You can create different versions of content to maintain
a history of changes and to control which users can change the content
at a particular point in time. The set of versions for a single document
is called a version series. You can implement a two-level versioning
scheme, in which a document version is either a major or minor version.
Minor versions typically denote an in-progress document, whereas a
major version typically denotes a completed document.
In addition to version numbers, the system maintains a state property
that indicates the current state of each version of the document.
You can configure the names that are associated with these states
to more closely match your document management processes. The states
are as follows:
- In Process
- A work-in-progress version. Only one version of a version series
can be in process.
- Reservation
- A document that is checked out for modification. Only the latest
version of a version series can be reserved.
- Released
- A document that is released as a major version. Only one major
version of a version series can be released.
- Superseded
- A version that is superseded by another version. Many versions
in the version series can be superseded.
The following table illustrates how two-level versioning works.
Bold text indicates property values that changed as a result of the
user action.
User action |
Description |
Resulting version and status changes |
Add |
Bob adds a document as a minor version. |
|
Check out |
Bob checks out the document. |
|
Save content |
Bob saves the reservation at the end of the
day, but is not ready to check in a new version yet. |
|
Check in |
Bob makes more changes and checks in the document
as a minor version. |
|
Check out |
Susan checks out the document and makes additional
changes. |
|
Check in |
Susan checks in the document as a minor version. |
|
Promote version |
Bob reviews his document and determines that
it is ready, so he promotes it to a major version. |
|
Additional capabilities in the versioning model are as follows:
- The system can be configured to apply security policies that in
turn automatically apply different access rights for major and minor
versions, making it easy to enforce a different viewing audience for
in-progress documents.
- A document can be promoted from a minor to a major version without
requiring the content to be modified.
- A document can be demoted from a major version to a minor version,
which is useful if the document was incorrectly promoted to a major
version.
- A document can be saved to the object store before it is checked
in. Saving the document reduces the chance of losing content that
is stored only on a user's local system.
- Versioning can be enabled and disabled on a document class level
for cases when multiple versions are not required.
- A version can be frozen so that the custom properties associated
with it cannot be changed.
- A user who has the right to view the document can view all versions
in the user interface.
- Versions can be deleted.