When you start a View Compare/Merge session, it automatically compares the contents of the source and target views using the options you selected in the View Compare/Merge Wizard. Wherever possible, View Compare/Merge suggests a default action to apply to the target view for each item with differences. However, View Compare/Merge is unable to automatically resolve or merge some types of differences, such as certain conflicts between file contents. If it cannot determine an action, or merge the differences, it gives the items an Unresolved status and proposes a Merge action. For Merge items, you must perform a manual merge or change the action to one that View Compare/Merge can perform automatically, such as Ignore.
You can override the default action proposed by VCM for both Resolved and Unresolved differences. When VCM cannot suggest a resolution, the action is Fail and must be overridden.
View Compare/Merge can perform many different actions during a session, but it only allows specific actions appropriate for each type of change. For example, if an item is new in the source and does not exist in the target, you can ignore the item, but you cannot delete it from the target. Delete, in this case, is not a possible action.
The following table describes each of the actions View Compare/Merge can perform for a given source/target item difference.
| Enumerated Value | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Ignore | Take no action. |
| 1 | Re-pin | Changes the revision to which the target is pinned to match the source item. |
| 2 | Move | Moves the target item to the equivalent folder as the source item. |
| 4 | Merge | Merges the source and target items. The target item is modified to reflect the merged result. |
| 8 | Delete | Deletes the target item. |
| 16 | Share | Shares the source item to the target view. |
| 32 | Reverse Share | Moves the source item to the target view and share it back to the source view. |
| 64 | Overwrite | Overwrites the target with the contents of the source. |
| 66 | MoveAndOverwrite | Equivalent to a Move followed by an Overwrite. |
| 256 | Mark Resolved | Creates a Mark Resolved Change Object. Mark Resolved is now a legal action in many cases where it was not previously permitted. This affects about two dozen difference types. |
| 6 | Move and Merge | Equivalent to a Move followed by a Merge. |
| 3 | Move and Re-pin | Equivalent to a Move followed by a Re-pin. |
| 40 | Delete and Reverse Share | Equivalent to a Delete followed by a Reverse Share. |
| 128 | Needs Review |
Needs Review is a legal action in all cases.
View Compare/Merge cannot determine what action to take and will not commit changes while items are set to
Needs Review.You must set
Needs Review items to another action, one that can be performed.
Changing the default action of any difference type to Needs Review means that human intervention is required before a commit can be made. |
Not every action is valid for every item difference. For example, Delete is not valid when the target item is already deleted.