The commit graph hides too much information, is there a way around it?

[Mike_Hermann]

This question is in reference to Atlassian Documentation: Ordering of Branches Important When Visualizing Git Changesets

The commit graph view is offered to visualize how changesets have been committed and merged. Changesets are shown as part of a swimlane/branch using a "dot" indicator. The default behaviour of the view is to only display such dots for the left-most swimlane. In other words, dot indicators are not shown for all the other branches.

Observation: It is very difficult to use this view, to understand changeset relationships. In order to un-hide important changeset information, you need to swap swimlanes back and fort. Once you've done this a couple of times, it becomes impossible to keep which is which straight in your head.

 Diagnosis: this view does the exact opposite of what it's supposed to: summarise important changeset information. Instead, it forces the user to manipulate the view, to extract details that are required, and forces the user to do the job of keeping a complete picture. In other words, the view forces the user to do the work.

Question 1: is there a way to suppress this default "one swimlane indicator only" display mode, so that changesets appear in all relevant branches?

Question 2: if this is not a feature, how does one submit an official request for a software change/feature?

[Marek Parfianowicz]

Hi Mike,

Let me answer your questions:

Q1: No, you can't show a given commit on all branches in the commit graph. 

Q2: You can report improvement requests on jira.atlassian.com, project "FishEye" (FE).

Let me also ask you one question:

What information exactly are you looking for on the commit graph?

Cheers
Marek 

[Mike_Hermann]

Thanks for the quick response. I will submit the feature request.

"What information exactly are you looking for on the commit graph?"

I want to see which commits are in which branch(es), all at the same time, without having to drag swimlanes around.

[Marek Parfianowicz]

For such purpose you can click on the "Activity" tab. For each commit you will see a list of branches:commit_and_branches.png