Replication Merge Strategies

Users can specify a properties merge strategy for the import procedure. Properties can be merged according to one of the following strategies:

Override: the new version is created solely based on data from a data file. Target server changes are ignored and will be overridden.
Merge without conflicts: the new version is created as a result of a properties merge from source and target servers. If a property was changed on either the target or source server, the merge result will be successful and the updated property value will be used. However, if conflicting changes were made to the property on the target and source servers, an error will be generated and the import operation will be cancelled.
Merge with master priority: same as the merge without conflicts strategy but when a conflict arises, it is resolved using the source server property change.
Merge with slave priority: same as the merge without conflicts strategy but when a conflict arises, it is resolved using the target server property change.

Results for each merge strategy using example data cases are shown in the following table. These assume the import has already been performed once from the source server to the target server.

	Initial data	Initial data	Override	Without conflicts	Master priority	Slave priority
	Source (Master or M)	Target (Slave or S)	Target	Target	Target	Target
1	No changes	No changes	No changes	No changes	No changes	No changes
2	No changes	Delete S	No changes	Delete S	Delete S	Delete S
3	No changes	Edit S	No changes	Edit S	Edit S	Edit S
4	Delete M	No changes	Delete M	Delete M	Delete M	Delete M
5	Delete M	Delete S	Delete M	Delete	Delete	Delete
6	Delete M	Edit S	Delete M	Conflict	Delete M	Edit S
7	Edit M	No changes	Edit M	Edit M	Edit M	Edit M
8	Edit M	Delete S	Edit M	Conflict	Edit M	Delete S
9	Edit M	Edit S	Edit M	Conflict	Edit M	Edit S
10	Add M	Add S	Add M	Add M + Add S	Add M + Add S	Add M + Add S