A quick tour of reconciling a version

This topic applies to ArcEditor and ArcInfo only.

Once you have finished editing a version, you can merge the changes into any version that is the ancestor of that version, such as the parent or DEFAULT version.

To merge the changes, you must reconcile, resolve any conflicts, and post. This topic discusses the first step in this process: reconciling.

Since you started working on your version, the target version may have been changed by other users in a way that conflicts with your edits. The reconciling process looks for such conflicts. Conflicts occur in these circumstances:

• The same feature is updated in both the current version being edited and the target version.
• The same feature is updated in one version and deleted in the other.
• A topologically related feature or relationship class is modified in the current version being edited and a target version.

When you reconcile, the version you are editing is updated with changes from the target version. You may notice features changing as insertions, updates, and deletions of any feature or record from the target version are applied to your edit session.

If there are conflicts, ArcGIS initially resolves them in favor of either the version you are editing or the target version representation, depending on your preference. Once conflicts are initially resolved, you can review them one at a time and, if necessary, make any changes. For example, if a conflict is resolved in favor of the edit version, you can choose to replace it in favor of the target version or even use the editing tools to modify it in another way.

Note:

Reconciling only updates the edit version so that ArcGIS can check for conflicts; it does not merge changes into the target version. Once you finish reconciling and reviewing any conflicts, you complete the merging process by posting your changes to the target version.

Prerequisites

To be able to reconcile, the following must be true:

• You must be the only user currently editing the version you are reconciling.
• No other user can be editing the target version. The exception is if the target version is DEFAULT—you can reconcile against DEFAULT even when other users are editing it.
• You must be able to view the target version, meaning it can be public or protected. If it is private, you must be the owner or the ArcSDE administrator.
• If your workflow is such that one user edits and another user reconciles, make sure the user who reconciles has full permissions to all the feature classes and tables that have been modified in the version; otherwise, he or she will not be able to reconcile. The user reconciling must have full permissions to both sides of any relationship that has been modified, including simple or composite relationships. In this type of workflow, the user reconciling must also have sufficient version permissions. The reconciling user must be able to modify the version to reconcile, meaning it must be public, and must be able to view the target version, meaning he or she either must own the version or it must be public or protected.

The reconcile process

The reconcile process is launched from the Versioning toolbar. When the Reconcile dialog box opens, you must provide the following information:

• The target version
• How you want conflicts to be defined—You have the following options:

  Define conflicts at this level	To detect these cases
  Row	A second user edits the same row or feature, or topologically related features, as you did. The conflict occurs even if you edited different attributes. This is the default.
  Column	A second user edits the same attribute of a feature or table.

  Options for defining a conflict

• How you want ArcGIS to initially resolve conflicts: in favor of the version you're editing (referred to as the edit version) or the target version—If you resolve in favor of the target version, all conflicting features in the current edit session are replaced by their representations in the target version. If multiple users are editing the same version and conflicts are detected, the feature that was first saved replaces the edit session's representation. If you resolve conflicts in favor of the edit version, all conflicting features in the current edit session take precedence over conflicting representations in the target version.

Note:

You cannot use the Undo operation to undo a reconcile operation. Any time you try to undo a reconcile operation, you will get an error message because Undo is not a supported operation. To undo a reconcile, you must exit your edit session without saving changes.