Updated: November 25, 2013

Trihedral Engineering Limited, Bedford, Canada 1.902.835.1575 info@trihedral.com / www.trihedral.com Trihedral, Inc., Orlando, Florida 1.407.888.8203 1.800.463.2783 (North America) Trihedral UK Limited, Aberdeen, Scotland +44 (0) 1224 258910 © Trihedral Engineering Limited 2013 © Trihedral Engineering Limited 2012

VTScada Application Version Control (AVC)

Optional Feature

VTScada Application Version Control (AVC) provides change traceability,

enhances application management in networked environments and greatly

improves recovery from unexpected effects of configuration. Every application

includes a repository of incremental configuration changes from version to version.

AVC is an optional toolset that provides access to this version history. It is available

as part of a VTScada Full Development license and is available as a standard

feature on System Integrator licenses. Note: AVC maintains versions of

VTScada™ applications rather than VTScada core product releases.

Easy-to-use features allows you to:

1. See a full change history of the application.

2. Identify incremental changes made in each version.

3. Switch to any previous known good version.

4. Merge changes in a multi-developer environment.

Run Version Control in one of two modes:

Automatically Deploy ON - Changes are automatically sent out in real time to all

application computers. This is applicable to a single computer application or when

first developing an application (i.e. system integrator).

Automatically Deploy OFF - Changes are applied to the local computer only. They must be manually deployed to send them to all application computers

and before they will be included in a VTScada application ChangeSet. This mode is applicable to a networked application or multi-developer environment.

Version Control works with the change management features of VTScada, in particular Deploy Changes and Revert Changes. These features are still

available even if Version Control has not been purchased. Remember that Automatically Deploy is ON by default when updating an application to

VTScada10 from a previous version. It can be switched OFF if not appropriate.

Change Records and the Version Log:

When local changes are made to tags, displays, scripts, security, and other parts of an application, they are stored in a Local Change record. If changes are

deployed, a new Deployed Change record is created and the user is prompted for a comment (e.g. “Added station graphics”). Once deployed, changes are

sent to all computers running the application. Local and Deployed change records are placed in a reverse chronological Version Log, which can be accessed

by any authorized user with the VTScada Application Version Control option enabled on his/her VTScada Full Development workstation.

Note: When Automatically Deploy is turned ON, the Version Log will only display ‘D’ versions (e.g. Worksta-tionName-D8), since all local changes are

automatically deployed and no local changes ever exist.

The Version Log keeps track of which version is running on each application computer. This is essential in networked applications and those with distributed

client/server topology. The administrator may monitor the entire network from a single location.

Traceability

Each record in the Version Log includes a unique version number, date / timestamp, the user who made the changes, the workstation on which the changes

were made and a comment. An administrator may drill down into the Version Log and see details of all incremental changes made within any version. A

color-code legend helps quickly identify the ‘from’ and ‘to’ states of each changed element. Note: When Automatically Deploy is turned ON, the ‘D’ versions

(e.g. WorkstationName-D8) will include all incremental change details. When it is turned OFF, the ‘L’ versions (e.g. WorkstationName-L15) will include all

incremental change details.

Switching Versions

In the event that changes are deployed which negatively affect the application, the administrator can undo these changes by selecting a previous version in

the Log and switching to it. The selected version is duplicated and becomes the current version.

Reverse Version Changes (i.e. Version Rollback)

Reversing a version change creates a new version of the application and removes all changes from the reversed version.

IMPORTANT: Avoid reversing changes if later work depends on changes in the version being reversed. Although nothing is erased, there could be

undesirable results. For example, reversing the creation of a tag will affect displays, calculations and other features that use the tag.

Merge Version Changes

If either the Switch to Version or Reverse Version features have been used, later versions may be re-introduced to an application using the Merge Version

feature. For example, if you have switched from version 10 to version 5, you may select version 7 and merge its changes back into the application.

Remember, if Automatically Deploy is turned ON, the actions above will generate a new ‘D’ version which will be automatically deployed to all computers on

the network. When Automatically Deploy is turned OFF, the actions will create a new ‘L’ version which must be deployed manually.

VTScada is a trademark of Trihedral Engineering Limited