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15.17. Viewing a File's History
You can view a file's revision history using the history button.
Important: Additional versions of a form file are only created when you edit an existing file. The most recent edit automatically becomes the primary version of the file.
About Displayed Information
The following information is displayed when viewing a file's history:
- An entry for each version of the file
- Time and date stamp for each version (based on the time/date of the LincDoc server)
- The user that modified each version
- Options for manipulating a particular version (including viewing, editing, and deleting a particular version)
About History Privileges
User and group privileges can be used to control which users have access to version history.
For more information, see Security.
Allowing Versioning
You can specify whether or not versioning is available on a repository-by-repository basis. In other words, if you have multiple repositories, one can use versioning and one can have the feature turned off.
For more information, see Creating a Repository.
Accessing the History Dialog Box
A file's history information can be viewed by accessing the History for dialog box.
- Select the file whose history you want to view as described in Selecting a File, Folder, or Subfolder.
- Click the history button, or right-click the file and select history from the menu that appears.
The History for dialog box appears.
Note: You can click the refresh button at any time to verify that you are viewing the most recent history information.
Along with simply viewing the history, listed from the newest version down to the oldest version, you can perform the following actions, as desired:
- Viewing a Specific Version
- Downloading a Specific Version
- Editing a Specific Version
- Promoting a Specific Version (make an older version the current version). This option is only available for the older versions of the file, since promoting a version moves it to the top position.
- Deleting a Specific Version. This option is only available for the non-current versions of the file. You cannot delete the most recent (the current) version.
Viewing a Specific Version
You can view a specific version, including all non-removed older versions, by clicking the corresponding view button.
The final version of the file is opened in the Document Viewer.
Downloading a Specific Version
You can copy a specific version to your local system using the download button.
The file is saved to your local system. The exact process for saving the file differs based on your current web browser.
Editing a Specific Version
You can edit a specific version of a document, or edit a copy of a document, using the edit and edit copy buttons.
For more information on these options, and how they differ, see Editing a Document and Editing a Copy of a Document.
Promoting a Specific Version
You can move an older version to the top of the history list, making it the current version, using the promote button.
When the promote button is clicked, a copy of the selected version is given the current date/time stamp, and is moved to the top of the list. The original version is retained, with its original date/time stamp and location in the overall history list.
In the following example, the oldest version of a file (Version 0) has been promoted to the main version. Notice that all other versions have been shifted down, but retain their original version numbers. In addition, the original copy of the promoted version is still present, and the total number of versions has increased from 5 to 6.
Note: In the following example, notice that two versions of the file were previously deleted from the version history. This action was not part of the promotion process, but merely represents a sample file history that you might see in your environment.
Deleting a Specific Version
You can remove a specific version from a file's history using the delete version button. However, more than only history entry must exist. You cannot delete a file's history if only a single entry is present.
Note: The ability to delete file history is controlled by a security privilege (history_delete). If you have not been granted this security privilege, you will not be able to delete history files (you will not even see the delete version button). For more information, see Security.
The delete version button is highlighted below.
When a file version is deleted, the version is made inaccessible (all of its corresponding buttons are removed), and the version number is struck-through. However, a permanent record of the version remains present. In the following example, two versions have been deleted.