Deciding how to register data

When determining how to register data for editing, advanced data models and workflows are always the first consideration. To edit a feature class in a topology, geometric network, or terrain; archive data; or manage the data with replication, you must register the data as versioned without the option to move edits to base. This provides many benefits, allowing you to take advantage of all the advanced transactional features of the geodatabase including undo and redo of edits, complete isolation within an edit session, and the use of named versions for designs and projects.

Leave the data unregistered or register as Versioned with the option to move edits to base if the ability to easily share the data with third-party applications is a priority. Registering as Versioned with the option to move edits to base is useful if you require the benefits of versions but also need to share updates with applications other than ArcGIS.

As a final consideration, whenever data is part of a relationship with another feature class or table, ensure that you register data on both sides of the relationship the same way.

	Nonversioned	Versioned with the option to move edits to base	Versioned without the option to move edits to base
Supported data types	All data types except feature classes in a topology, geometric network, or terrain	All data types except feature classes in a topology, geometric network, or terrain	All data types
Supported workflows	Simple workflows	Simple and advanced workflows with versions Not supported: archiving and replication	Simple and advanced workflows including versions, replication, and archiving
Transaction	Confined to a single edit session	Can span many edit sessions	Can span many edit sessions
Supports undo/redo	No	Yes	Yes
Supports DBMS data integrity features	Yes	When editing the DEFAULT version: Yes, but only when you save; When editing other versions: No	No
Can be read by client applications not created with ArcObjects (third-party applications)	Yes	DEFAULT version: Yes; Feature classes in other versions: No; Tables in other versions: Yes, through multiversioned views	Feature classes: No; Tables: Yes, through multiversioned views

A comparison of registration types

The following chart will help you decide which level of data registration a particular workflow requires.

This chart helps you decide how to register data

To learn more about edit session isolation, see Concurrency and locking.

For more information on the advantages and disadvantages of each editing option, see Data maintenance strategies.

By default, ArcMap edit sessions are set to perform versioned edits. With this setting, you can only edit data that has been registered as versioned. To learn how to set up an edit session to allow nonversioned edits, see Configuring an ArcMap edit session to perform nonversioned edits.