About deployment versioning

IBM® Interact retains information about every deployment and assigns a version number to it, along with any description or name you provide, for several reasons. First, to ensure that the deployment record is maintained for future reference, so that you can track when the deployment occurred, which user deployed the data, whether the deployment was successful or not, and so on. Second, Interact preserves the state of the deployment to ensure that it is available in the future for redeployment or for loading back into the design time to use as the basis for further modifications.

Information about each version

When you deploy an interactive channel or settings, you are required to name the version you are deploying, such as SalesPortal_1, SalesPortal_2, and so on. A sequential version number is also assigned automatically. You can also optionally provide a description of the deployment. All of this information, along with more status information such as the type of deployment and its status, are all available in the Deployment History section of the interactive channel deployment tab.

At any point, you can select a deployment version in the Deployment History section and either redeploy it as-is (which allows you to revert to an earlier deployment if necessary), or to reload elements from that deployment to the design time environment as a starting point for further modifications.

Redeploying a version (rolling back to a deployment version) must be used with care. For example, campaign objects or offers that existed at the time of the original deployment might no longer exist, or might no longer be valid. Test the behavior of the previous version of the deployment before using it in a production environment.

Versioning actions

In addition to viewing the historical information about each deployment, there are two actions you can take on past deployment versions:

Version actions on the deployment tab
Action	Description
Redeployment	Allows you to deploy the specific version of a past deployment to the specified server group, following the same steps and providing the same information as for deploying a pending interactive channel.
Reloading individual flowcharts and strategies to the design time environment	Lets you reload the specified flowcharts and interactive strategies to the design time, so you can use them as the basis for more changes. You can select individual flowcharts or strategies to reload, or reload the entire interactive channel.