The protection of automation assets from accidental changes and data loss is the main purpose of version control. It is accessed using Workbench, and tracks events in the evolution of assets along with who made them, dates, times, and so on. This historical information contributes to maintaining the integrity of assets under version control and provides an auditing trail.
DocFusion uses a centralized repository for version control. It is a system in which all assets are stored and managed in a single location that is protected by access control. This creates a basis for a robust document automation system.
Let's have a look at some of the main version control features of DocFusion:
Tracked Changes
Workbench builds historical information about any file in the repository by tracking check-in and check-out requests. They respectively release a file from the repository to be worked on, or puts it back. Information collected also includes the users who initiated changes, dates and times, file statuses and more.
Many features of version control are enabled because of historical data maintained by Workbench since it is serves as a comprehensive auditing trail of events and user activity.
File Locking
File-locking in Workbench facilitates collaboration and allows many users to work on the same automation assets without introducing conflict from their respective work. Locking doesn't need to be explicitly set either. When any user checks-out an asset from the repository to work on, Workbench automatically locks the file so that other users are prevented from simultaneously making changes. Meanwhile, the file is still available in read-only mode.
Access Control
The features of version control that a user has access to is governed by permissions. There are multiple levels of granularity that can be applied to a user's profile, such as the rights to view or modify assets. Permissions coupled with version control helps to prevent unauthorized access and manage who is allowed to work on which assets.
Status Icons
Items in Workbench always have a series of icons alongside them to indicate key pieces of information about that asset. From left to right, they indicate:
- Asset Type: e.g. document template, output chain or workflow.
- File Version: indicates whether the file version you have is new (has just been created), outdated, latest version, etc.
- Version Control Status: whether the file is checked-in, checked-out, etc.
- Pending versions: If any changes that were made to the file were marked as pending.
Other Features
- Distinguishing current from previous versions of an asset.
- Creating changes to an asset that constitutes a new version.
- Rolling back unwanted changes to any asset.
- Restoring specific versions of assets.
- The approval of assets for publishing (automation tasks).
- Viewing and annotating the history of an automation asset.
- Undoing user actions on repository assets.