View Compare/Merge (VCM) is the tool you use to compare two views or subsets of two views, referred to as the source and the target. As part
of the process, you can merge item differences in the source view to the target view.
The
View Compare/Merge UI is available in the
StarTeam
Cross-Platform Client and opens after running the
View Compare/Merge Wizard.
View Compare/Merge UI
The
View Compare/Merge window provides three perspectives for comparing and merging views, and for resolving item differences.
- The
Compare Perspective
- The
Merge Perspective
- The
Test Perspective
The image above displays the
Compare Perspective.
- VCM Menu
-
The
View Compare/Merge menu consists of a subset of the main client menus, plus two additional menus specific to
View Compare/Merge:
-
VCM Session, which enables you to view a
View Compare/Merge session summary, change perspectives, save, export, or delete your session, display a session report, and commit your changes.
-
Difference, which enables you to view item properties, navigate to items with differences, merge file contents, and specify the merge
action for an item.
- VCM Toolbar
-
Frequently used
View Compare/Merge menu commands corresponding to the
VCM Session
and
Difference
menus have corresponding buttons on the toolbar. Tool tips display when you hover your mouse over the toolbar buttons. Filters
specific to
View Compare/Merge and the current perspective display in the
Filters drop-down list on the
VCM Toolbar.
Note: The
Refresh button on the toolbar in the Merge Perspective does not change the snapshot of the source/target in use. It only refreshes
the display with the View Compare/Merge session data that was already gathered. For instance, it might re-group items based
on changes made by the user in the
View Compare/Merge window. For example, if you go back to the target view and move a file, when you return to the merge window and selected
, the moved file will still be shown in its original location.
- Upper Pane
-
The upper pane serves a different function in each perspective:
- In the
Compare Perspective, the upper pane displays two trees comparing the items in the source and target views. The tree nodes are highlighted to
show the differences for all item types in the views or folders being compared.
- In the
Merge Perspective, the upper pane displays the individual items on component tabs. The component tabs display
View Compare/Merge icons indicating there are resolved or unresolved conflicts of that item type in the selected folder. Icons also display
in the
Merge Status property column for each item with resolved or unresolved differences. See the topic
VCM Icons for an image and description of each icon.
- In the
Test Perspective, the upper pane shows the target check-out displayed in the same way as the
Merge Perspective.
- Lower Pane
-
The lower pane serves a different function for each perspective:
- Compare Perspective
- The lower pane shows the details and merge action for the items in the
View Compare/Merge session. You can filter which items display in this perspective, and you can change the merge action for items in this pane.
- Merge Perspective
- The lower pane contains three tabs. An item
Property tab displays the properties from the source and target views for comparison, and enables you to edit them. Two
File Comparison tabs compare the contents of the source and target files, or the target and merged files.
- Test Perspective
- Contains the same information tabs as the main client window.