New Version Guide

Q: I have created a new version of my dataset/tool. Do I need to create a new submission in the repository from the ground up for it?
A: No. You can create a new version as a clone of the existing published record. The system pre-fills the draft with metadata from the previous version, so you only edit what changed.

Preconditions

• You must be logged in.
• You must be allowed to create a version for the item (submitter or administrator).
• The latest version must not already have an in-progress draft in workspace/workflow.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Log in to the repository.

2. Open the published item you want to version.

3. Click the version icon (branch symbol) on the item page. A modal opens and asks for a summary of the new version.

4. New: The Create new version action for archived items is in production now.

   You can also find your archived item in Your submissions and click Create new version (branch icon) to open the same version-summary modal.
   The button is visible only if you are authorised; if disabled, hover it to see the tooltip:
   "A new version cannot be created because there is an in-progress submission in the version history".

Archived item in Your submissions with the Create new version action.

5. Enter the summary and click Create.

6. After creation, continue in the generated workspace draft. The current UI redirects directly to the workspace edit page of the cloned item.

7. If you need to find the draft manually, go to Submissions and open the new in-progress version.

8. Update metadata and files as needed, then complete submission as usual. The cloned record already contains metadata from the previous version and includes a date suffix in the title by default.

Technical details

Version creation is handled by the current versioning services (frontend and backend)

• Frontend flow:

  • Version action is triggered from the item page icon and from the archived item action in Your submissions.
  • Summary modal is shown.
  • After successful creation, the app navigates to the workspace edit route for the created draft.

• Backend flow:

  • Creates the new version and enforces permissions.
  • Blocks creation if the latest version is already in workspace/workflow (in-progress submission).
  • Maintains version relations automatically:
    • New item gets dc.relation.replaces.
    • Previous item gets dc.relation.isreplacedby.

• Permission model:

  • Administrators can create versions.
  • Submitters can create versions when submitter versioning is enabled.