEye handles this situation as described above.
Conclusion
In general a lot of systems have a large number of tags which would make the drop-down unworkable. This is the reason the tag field is a text-entry box below the branch drop-down menu in FishEye.
Since tags and branches are based on location convention in Subversion, the constraint is less effective than on other SCMs. You can always see the tag or branch you are interested in, based on its location in the repository. For example, the subdirectory list here shows all tags:
Screenshot: Subdirectory Listing in FishEye
If you want to constrain to a tag, enter the tag name in the tag field of the constraint filter.