Manage workflow versions

Introduction

Whenever you save changes to a workflow, NL Flow takes a snapshot of the workflow before the changes and saves it in its memory as a version of the workflow. If the previous version was published in one or more runtimes, it remains published, while the new version created by applying the changes is not automatically published.
Versions are automatically numbered progressively starting from zero.

Browse versions

To access the versions of a workflow, select workflow history on the right side of the main toolbar.
The list of versions appears on the left, in the History panel that is docked by default to the left edge of the page. The diagram of the selected version is shown in the canvas.

To undock and re-dock the History panel, use the selector in the top right corner of the panel.
When the panel is undocked, an indicator of the selected version appears on the left side of the canvas toolbar: to make the undocked panel appear and disappear, select this indicator.

Each version has a dedicated box in the panel that shows summary information:

Progressive version number, assigned automatically by NL Flow.
Date and time of creation of the version, that is the moment in which the changes were saved.
Author of the changes.
Number of blocks and computational requirements of the workflow in terms of CPU and memory.
Publication status. If a version is published, a colored icon is shown for each runtime in which the workflow is published, flanked by the colored circle that indicates the publication status.

You can filter the list in various ways:

To filter the list of versions based on the author:
1. Select Author at the top of the panel.
2. Select the authors you are interested in.
  - To filter the list of authors based on their name, enter one or more characters in the search box at the top of the list. To cancel the filter, select the X icon on the right in the search box or empty the search box.
3. Select Apply.
To clear the filter, do as above, but in step two deselect the authors.
To filter the list by creation date:
1. Select Dates at the top of the panel.
2. Select a date or a range of days from the calendar:
  - To indicate an exact date, select the equals symbol above the calendar and then select the day.
  - To indicate all the days before a date, select the less-than symbol above the calendar and then select the day immediately after the date.
  - To indicate all the days after a date, select the greater-than symbol above the calendar and then select the day immediately before the date.
  - To indicate all the days in a range, select the greater-then less-than symbol above the calendar and then select the two dates at the ends of the range.
3. Select Apply.
To clear the filter:
1. Select Dates at the top of the panel.
2. Select again the symbol above the calendar you previously selected.
3. Select Apply.

An active filter is indicated by a blue dot in the Author or Dates selector.

To filter the list by version number, enter one or more digits contained in the version numbers you are looking for in the search box above the list. To clear the filter, select the X icon to the right of the search box or clear the search box.

Get detailed information about a version

To see the diagram of a version, just select the version in the left panel.
The diagram is read-only, it cannot be edited.

To pan the diagram, drag an empty point of the canvas.
To recenter the diagram in the canvas when is partially or fully panned out of sight, select Recenter in the lower right corner of the canvas.
To zoom in and out, select Zoom in or Zoom out on the canvas toolbar or use the mouse wheel.
To get summary information about a block, hover over the block's hexagon.
To get the detail of the condition associated with an outgoing connection from a Switch block, hover over the condition symbol in the middle of the connection.
To see the values of the properties of a block:
- Double-click the hexagon.
Or:
- Select Show components map on the ellipsis menu to the right in the canvas toolbar, then choose View component for the desired block.
The values are displayed in a pop-up panel.
To locate and select a block in a complex design workflow:
1. Select Show components map from the ellipsis menu on the right of the canvas toolbar. A dialog appears with the list of components.
2. If the component is not immediately identifiable, filter the list of components based on component name or block ID:
  - Type at least three characters in the search box and press Enter. The list will only show components with matching properties. To clear the filter select the X icon in the search box or clear the search box and press Enter.
3. Choose Select component. The block gets highlighted and the diagram is centered around it.
To view the configuration of shared services, used in case of asynchronous publishing, select Shared services on the ellipsis menu on the right of the canvas toolbar. A dialog appears with a column of information for each of the services.
To view the formal definition of the workflow's input JSON, if any, select Input format definition in the ellipsis menu on the right of the canvas toolbar.

Clone a version

A workflow version can be used as a template to create a new clone workflow. To do this:

Select the desired version from the list, then choose Clone in new workflow on the canvas toolbar. A dialog appears.
You can change the proposed name and description for the clone workflow.
Select Clone: the context changes and the clone workflow opens in the editor.

Restore an old version

It is not possible to restore a previous version, however it is possible to obtain an equivalent result by creating a new version of the workflow identical to one of those preceding the last one.

Select the desired version from the list, then choose Restore this version on the canvas toolbar. The context changes and the workflow editor is shown, with the diagram pre-drawn identically to the starting version. You must then save the workflow to create the new version.

Publishing and unpublishing

As mentioned in the introduction, a published workflow reflects a given version, regardless of how many other versions were created later. However, if you select Publish on the main toolbar, what you get is the publication of the current version of the workflow, which is the latest, no matter the version you selected: you cannot publish or re-publish an old version.
When you unpublish a workflow from a runtime, you unpublish the version that was published, no matter how old, so be careful because you will not be able to directly re-publish that version later. However, you can achieve the equivalent of publishing or republishing an old version of the workflow by either restoring it—in effect creating a new version—and publishing the workflow, or by cloning the old version into a separate workflow and then publishing that.