Reconcile and post edits to a traditional version

Available with Standard or Advanced license.

As edits are made to the versions in a version tree, the versions begin to differ from one another. The process of retrieving any changes from an ancestor version and merging edits from your version into it is called reconcile and post. Once you have finished editing a version, you can merge the changes you've made into another version. With traditional versioning, you can merge changes into any version that is the ancestor of that version, such as the parent or Default version.

Since you started working on your version, the ancestor version may have been changed by other users in a way that conflicts with your edits. When you reconcile your edits with the target version, these conflicts are discovered.

If there are conflicts, ArcGIS AllSource 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 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 use the editing tools to modify it in another way.

Note:

This topic describes the reconcile and post process using the Versioning tab. You can also reconcile and post versions using the Reconcile Versions geoprocessing tool and the Reconcile/Post button on the Versions tab when you are in the Versions view.

Reconcile process

In traditional versioning, to reconcile your edits with an ancestor version, the following must be true:

• You must be the only user currently editing the traditional 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 version owner or the geodatabase 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, the user cannot reconcile. The user reconciling must have full permissions to both sides of any relationship that has been modified, including basic 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 the user must own the version, or it must be public or protected.

To make changes to how conflicts are handled and what prompts are received during each reconcile operation, see Versioning options.

Note:

You cannot use the Undo operation to undo a reconcile operation. To undo a reconcile, you can discard changes without saving them.

To reconcile your traditional version, complete the following steps:

1. In the Contents pane, click the List By Data Source button . Next, click the enterprise geodatabase data source to activate the Versioning tab.
2. Click the Reconcile button on the Versioning tab.

   The Reconcile dialog box appears.

3. Choose the target version.
4. Specify how you want to define conflicts using the following options:

   Define conflicts	Description
   By attribute (column)	Only changes to the same attribute (column) of the same row or feature in the target and edit versions will be flagged as a conflict. This is the default.
   By object (row)	Any changes to the same row or feature in the target and edit versions will be flagged as a conflict.

5. Specify how you want to resolve conflicts using the following options:

   Resolve conflicts	Description
   In favor of the edit version	All conflicting features in the current version take precedence over conflicting representations in the target version.
   In favor of the target version	All conflicting features in the current version are replaced by their representations in the target version.

6. Click OK.

If there are conflicts, ArcGIS AllSource resolves them depending on your preference. Once conflicts are resolved, you can review them one at a time and, if necessary, make 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 use the editing tools to modify it in another way.

Reconciling only updates the edit version so that ArcGIS AllSource 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.

Manage conflicts using the Conflicts view

If conflicts are detected during the reconcile process, you can review them in the Conflicts view . The Conflicts view contains all the conflict classes and their features or rows in conflict. Conflicts are organized using the data source, class, conflict category, and ObjectID. The Conflicts view can be used to review conflicts in more detail, mark conflicts as reviewed, and make changes to how conflicts are resolved before the post operation is performed.

To learn more about the Conflicts view, see Manage traditional version conflicts.

Post changes

To post edits to the target version, you must have access to edit this version. This means the version must have the access property set to public, or you must be the geodatabase administrator.

To post changes to the target version once you have reconciled and reviewed conflicts, click the Post button in the Versioning group on the Versioning tab.

Tip:

Other users reading the target version to which you have posted do not see the posted changes until they refresh their versioned workspaces.

Be aware of the following additional information about the post process:

• You can only post changes if the target version has not been modified since you last reconciled changes. If the target version has been modified in the interim, you must reconcile again before posting.
• Once changes are posted, they cannot be undone, since you are applying changes to a version you are not currently editing.
• After posting, you may continue to make more edits in your version. To apply these changes to the target version, you must perform the reconcile, conflict resolution, and posting processes again.

If posting marks the end of your workflow, you can optionally delete the version that you have been editing.