Snapshots

Snapshots capture the state of a branch at a specific moment in time.

You can create snapshots that are based on the current or past state of a branch, including releases and change activities.

There are different ways to take snapshots:

You can take a snapshot of the current state of a branch by clicking Take Snapshot within the branch.
Decision Center automatically creates a snapshot of a release or change activity when you create it, or of a release when a change activity merges with the release.
You can take a snapshot that is based on what the state of a branch was at a previous moment in time. To do so, follow this procedure:
1. Go to the branch and click Timeline.
2. Make sure that you are showing All events and that no filters are applied.
3. In the timeline, scroll to the time that you want to capture in the snapshot.
4. Hover along the vertical axis of the timeline, which separates the timeline events.
5. Click the snapshot icon that appears on the vertical axis. Enter a name and a description and click Create.

You can find the snapshots in the Snapshots tab. When you consult a snapshot, you cannot edit its contents.

In addition to the snapshots that you create, Decision Center automatically creates snapshots. For example, when you create a change activity, Decision Center makes a snapshot of the initial state of the activity. Also, when a change activity is completed, Decision Center automatically takes a snapshot of the parent release before merging the contents of the change activity.

Deployment snapshots can be taken automatically, and capture the state of the rules at the moment of deployment. They appear in the list of snapshots, and can be used to redeploy a decision service.

Key operations

By hovering over the row of a snapshot, you can display the icons for the key operations, including Rename, Restore, Clone to branch, Compare, and Delete:

Rename: If you have the appropriate permissions, you can rename existing snapshots from the tab.
Restore: You can restore a snapshot so that it becomes the current state of a branch. To restore a snapshot of a release, you must be the owner of the release or an administrator. The release must be in progress, and all the activities of the release must be complete or canceled.
Clone to branch: New in 8.10.4 You can also create a branch from a snapshot in a branch by clicking the Clone to branch icon. This command produces a branch that is based on the contents of the snapshot. This feature is not available for snapshots created from decision governance framework branches (activies or releases).
Compare: You can consult snapshots, and compare them with other snapshots in a branch, or with the current state of the branch.
Delete: If you have the appropriate permissions, you can delete existing snapshots from the tab.