We are happy to announce that the Pull Requests feature is now in open beta. This also marks an important milestone – the mbed Online Tools is now offering a complete set of collaboration development models – the multiple authors (a.k.a. shared repository) model and the fork & pull model, where pull requests play major role as median between independent developers and repository authors.

But what is a pull request?

A pull request lets you tell others about changes you've added to a fork of their (or ancestor) repository, effectively granting them permission to include and use your code in their code base. Once the pull request is created, the other party can review, accept or reject the set of changes, discuss further modifications and even add follow-up changes or merges.

Think of pull requests as for simplified fork and update workflow, where the changes contributed by non-repository developers are being moderated by the repository author(s).

Most online services that offer source code and version control hosting let you review and merge pull requests.
We made a step further by letting you review, compile, test and add more changes if necessary before accepting a pull request by harnessing the power of the mbed Online Compiler.

More information on pull requests can be found here.

Other features in beta

• Repository comparison mode that lets you compare a workspace repository with related published repository without permanently changing the URL.
• Code highlighter improvements and correct line numbering for diff code examples in wiki pages, forums etc.
• Redesigned repository home pages to accommodate more repository actions.
• Improved IDE initialization and rendering.

Trying out the beta

Before you try out the beta, please be aware that:

• You will be using a beta, which even though we consider stable and safe, have not been tested in larger scale. It is advised to use copies of workspace and published code.
• Pull requests will be visible only in beta until the official release, though pull requests that you accept will immediately cause the accepted changes to be published to the live repository.

To try out the beta, visit http://mbed.org/betamode/ and click "Enable betamode".

Please let us know what you think on http://mbed.org/forum/bugs-suggestions.