View Compare/Merge Wizard

This section describes the individual pages of the View Compare/Merge Wizard. The order in which the pages occur in the wizard depends on the type of comparison you are performing and the view from which you start the wizard.

View Compare/Merge Wizard Overview

Each step of the View Compare/Merge Wizard contains a button at the bottom right the page which, when clicked, opens an information pane that shows you the details of the choices you have made for the session up to that step in the View Compare/Merge Wizard. To hide this information pane, click the button again and it will disappear. The advantage of this information pane is that you can review in one place all the details of the session before you click Finish without having to go back and forth through the different pages of the wizard to see what you selected. That way, if you decide you want to make a different choice, you can go back to a specific page of the wizard, make any changes, then click Finish at that point.

VCM Wizard: Select Compare/Merge Type

Use the Select Compare/Merge Type page of the View Compare/Merge Wizard to select the type of compare/merge action to perform.

Select The Type Of Compare Or Merge	Specifies the type of compare merge to perform:
Compare only	Compare changes between one related view and another, or between two different configurations of the same view. (Default).
Promote	Compare or merge changes from a child view to its parent.
Rebase	Compare or merge changes from a parent to its child view.
Replicate	Compare or merge changes from one related view to another.
Use Current View (name) For:	Specifies whether the current view should be used as the source view or the target view, or as both the source and target (compare only). If you choose Promote or Rebase as the merge type, the wizard may automatically select the appropriate option based on whether the parent view or a child view is the current view.

VCM Wizard: Include Items

Use the Include items page of the View Compare/Merge Wizard to limit the compare/merge to specific types of items. This step only appears if you start the View Compare/Merge Wizard from the View menu.

Revision Label	Compares items with the selected revision label only. When checked, the list is enabled and displays the available revision labels.
Include	Specifies which types of items in the view to include in the compare/merge.

VCM Wizard: Include Selected Items

Use the Include Selected Items page of the View Compare/Merge Wizard to limit the compare/merge to specific types of items. This step of the wizard only appears if you right-click specific items on the component tabs in the upper pane choose AdvancedView Compare/Merge on the context menu to start the compare/merge session.

Include

Specifies which types of items to include in the compare/merge.

The Include tree displays an enabled check box for each item type you have selected, and also gives you the option of selecting all files linked to the selected item type if it is a process item. When you check Selected Folders in the Include tree, you can also check Subfolders to include all contained child folders and their children in the compare.

Selecting a folder from the Folder component tab instead of the in the Folder Tree enables you to click other item tabs and select additional items from other folders to include in the compare/merge.

VCM Wizard: Select Source View

Use the Select Source View page of the View Compare/Merge Wizard to select the source view for the compare/merge.

View Tree	Uses the selected view as the source view for the compare/merge. Click to select.
View Name	Displays the name of the view selected in the View Tree.
View Description	Displays the description of the selected view. A view description is entered in the Description field of the View Properties dialog box.

VCM Wizard: Select Target View

Use the Select Target View page of the View Compare/Merge Wizard to select the target view for the compare/merge.

View Tree	Uses the selected view as the target view for the compare/merge. Click to select.
View Name	Displays the name of the view selected in the View Tree.
View Description	Displays the description of the selected view. A view description is entered in the Description field of the View Properties dialog box.

VCM Wizard: Select Source Configuration

Use the Select Source Configuration page of the View Compare/Merge Wizard to restrict the source view to a specific configuration in the View Compare/Merge session.

Source View Configuration for (view name)

Specifies a configuration to use for the View Compare/Merge session so you can isolate the view compare/merge from changes in the current view.

Select from:

Current Configuration	This uses the view's current configuration.
Labeled Configuration	This uses the configuration with the revision label you specify.
Promotion State Configuration	This uses the configuration with the selected promotion state.
Configuration As Of	This uses the configuration from the specified date and time.

VCM Wizard: Select Target Configuration

Use the Select Target Configuration page of the View Compare/Merge Wizard to restrict the target view to a specific configuration in the View Compare/Merge session.

Target View Configuration for (view name)

Specifies a configuration to use for the View Compare/Merge session so you can isolate the view compare/merge from changes in the current view. Select from:

Current Configuration	This uses the view's current configuration.
Labeled Configuration	This uses the configuration with the revision label you specify.
Promotion State Configuration	This uses the configuration with the selected promotion state.
Configuration As Of	This uses the configuration from the specified date and time.

VCM Wizard: Set Options

The Set Options page of the View Compare/Merge Wizard contains options that will control the beginning of the View Compare/Merge session. You can change individual default actions in either the Compare Perspective or the Merge Perspective during the View Compare/Merge session.

Auto-merge Properties	View Compare/Merge automatically merges the view, folder, or item properties at the beginning of the View Compare/Merge session. For example, if a property has changed only in the source, the value of that property in the target is changed to match. (Default)
Auto-merge Files	View Compare/Merge automatically merges files without conflicting differences at the beginning of the View Compare/Merge session. (Default)
Match Files By Name	View Compare/Merge matches files with the same file names, even if the object IDs are different, or if the files cannot otherwise be matched. For example, if the same line has changed in both a source and target text file, View Compare/Merge cannot automatically merge the two lines, but if the line has changed only in the source, those changes can also be made to that line in the target. When you match source and target files by name, and the object IDs are different, no branch point can be used to locate a common ancestor when merging or comparing the two files. However, if you have compared these two files (in this source-target direction) before, there may be merge points. (Default)
Treat File Names As Case Sensitive	If Match Files By Name is selected, file matching is case sensitive.
Ignore Merge Points	If selected, View Compare/Merge ignores existing merge points by default. If cleared, View Compare/Merge uses the last recorded merge point between two items to determine if either or both items has changed. When View Compare/Merge performs a merge on a text file, the revision of one of the files (usually the source file) is used as the least common ancestor to perform the merge. When merge point usage is not enabled, the least common ancestor is determined by finding the last branch point common to the two files. It should be very rare that you would ever want to ignore merge points.
Fix/Find Floating Child Shares	Fixes any shares that are floating by pinning them in a Rebase or Promote, since View Compare/Merge cannot merge floating shares. In a Compare-only session, VCM simply finds the floating child shares for you. In Rebase and Replicate merge operations, this option specifies whether each target view item found that is a floating share of a source view item should be “fixed” by pinning it. When a target view item is a floating child share of a source item (which implies that the target item has not branched), differences will not be detected between the source and target item during VCM sessions because changes to the source item immediately float to the child item. View Compare/Merge best practices suggests that child shares should always be pinned, allowing changes to propagate from the source to target view in a controlled manner. This option allows floating child items found by View Compare/Merge to be “fixed” by pinning them to the parent item revision. Specifying this option has a performance cost due to the extra commands required to check each target item examined during the compare phase. Tip: You might want to select this the first time you perform a compare/merge on a view, then clear it for successive comparisons to speed up your sessions.
Break Locks Automatically	Attempts automatically to break an existing lock if the item is already locked by another user, and if the item needs to be locked due to one of the locking options below being set. Breaking locks requires special permissions. Break Locks Automatically is only relevant when View Compare/Merge wants to lock an item. And it only locks items for actions that make changes. For example, if you are in the middle of a session, and you change an action from Ignore to Delete, View Compare/Merge may break someone else's lock on the item that is going to be deleted at commit time.
Lock Source For Difference	Locks source items for differences that will result in a change. Some actions, such as Ignore, will not result in a change, and therefore do not require a lock. Locking usually happens at compare time, but may also happen later in the session if the action for a difference is overridden. View Compare/Merge will not lock reverse-shared items in the source view unless you check this option in the View Compare/Merge Wizard.
Lock Target For Difference	Locks target items for differences that will result in a change. Some actions, such as Ignore, will not result in a change, and therefore do not require a lock. Locking usually happens at compare time, but may also happen later in the session if the action for a difference is overridden. (Default)
Start With Merge Perspective Current	Starts the View Compare/Merge session in the Merge Perspective. If not selected, View Compare/Merge starts in the Compare Perspective. (Default)

VCM Wizard: Exclude Properties

Use he Exclude Properties page of the View Compare/Merge Wizard to exclude properties of any branchable item type.

Item type	Provides a list of the selected item types this session whose properties you can exclude from a View Compare/Merge session. The item types in this list are determined by the choices of which item types you selected for View Compare/Merge in the View Compare/Merge Wizard.
Available properties	Lists all the properties available for the Item type selected. Select an item in the Available properties list and click the Exclude button to move it from Available properties to the Exclude properties list.
Exclude properties	Lists all the properties selected for exclusion for the selected Item type. You can move an item from the Exclude properties list back to the Available properties list if you change your mind. Select the item in the Exclude properties list and click the Include button to move it back to the Available properties list.