Version control settings

For IBM® CMIS for Content Manager, the version control settings of Content Manager EE affects the version control settings of IBM CMIS for Content Manager when you check in a document.

In Content Manager EE, document types are defined with one of three possible version control settings. The name of the setting can vary depending on the application that you administer or view the document type through. Depending on the interface, each of the three settings might be named differently, as follows:

  1. Never or No Versioning
  2. Manual, Application Controlled, Prompt, or Explicit
  3. Always, Automatic, or Implicit

When Never create versioning is selected, IBM CMIS for Content Manager does not create new versions when a document is checked in or updated. There is always one version of a document.

When Always create versioning is selected, IBM CMIS for Content Manager creates a new version of the document whenever there is an update. You can create as many new versions as you want and you do not get an error message if you create several versions with the same content.

When Prompt to create versioning is selected, IBM CMIS for Content Manager creates a new version of the document if it is checked in as a major version. If the document is checked in as a minor version, the existing version is updated. For example, if you are working on document version 2, and call a checkin request with the major parameter set to true, a new version 3 is created. If you had set the major parameter to false, version 2 is updated. For updateProperties requests, the existing version is updated.

Important: As best practice, all operations must be performed from the private working copy (PWC) or draft, which can be created during check out of a document. User can perform all operations, such as set content and update properties on the private working copy that was created. User can check in or cancel check out on the private working copy. Based on version policy, the checkin operation might create a version or update the existing version of document. The cancel checkout operation on document deletes the private working copy.

The Version history and the properties of a document version display a snapshot of the document when the version was created or last modified. The version entries are copies of the document itself and have no separate version entry properties than the properties and binary content of the document. All values that are displayed pertain to the actual values of the document for the particular copy as a document version. Therefore, the created date and the last modified date are the dates when the document was created or last modified for a particular version. The creation date is always the date when the first published version of the document was created. Regardless of which version, the document was always created at the same original date. When you create the later versions of the document, the creation date is not updated and still displays the date when the document was first created. However, the last modified date shows the date when the document was last modified within the particular document version. The last modified date listed for the document version is usually the date when the version was created or last modified if the document version was modified after it was created.