About version control

Version states—Released, Unreleased, Superceded, Withdrawn

Version control can be enabled on a table by the GRANTA MI administrator in MI:Admin.  In version-controlled tables:

Once version control has been enabled for a table, each record and generic folder in the table has a version control 'state'.

Version state Description
Unreleased This is the 'unapproved' version of the record. Unreleased records
  • cannot be seen by Read users
  • can be seen by Write users in Edit mode
  • can be edited, so Write users can change the record or its data.
Released This is the 'approved' version. Approved records
  • can be seen by all users
  • cannot be edited by any user.
Superseded This is a released version of the record that has been 'superseded' by a later released version. Superceded records:
  • cannot be edited by any user
  • can be seen by all users when the current state of the record is 'released'
  • can only be seen by Write users when the current state of the record is 'withdrawn'.
Withdrawn This is a released version of the record that has been 'withdrawn' from use. Withdrawn records
  • cannot be edited by any user
  • cannot be seen by Read users.
  • can be seen by Write users in Edit mode, provided they have set the Show Withdrawn Records application option.

When version control is enabled for a table, records may be moved from one state to another as follows (you can click on the image to view the relevant help topic):

Record version control life cycle

These operations are covered in the following topics:

Note also that the Bulk Edit Version Control tool can be used to Release, Revert, Withdraw, or Reinstate a number of records at the same time.

Data versions

Attribute data and  metadata values in versioned records have an explicit version number. The attribute data version is related to the record version, and can be considered a sub-feature of the record version

Each attribute data value in a record has a version number that is incremented if the data value has been changed since the previous version of the record was released.

Between different versions of a record, the data for any specific attribute may be unchanged, and thus the same version of the data may be shared by multiple record versions.

Example: a record with eight different versions, might have only three versions of data for an attribute:

Record version

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Data version

1

2

3

The data version number may lag behind the record version number. It will never be greater than the record version number.

If version control has not been enabled for a table, none of data in the table has a version number.

Attribute data values do not have a version state

The data life cycle

Action

Description

Adding a new record

When the data is created in the unreleased record, it is given a version number of 1.

Editing an unreleased record

The data version number in an unreleased record is only incremented once, the first time the data is changed. After that, the data may be edited multiple times without incrementing the version number with every subsequent edit

Editing the metadata for an attribute does not affect the version number of the attribute data, only that of the metadata.

Releasing a record

When the record is released, the value for that data version is fixed. The data version number is not incremented.

Version information stored in the database

Some additional information is stored in the database with records and data as a result of version control.

Setting Description
Version Number Each record in the database will have a version number. When the record is created it is given a version number of 1. Each time a new unreleased instance of the record is created, the version number is incremented. Data within the record displays the same version number as the instance of the record.
Date of Operation

User Login

 Whenever the version control state of a record changes, the date of the change and the login of the user who made the change are stored. As some operations result in multiple state changes, some dates will be identical. For example, after a 'release' operation, the date of release of the new version and the date the old version was superseded will be identical.
Version Notes Whenever the version control state of a record changes, the user making the change can enter some explanatory text. The presence of this text is optional.
Change Notes Each time a record or its data is edited, the user making the change can enter some explanatory text. The presence of this text is optional. This information is stored in the database, however, at the present time, it cannot be displayed.

Searching for records by their version state

You can search for records by version state using the Record Filter. For example: