Business Space Versions and Version Control

To configure an application is to configure a business space. At the end of the day it is the business space that must contain all the configuration elements – business objects, business rules, processes etc. The default business space is created during Aware IM installation (see the Installation Guide). This business space is usually the one that represents the application.

Application configuration is not a trivial process – it involves detailed preparation as the configurator has to collect and analyse requirements of the system and think how these requirements are translated into business objects, business rules etc, and it usually evolves over time as new requirements and new business rules appear or old requirements are changed or become irrelevant.

To help manage changes of a business space Aware IM includes a built-in version control mechanism. It allows configurators to make and test changes to a business space without affecting the normal operation of the system. When a change to a business space needs to be made a new business space version must be created and the change must be made in that version. Thus all elements of a configuration are always contained within some business space version.

With the version control mechanism configurators can also keep track of changes made to the application over time. For example, one can find out which rules and processes were in effect at a particular date and time or what specific information was being registered by the system by inspecting a particular business space version that was current at that time.

Some business space versions are treated differently from others. This treatment is based on their state – this is explained below.

Most business versions undergo the following lifecycle:

The version is created (either as a blank version or from some base version – see Major and Minor Versions) in the NEW state. The configurator makes changes to the version by creating or making modifications to the configuration elements, such as business objects, business rules etc
Once the configurator is happy with the version she makes it available for testing and the state of the version becomes UNDER TEST (see Testing Business Space Version). At this moment the configurator can test the version in the Operation Mode to verify that the changes work as expected. Aware IM keeps the version being tested separately from the current operating version, so the testing is not going to disrupt operation activities (see Testing Mode). If testing discovers that more changes need to be made to the version the version is moved back to the NEW state and step 2 is repeated.
Once the configurator is satisfied with the version she makes it operational (see Publishing Business Space Version). Aware IM makes any necessary adjustments and starts using the updated configuration information in the operation mode. The state of the version becomes CURRENT.
When some other version is made operational the version becomes OBSOLETE. It can be deleted or kept for historical purposes. It is also possible to return to the obsolete version and make it operational again if for whatever reason the new version has been proven not satisfactory.