About Version Control

Overview

Versioning control allows users to view, maintain, and navigate back to older versions through history, documentation, and checkpoints. Decisions has built-in audit mechanisms that save every change that is made. The versioning capabilities include making copies and templates, importing/ exporting options, and a Designer repository.

History, Documentation & Checkpoints

The History feature allows users to find work from a specific time and date. When a Flow is opened, the history is automatically stored. A user can roll back the history to view changes made to make corrections or to view and analyze an old error. 

History can be recalled through a manually created checkpoint. Checkpoints are defined by the user to capture and define a specific point in time. Users can define a point in time to revert back to at a later date. The difference between a checkpoint and a normal autosave is that a checkpoint can have a specific name and time to capture.

Making Copies and Templates

Copying Items

In the Design Studio, users can duplicate an exact copy of an item using one of two methods. The first method is to copy a single item. When a Flow is copied, it is important to view its contents to ensure that it does not have dependencies. For example, if a Form is used inside a Flow, the copy of the Flow will point to the original Form. If the Form is changed within the copied Flow, it will alter the original Form. If a copy of the Form is needed, that Form will also need to be copied separately and remapped in the Flow copy. The original Flow can continue to run as long as needed, and changes can be made to the new copied Flow.

The second method allows the user to copy an entire folder. This method respects the relationships of all items being copied so that no remapping is needed. In the case of the previous example, the Flow and Form would both be copied, and the copied Form would automatically be mapped in the copied Flow.

Creating Templates

A template will create a copy that can be stored as a step or as a Designer option. This feature allows Designer Elements and steps to be saved and reused. The Designer option is useful for setting up a pre-configured Flow that will be used multiple times as a starting point or to save configurations on a step that requires a lot of configuration. 

Import/Export Options

Users are able to import and export a single item or an entire project. This feature allows users to move things from one environment to another to save different project versions. When a project is imported or exported, they are saved into a zip file.

Designer Repository

The Designer Repository is a separate installation of Decisions. After the installation, navigate to System > Settings > Designer Repository Settings and turn on the Repository setting. This specialized file server stores all the exported files of various projects created in Decisions. The Repository stores the files and keeps track of the history of every version of a project that has ever been uploaded to the repository.