Document Versions

To track the evolution of your documents through the project lifecycle, users can create unique document versions at various stages of the project. Users create the new version by checking in a document or content item. Creating a document or content version provides you with an exact record of the document as it was at the time the check-in operation was performed.

A new document version is created by selecting Document > Check In. A new content version is created by selecting Content > Check In.

Each created version has a unique identifier in the following format: Live Item ID-Major version.minor version. For example: 7201-1.0 7201-1.1, or 7201-2.0. A new version ID is displayed only when an item has been versioned. Live items continue to display their internal IDs with no version information. For more information on working with document and content versions, see Windchill RV&S Help Center.

After checking in various document and content versions, users can include selected versions as part of a document baseline. The selected document version should contain the information required for the specific project milestone. For example, the selected document version could be used to create a document baseline for a design document, a contract, or a bill of materials.

After checking in a document version, users can then view the created version but cannot perform any significant edits on it. In addition, users cannot modify any fields on the document version unless they have been marked as editable by an administrator.

As part of a document baseline, you can apply a label to the document or content version.

When viewing a document version, all menu commands and toolbar buttons related to inserting, moving, copying, or deleting, are disabled in the Windchill RV&S GUI and web interface. In addition, when working with a document or content version, you cannot:

If a command does not support the use of a version ID, Windchill RV&S displays an error message when you enter the ID of a versioned document or content item. You cannot check in a versioned document or content item.

Although a document version represents a record of a document at a specific point in the document's history, some fields in the individual item versions may continue to update based on the field definition. These are known as live fields, indicated by the live field icon (

For computed fields, you can configure whether or not they update based on the computed field definition.

The following fields always update based on the field definition:

• phase fields (an icon displays if the referenced field is configured to update based on the field definition)

• field value attribute fields (an icon displays if the referenced field is configured to update based on the field definition, which can include any of the above fields, a field on a live item, or where the backing relationship is editable)

The live field icon (

) displays based on the current field configuration, not the field configuration at the time of versioning. For example, changing a field configuration to be editable or allow updates after versioning displays a live field icon in all item versions.

Item Backed Pick List (IBPL) fields are copied as part of a document version. The copied IBPL fields reference the item IDs that existed at the time you checked in the version; however, the value displayed for the IBPL field is the value of the live item as the item is now. The value of pick list itself is recorded and does not change; however values displayed for the IBPL fields can change if the referenced live item is changed.

Query Backed Relationship (QBR) fields are not copied as part of a document version. The items returned by the QBR on the document version are calculated as of the time of viewing, based on the current field definition. The values of the returned items are as the item is now. The values are not displayed historically.

Relationship fields are copied as part of a document version. Relationship field values in the document version always point to live items and not to the versioned items.

To be copied to the document version, the backward relationship field must allow multiple values. For example, to copy all relationship fields, the items that are related to the versioned content must allow multiple values. A multi-valued relationship field that is included in the version will contain the same relationship field values as the live items it points to.

If the document has a backward relationship field that allows only single values, Windchill RV&S displays the Ignore single-valued relationship fields dialog box. Under Details, you can review information on the relationship fields that will not be included in the version.

To have a relationship field configured to allow multiple values, contact your Windchill RV&S administrator.

The Shares and Shared By relationships fields are not copied as part of a document version. If the original document content had values for the Shares or Shared By relationship field, the resulting content version will not contain any values for Shares or Shared By.

Since document and content versions cannot be changed, no values are shown for Shares or Shared By relationship fields.

If you view a versioned content item outside the context of a document, the value of the Contains or Contained By relationship field will be unknown (or ambiguous). If a Contains or Contained By relationship field has an unknown value, Windchill RV&S displays an ambiguous field value icon (

) and a tooltip to indicate that the value of the field cannot be calculated.

If a field value attribute (FVA) field uses the Contained by field, the FVA field may be ambiguous and displays the ambiguous computation icon.

There are situations where fields with computed expressions cannot be computed. To indicate an unknown (or ambiguous) computed field value in a versioned item, Windchill RV&S displays an ambiguous computation icon (

Source links are copied as part of a check in and are not re-evaluated to ensure they are still valid links. Source Traces are not copied as part of a check in.

For additional information on document versioning, including the handling of trace relationships, see the Windchill RV&S Help Center.

Test Steps are not currently supported for versioned items. When creating a new version, Test Steps and Shared Test Steps fields are not copied to the new version. The Windchill RV&S client WEB, GUI, and CLI display a message indicating that Test Steps are not supported for versioned items. The Windchill RV&S API displays an empty value.

In addition, the following limitations apply:

• Review Session relationships are not copied to the new version because they are a single-valued relationship field. (Only multi-valued relationships fields can be copied.)

Windchill RV&S provides trigger methods and JavaBeans that allow the administrator to define custom document versioning solutions. A custom solution can be used to:

• automatically check in a document based on workflow changes, for example, a state transition such as when state is “Review”

• block or prevent certain edits, such as attempting to edit a document that has un-versioned changes

Information about the Windchill RV&S trigger methods and JavaBeans is located in the Event Trigger Java Documentation on the Windchill RV&S Server home page located at:

If a document and its content were previously revisioned using the Increment Revision command in Integrity 10.4 or earlier and they contained no significant edits, performing an initial check in of the document or content successfully creates a document version or content version. This applies to a previously revisioned document and its content only.