Variants

Variants are like standard extracts except that there is no extract claiming of elements between the variant and its parent extract. Any elements may thus be modified. This has the advantage that many users can potentially change the same element at the same time in a different variant. The disadvantage is that conflicts are not discovered until the time of flush.

There are no restrictions on where variants are located in the extract tree, for example, variants may own other normal extracts or other variant extracts. If a variants owns standard extracts, then the variant acts as a root for subsequent extract claims.