Activate multiple editions of the same application concurrently when you are validating before production, piloting an application to a select group of users, or rolling out a branch when an application upgrade requires a corresponding change on identifiable branches of client machines.
Each application edition must be active on a separate deployment target. When multiple editions of the same application are concurrently available to users in the same environment, the on demand router (ODR) cannot differentiate between the active editions without some information available to process the request and route it to the intended edition. You can use routing rules or unique interfaces for each application edition to prevent ambiguity.
Edition 1.0 is serviced by the routing rule that you create for that particular edition, and edition 2.0 is serviced by its specific routing rule.
To run a preproduction test of an application edition in the production environment with a selected set of users, you can clone the deployment target, including its resource and security definitions, and activate the target edition on the cloned environment. Use routing rules to direct the ODR to divert a selected subset of users to the application edition.
Additionally, to pilot your application, you can use routing rules to separate the pilot users on edition 2.0 from the general users on edition 1.0.
In the case of branch rollout, use routing rules to direct each branch to the appropriate edition. As the client code at each successive branch updates, the server-side routing rules can be updated to qualify the clients from the newly updated branch to be sent to the appropriate edition.
For cases where the routing rules are insufficient to differentiate user requests or where the user prefers an alternative to routing rules, each edition can be given its own unique URI and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) name. Unlike routing rules, unique interfaces for each edition are exposed to the application users. Therefore, you must choose the appropriate name to drive the appropriate edition.
Perform validation to test the availability and resiliency of your new edition under realistic conditions. For more information, read about creating routing policies for application editions.