Identifying special element types

The use of element types lets each class of elements be handled differently. An element type is a class of file elements. Predefined element types, such as file and text_file, are included. You can define your own element types. When you create an element type for use in UCM projects, you can specify a mergetype attribute, which determines how deliver and rebase operations handle merging of files of that element type.

When a merge situation occurs during a deliver or rebase operation, an attempt is made to merge versions of the element. User interaction is required only if differences between the versions cannot be reconciled. For certain types of files, you may want to impose different merging behavior.