What does activiate do after a file is checked in on Hana studio?

Question

I came from a development background.  Typically after I check in or commit a file to a repository, other developer will be able to see my changes after a checkout.  In Hana studio, there is an additional step called 'activate'.  What exactly does it do? Can other developers see my changes before activate?  If not, then let say other developers make changes to the same set of files that has not been activated, when will the merge take place?

Answer 1

When you commit you are saving a copy of your object in your private, inactive workspace on the server. This allows you to save a copy on the server in the database but not yet overwrite the executable version. This also allows multiple users to work on the same object at the same time without overwriting each others changes.  XSODATA, XSJS, and static web content can even be tested in their inactive state; allowing a developer to test their changes before setting them to the active version.
If two developers are editing at the same time and the first activates, their changes become the new active version.  When the second developer activates, they receive a message that other changes were made in the mean time.  The second developer then has three choices - 1. discard their changes and check out the active version. 2. discard the active version on the server and force overwrite with their local version. 3. open the split screen merge editor and merge the two versions into one new version.  Option #3 is probably the option that should be chosen 90% of the time.