When a work order or project is initiated, a version is created as a child of the DEFAULT version. One or more editors will work on this version until the project is complete. When all the modifications to each new project version have been completed, the version is reconciled with and posted to the DEFAULT version, integrating the modifications into the published database. At this point each work order version can be removed or archived as required.

User access permissions to the DEFAULT version may be restricted to enforce this workflow and ensure that the DEFAULT version is not modified. The ArcSDE administrator may set the permission of the DEFAULT version to protected; this allows users to continue to view the DEFAULT version but restricts their access level to read-only. Any editor wishing to modify the data must create a new version of his or her own.

When an editor has finished modifying the data, he or the sde administrator can reconcile and post the version to the DEFAULT version. If conflicts are detected, they must be resolved in the usual way and the changes saved again during the edit session. The editor's version can then be deleted as required.

Pros

• Simplicity—Each work unit is logically segregated in the geodatabase.
   
• Supports long transactions, spanning many edit sessions, and the creation of alternative designs, which allows editors to develop proposals without affecting the production database.
   
• Creating a new version from the DEFAULT version protects the production view of the database from unintentional modification; individual work projects are integrated with the production database when completed.
   
• Supports batch reconcile/post processes.

Cons

• As with any multitier version configuration, the more rows that are maintained in the version delta tables, the greater the potential impact on version query performance. This overhead can be minimized by compressing the database regularly and updating the database management system (DBMS) statistics.