Versioning Considerations

Overview 

Versioning is used to manage changes to variable groups after a project has started.  Tracking these changes can complicate the management of the project.

Versioning Notes

• When versioning is enabled in a project, you can't change a published variable group, you can only make a new version
• Upgrading a subject's encounter or subject update page, will upgrade all of the subject's variable groups to the latest version
• If a new variable group is added, existing encounters will need to be upgraded to get the new variable group
• An interval expression is not versioned and must be compatible with each variable group version
  • If a variable is used in the interval expression, do NOT delete or make that variable inactive
  • Do NOT add variables into the interval expression that are not in every version of a variable group
• Data is exported through data sets based on the latest version of a variable group.  If a variable is set as exportable, it can be included in the data set.
  •  If a variable was added and a subject was not upgraded, thus has no data for the new variable, the subject will not have data for the variable
    • The exception is checkbox variables.  Checkbox variables have only two states, 0/unchecked and 1/checked.  Thus, if a checkbox is not checked, a 0 will export even if the checkbox variable was not part of the subject's version.
  • If a variable was made inactive but is still exportable, the variable will export with values for subjects at the prior version and export as null for subjects at the latest version.  The exception for checkbox variables applies in this case too.
  • If a variable was made inactive and not exportable, the variable will not export for any subject.