About merging folders

Use the Dimensions CM Project Merge Tool to compare or merge item revisions from two or more project folders and their subfolders.

Note: You can compare streams, but you cannot merge them.

Comparing and merging guidelines

  • Project folders can be item folders in a project or baseline in the repository or a folder in your work area. The Project Merge Tool does not necessarily merge or compare an entire project. If you have selected a folder in a project, it operates only on that folder and its subfolders.

  • If you are merging folders in your work area with project folders in Dimensions CM, you need to have upload rules defined for any file types to be added to Dimensions CM as a result of the merge.

  • When you compare folders in the Project Merge Tool, you view the differences between two folders and their subfolders. When you merge folders, you view the differences and resolve the conflicts, with the result being a single folder.

Differences between comparing and merging folders:

  • You can compare only two folders. You can merge two or more folders.

  • When you merge folders, you must resolve all the conflicts.

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Ancestors, derivatives, and targets

The Project Merge Tool uses an ancestor, derivatives, and a target to compare and merge folders.

There is a base folder, called the ancestor, to which all the other folders, called derivatives, are compared. If you are merging folders, the resulting merged folder is called the target.

Item revisions and folders in the derivatives and the target can have one of the following states in relation to the ancestor and each other:

State Description
Unchanged The contents of the item revision or folder are the same between the ancestor and the derivative.
Modification The contents of an item revision or folder differs from the ancestor.
Addition An item revision or folder is not in the ancestor.
Deletion An item revision or folder in the ancestor or the derivatives is not included in the target.
Move/rename The path of an item revision or folder in the derivatives is different to that in the ancestor.
Conflict An item revision or folder in a derivative differs from the ancestor or other derivatives.
Padded A blank entry that is automatically inserted by the Project Merge Tool to align the item revisions in the ancestor, derivatives, and target.
Moved from An entry showing the original location of an item revision or folder that has been renamed or moved to another location.

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See also: