All the information used by Mergeant is stored in a file (as XML). Here is a brief description of how to use those files:
When Mergeant is run with no argument, the user must choose which predefined connection to use, and to give a username and a password (or an empty password if none is required). The user can then open the connection to the DBMS for the specified database. Mergeant will automatically load from the DBMS all the information it can get (this may take some time!). From now the user can save his working environment by giving it a name.
When the user saves his environment, all the following is saved: the connection parameters (except for the password), any user defined information given to Mergeant, and the information given by the DBMS (to avoid having to load them back when Mergeant opens a connection to the same DBMS and database).
After having saved his working environment, the user can disconnect from the database, and quit Mergeant. When Mergeant is then run and the working file is opened (from the File/Open menu or by giving the file name on the command line), all the stored information is loaded back and the user is prompted with a question about refreshing the database structure from the DBMS; answering yes will then update all the information Mergeant can get from the DBMS (that same operation can be performed whenever necessary by the user, for example when another program has modified the database structure).
The contents of the XML files can be modified with a simple text editor (to change the user name for example), but it must be done with care since that file can then quite easily be broken (in that case Mergeant will complain). Mergeant uses a Document Type Definition to ensure the XML file is correct.