Versions and publishing

Every Batch Setup has versions. You make changes in a draft, and operators only get them when you release the draft. Earlier releases stay available, so you can pin operations to a known-good version, withdraw a release, or go back to an older one.

This gives you proper change control: nothing you are working on reaches the production floor by accident, and batches already in progress are never affected.

Version states

In the Latest column of the Batch Setups list, released versions show as Published and withdrawn ones as Retired.

The version button next to the Batch Setup's name shows the version you are looking at, its state and, if operations use it, In use. Click it to open any other version.

Make a change

1. Open the Batch Setup.
2. Click Edit (new draft). DocView copies the latest version into a new draft with the next version number.
3. Make your changes on the tabs and save each one.
4. Describe what changed in Version notes on the General tab.
5. Test the draft. See Testing a Batch Setup.
6. Click Release and confirm.

If a draft already exists, the button reads Open draft instead. Carry on in that draft and release it when it is ready; a second draft is not allowed.

Tip: Viewing an older version? The button reads New draft from vN. Use it to start a draft from that version, for example to roll back a change.

What happens when you release

Before releasing, DocView checks the draft. It refuses to release when:

• the workflow has no steps,
• there is no document class, or
• a document class key or field name is used twice, a field or finder name is invalid, or finders refer to each other in a circle.

The confirmation tells you what happens next:

• If Operations use is on Auto, new batches use the new version at once.
• If operations are pinned, they stay on the pinned version until you choose the new one.

In both cases, batches already in progress keep the version they started with. A batch never changes its configuration halfway through.

Choose the version operations use

Next to the version button, Operations use decides which released version new batches get:

The Batch Setups list shows this under In use, marked Auto or Pinned.

Pinning is useful when you want to release a new version, test it with a few batches, and only then switch everyone over:

1. Set Operations use to Pinned to the current version.
2. Release the new version. Operations stay on the pinned one.
3. Test the new version.
4. Set Operations use to Auto or pin the new version.

Withdraw a release

If a release causes problems:

1. Open the released version.
2. Click Withdraw and confirm.

New batches stop using it. Batches in progress finish on it. With Auto, operations fall back to the newest remaining release.

You cannot withdraw the version operations are pinned to. Choose another version or Auto first.

To use a withdrawn version again, open it and click Release again.

Roll back

To go back to an earlier configuration, either:

• Pin operations to the earlier release (quickest), or
• open the earlier version and click New draft from vN, then release that draft. This keeps a clear version history.

Read-only versions

Released and withdrawn versions are read-only. A banner says so and tells you which version operations use. On read-only versions you can still:

• open every tab and read the settings,
• test on the Test tab, test finders and zones, and try validation rules and event scripts,
• Export the version to a file.

To change anything, create a draft.

What versions include

A version holds the complete configuration: general settings, workflow, screen designs, cleanup and separation, document classes, fields, finders, validation, events, and output and export. A trained classifier model is attached to a version's document classes and is carried over into a new draft.

Samples for finders and classifier training are kept per Batch Setup, not per version, and belong to a class by its key.

Who did what

Creating drafts, releasing, withdrawing, releasing again and changing the version operations use are all recorded in the Audit log, with the user and time.

Moving versions between systems

To move a tested configuration from a test system to live, export the version and use Update from file on the live system. The file becomes the live Batch Setup's draft, which you then release. See Import and export Batch Setups.

Good practice

• Always fill in Version notes. Six months later, you will want to know why v7 changed the date formats.
• Test every draft on real documents before releasing.
• Pin operations before releasing a big change, and switch to Auto once you are confident.
• Keep old releases instead of deleting Batch Setups; they are your safety net.