The Versions view provides an overview of the version history of an item and offers options to change versions and compare the selected version with another version. In addition, the view is also one of the few views where you can delete an item. 


Prerequisites


The view can be accessed either via the Versions menu option in the CM (Change Management) ribbon group or the View drop-down list. 


Getting Acquainted with the View

The view consists of 3 sections: 

  • Version history
  • Selected version display
  • Compared version display



The pane splitter between the top and bottom panes can be dragged to adjust the pane sizes to fit your needs. 

Vertical and horizontal scrollbars will appear should the displayed content require them. 


Tip: At any time, you can adjust column width to the content by using Ctrl "+". To reset to default width, use Ctrl "-".


Version History

The top pane of the view displays the version history of the selected item. When you load the view, the selected item will be pre-selected (in blue) in the history pane. In the above example, version (2) is selected in the tree. 

The version history includes the following information by default:

  • The first column illustrates the version history of the item as blue dots connected with lines. For a simple version history, this will be a simple line of versions. 
    More complex cases, for branched and merged version histories are described in the Complex versioning: branch and merge section of the Help.
  • Status: indicates the status of each version
  • Name: shows the name of each version. Note that the name of the item may change between different versions.
  • Creation Date: displays the date the version was created
  • Last Changed: indicates the date of the most recent change to:
    • Name of the item was changed
    • The Description of the item was changed
    • Attributes of the item was changed.
    • Any parts of the item was changed, including part attributes. (Does however not include changes to the defining item of a part.)
  • Last Changed By: indicates the user who made the last changes according to the Last Changed property
  • Change log: lists the change log of each version. This is optional, and can be set using the Edit change log option of the context menu of the view as described below.


Tip: See Adding Additional Columns for how to display additional information on-the-fly if needed. For example, see Viewing Library Information for One Item in Checking if an Item has Versions in Different Libraries.


Selected and Compared Version Display

Below the top version history pane, the left-hand section displays the version information for the selected version in the tree. If you click on another version in the version history pane, the content of that version will be listed in the right-hand section. In the below example, version (2) is selected in the tree, and version (1) has been selected in the version history for the version comparison. 



Comparing Versions

The version comparison in the view enables you to compare the selected version with another version, and includes the following elements in the compare: 

  • Properties
  • Attributes
  • Description
  • Single level of Parts


The view uses color highlighting to illustrate version differences between the versions and missing content. 

Just like in the Overview view, the sub-sections in the comparison display can be expanded or collapsed as needed. 



Tip: Having trouble viewing the version comparison in the bottom pane after a recent upgrade? Try closing the item and reopening it before loading the Versions view.


Properties and Attributes

Property (Name and Version) and attribute changes are highlighted in yellow. If there is no highlighting, then no changes have been made. The Version property will, of course, always display yellow when comparing two different versions. In this example, the Modes attribute value has changed from "Parked, Running" in version 1 to "Running" in version 2 so it displays yellow. 



Description

Changes to the Description content are indicated in red or yellow. 

  • Sections that are missing in the other version are highlighted in red.
  • Sections that are different in the two versions are highlighted in yellow.


The below example shows that the Description in the compared-to version has missing content. Additional text has been added to the selected version.



Below, a word is spelled differently and is, therefore, highlighted as being different. 



Note: In some cases, it is not possible to distinguish between missing vs. different in which case the highlighting may be either of the two.


The Description content of an item version in "Work" cannot be edited via the Versions view. 


Parts

The view enables you to compare one level of parts for the selected item. Parts displayed in white on both versions means there is no change to the part. 


Yellow highlighting of a property on both versions means that there is a changed version. 



Gray on one version and full yellow on the other version means that there is a new part (or an old one has been removed depending on if you comparing with a newer or older version). In the below example, 3 Design requirements are included in the selected version of the item, but are not included in the compared-to version.



Tip: See Adding Additional Columns for how to display additional information on-the-fly if needed.


It is possible to right-click on a part and open it in a new tab, or copy it's xID for use


Note: The indication of parts is based on the parts themselves, and not by the items that define the parts. This means that if you remove a part, and then create a new part using the same item, SystemWeaver, and the Versions view will consider the new part to be a different part compared to the previous version. When looking at the parts they may seem identical, but in fact they are different.

View Options

The Versions view offers a number of tools for working with item versions. 


Setting Version Text

The Set version text option can be used to name the selected version. By default, versions have no name, but you can give a version of an item an informative name to identify it.


In the Version history pane, right-click on the version for which you want to add version text, and click Set version text.



The Set Version Text dialog will display. Enter the text and click OK.



The text will display to the left of the version number. It can be modified at any time using the same operation.



Note: You can set the version text even if the version status is not "Work". You must have "Items Change" access to the item's home library. Changes to version text do not affect the item's Last changed (time or user) values. 


Editing a Change Log Entry

The Versions view enables you to add a change log text that describes the reason or purpose of a change or a version. 


In the Version history pane, right-click on the version for which you want to add change log text, and click Edit change log entry.


The Edit Version Info dialog will display. Enter the text and click OK. 



The text will display in the Change log column. It can be modified at any time using the same operation. 



Note: You can set the version text even if the version status is not "Work". You must have "Items Change" access to the item's home library. 


Tip: To include this information in configurable views or to retrieve it via the API, use the field code VersionInfo.


Setting and Changing the Version Status

Just like in the Structure tree, Status view, and Complete Status view, the Versions view provides options for modifying a version's status, including taking out a new version, as described in An Overview of Item Status. Your available options will depend on the selected item's current status.


Right-click on the version and make a selection from the available options, i.e., Freeze, Thaw, Release, and New version. 



Branching Options

Normally, you will be working with simple, straight versioning. However, you may run into the need to branch and merge branches. To learn more about complex versioning with branches, see the Complex versioning: branch and merge section of the application Help. 


Deleting a Version

It is possible to delete a version of an item, but you can only delete the latest version, i.e., there are no newer versions of the selected item, and some additional conditions must be met for an item to be deleted. See Deleting Items and Parts for more information on the prerequisites for item deletion.


To delete an item via this view, right-click on the latest version and select Delete version:



The Delete items dialog will display. Click Delete items to confirm your choice.

Showing Context Versions

The Show Context Versions operation retrieves the use of the different versions of the selected item in the context of the top item in the structure tree and displays this information in a top-item context column. To run this tool, right-click on any version in the view and select Show Context Versions. 



A new column will appear labeled after the top item in your structure tree, in this case "SystemWeaver Automotive Demonstration". 



It will show the use of the different versions of the selected item in the context of the top item in the structure tree. In this example for the "AC2" ECU, we can see that: 

  • Version 1 is used in versions 2, 3, and 4 of "SystemWeaver Automotive Demonstration"
  • Version 2 is used version 5, and
  • Version 3 is used in version 6 (which is the version selected in the top-item context shown in the tree)


Note: For extremely large structures, memory may be an issue when running this context operation. If memory becomes a problem, opening a smaller context should help.


Opening and Copying Versions

If you want to open or copy a specific version of the selected item, right-click on the version's row and select Open item or Copy accordingly. 



Comparing Attribute Values

There is an option to compare attribute values in a separate Compare window. It supports comparison of the following attribute types: 

  • Enumeration (Single)
  • String
  • Text
  • XML


To do the comparison, right-click on the attribute and select Compare [Attribute Name].



A read-only Compare pop-up will display the differences with the same highlighting as described above for Description. 


What's Next?

Learn about the view that lets you compare all levels of a selected structure.