Fileset Revisions

Fileset Revisions Overview

What

Fileset (payload) revisions allow you maintain two (or more) different versions of the same fileset within one FileWave fileset object.

When/Why

The above description might not knock your socks off, but we are pretty excited about this, and think you will be too!  Consider this scenario:

We are currently deploying Firefox (v79) to all of the devices in the environment.  But v80 of Firefox is now out, and we want to upgrade.  Previously we had to either duplicate the FileWave fileset and change the content of it, or create a brand new fileset from scratch.  Then, when we had to remove the association for v79 from our test devices and add a new association for v80.  And, assuming all was good, we then had to remove the old association for all devices, and replace it with the new one.  Finally, if we were worried about the possible interruption of service by removal of the old app, we might have had to play a bit of a shell game with the timing to make sure customers weren't impacted by the upgrade.

Not anymore!

How

Fileset revisions allow you put version 80 of Firefox in the very same fileset in which you had v79.  Then, rather than removing associations, you would just change the revision the association uses.  And, we take care all of that complicated fileset timing stuff for you.  In subsequent articles (linked below), we'll go into all of the specifics, but here is a sneak preview of setting a revision in an association:

You may be thinking to yourself: "This sounds complicated, and I don't want to use revisions."  There are two responses: First, you absolutely don't have to use them if you don't want to.  If you choose to ignore revisions, then everything will continue to work exactly the way it has for you in the past.  Rest assured though, Fileset revisions aren't actually complicated, and you may find they really make things easier for you.

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Associating a Fileset Revision

What

When you attempt to associate a fileset that has revisions, you'll notice a slightly different workflow, where you are asked to select a revision to associate.  (Associating a fileset that has no revisions functions as it always has)

When/Why

Assume our same Firefox fileset, containing two revisions for v79 and v80.  When we create a new association for this fileset, we need to tell the system which revision (v79 or v80) that we want to use.

How

Selecting the revision we want to do is very simple, since the FileWave admin just asks us which one we want to use as you'll see below:

You may ask yourself, "What is the 'default' option I see in that menu?"  That is a great question and we'll talk about that super-helpful option in another article you'll find linked below.

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Editing Filesets that have Revisions

What

Of course from time to time you want to edit your pre-existing filesets.  How does editing a fileset change if you have multiple revisions?

When/Why

Assume again that we have a Firefox fileset that has two revisions...one v79 and the other v80.  Assume that we want to change a file in the v80 fileset, or even change a file in both.  How do we know which fileset revision we are changing?

How

In both the fileset editor and the script editor you will now see a new drop down menu that allows you to identify which revision of the fileset you are working on.  See below, where we are looking at v79 in the fileset window, and v80 in the script editor:

Switching which fileset you are editing in either window is as simple as changing the value in the drop-down.  And, if you just want to do filesets the same way you always have, you can safely ignore that drop-down altogether.

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Managing Revisions

What

There are quite a number of things we can do to "manage" revisions.  We can create new revisions, edit them, delete them, and set default revisions.

When/Why

Our management options breakdown as follows:

How

The thing that all of the options listed above have in common is they are all accessed in the same way, through the "Manage Revisions" button in the Fileset Editor, the Script Editor, or the Fileset Properties window, as shown below:

Each of the management options is detailed in the articles linked below.

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"Default" Revisions

What

What are default revisions?  An excellent question indeed.  Default revisions are a way of marking a specific revision of a Fileset as the "default", regardless of what it is called.  Keep reading, and you'll see how very useful this is, and how our great developers try to make your job easier on an everyday basis.

When/Why

We are going to use our example again of v79 and v80 of Mozilla Firefox.  Assume for a moment that we have v79 assigned to all devices right now in two associations as shown below:.:

If you'll look closely, you'll see that the "Production" group has an association to the revision <default> (v79) and the "Beta Testers" group is associated to v79.  Effectively, this is exactly the same for both groups...v79 is installed.  But, let's take a look below at what happens when we want to upgrade to v80 in the environment.

How

We aren't just going to assign v80 to all devices right away...as always, we want to test first, so with our patch testers group we'll edit their association as follows:

Once we save this association and update the model, all patch testers will get the new version.  No deleting of the association or creating a new one is required.

Now, assume that all testing goes well, and we are ready to release to production.  Now, we could edit the association for "production", but assume for a second that we had ten such associations...would we want to edit all ten of them?  In a word, no.  But, if you remember, the association above to production was not v79, but rather Default v79...which means the association is just to the "default" revision of the fileset.

So, we can simply edit the properties of the fileset itself and change the "default" to v80 instead.

Once we save that change, and update the model, you'll see the change reflected in the association:

And, upon next check-in, all "Production" devices will upgrade to v80.

Remember, we take care of the timing of this transition between versions...so you don't have to worry about the transition timing.

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Creating a New Revision

What

Creating a new fileset is the same as it always has been, but in some way, shape or fashion we need the ability to create new fileset revisions before we can use them.

When/Why

Typically, we'll want to use fileset revisions whenever we expect to continually upgrade an application...so, in most cases basically.  In this case, we'll look at how to create a v81 revision of Firefox.

How

Adding a new revision is done from the "Manage Revisions" view by clicking the plus icon:

Note that in this case, we chose "Empty" because we don't want the files from the previous revision.  But, if we had custom scripts or anything else like that, we would probably duplicate the previous revision instead.  Once the revision is created, you edit it like you would any fileset.

When creating a new revision, you can create it as empty, duplicate an earlier revision entirely, or duplicate only the properties of that revision:

Fileset Revisions can also be created by drag and drop operation from the file system onto an existing Fileset.  You'll be prompted about making a new Fileset, or adding a revision as shown:
If adding a revision, you will also be prompted about setting the default revision:

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Editing Fileset Revisions

What

Revisions themselves have some properties that can be edited: namely the name and the description of the revision.

When/Why

Editing the properties of a revision is also done from the "Manage Revisions" window...we'll use it if we want to edit the name.  For instance, every time the first revision is created, it is called "Initial Revision"...which is helpful to know, but not very descriptive.  Below is how we change that.

How

First, we'll go into the "Manage Revisions" view for a particular fileset, then choose "Edit" with a revision selected:

There are only two fields to set, but setting them descriptively does help later when creating associations.

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Removing/Deleting a Revision

Removing/Deleting a Revision (v14+)

What

We can create revisions, so of course we want to be able to delete them as well.

When/Why

We'll usually want to delete revisions whenever the revision is no longer pertinent.  We would probably always leave the N-1 version of our fileset, but if we have older revisions, we would certainly want to clean up to save on disk space.

How

If we go into the "Manage Revisions" view, we can select a revision and hit the minus sign to remove it.  If no associations exist for that revision, we'll simply get a prompt to confirm:

But, if there is an association, we can choose to remove the association outright, or switch it to another revision:

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