About enabling versioning

Whether documents are versionable is enabled and disabled at the document class, not on individual documents. Once you create a new document using a versioning disabled class, that document is permanently non-versionable, it can never be checked out, and it cannot be converted into a versioning enabled document. There will always be only one document version in its version series.

Normal Content Engine object model rules apply to versioning disabled documents. Also, you can change any custom properties that were assigned to the document's class, provided they are modifiable. An example might be a description field; you could change the value of this description field, but this would not create a new version of the document. The effect of such a change, of course, is that no record of the change would be maintained anywhere in the document's properties or version history.

If a versioning disabled document is a Minor version, you can promote it to Major. Conversely, if it is a Major version, you can demote it to Minor. See Versioning actions.

Changing the versioning-enabled setting for a class (in either direction) does not affect existing document instances. In other words, the versionability of a document series is bound at the time the initial version is created and never changes. To see this behavior, set up a document class, make sure its Supports Versioning check box is selected, and add at least one document based on that class. Then clear the Supports Versioning check box on the document class' property sheet and add a different new document assigned to the class. Then try to check out that second document, and you will see that the object store prevents the checkout, whereas the other document that was added before you turned off versioning support can still be checked out.

Enterprise Manager user interface support

Document versioning is set on the document class, using the General tab. As explained above, note that the setting on the Support Versioning check box can be changed:

Versioning on a document class

The versioning setting on specific documents is inherited from the class. Note that the value of Versioning is read-only and cannot be changed:

Versioning on a specific document

 

Enable or disable versioning