Develop > Presentation layer > Customize IBM Sales Center > Deploy customizations to the IBM Sales Center > Update mechanisms
Accept modifications
A feature may be modified by adding new plugins, or by upgrading or removing existing ones. Any modified plugins must be given a new version number. Any features whose contents are modified or whose contained plugins have been upgraded, must also be given a new version number.
Versions for features are specified using major.minor.service qualifier. For example, a version of 4.0.1 has a major version of 4, a minor version of 0, and a service version of 1. An equivalent version is a version that differs first at the service level. A compatible version is a version that differs first at the minor level. For example, using our version 4.0.1 in the previous example, a version of 4.0.2 would be an equivalent version, because the service value is the first value that changed. A version of 4.1.0 would be a compatible version, because the minor value is the first value that changed.
When new versions of features are provided, they are always installed into the same install site as the previous version.
Installing a new version of a feature does not automatically uninstall the previous version, or any of the plugins it contains. Instead, the platform runtime detects that the new feature has the same name but a later version number than the old feature, and disables the old feature. Reverting to the previous configuration then simply involves disabling the new feature and re-enabling the old one. Components are actually removed only if the old feature is explicitly uninstalled.
In the following example, assume a feature MyFeature version 1.0.0 which contains a plugin MyPlugin, also version 1.0.0:
Procedure
- Make changes to MyPlugin and test them in the Client Toolkit test environment.
- Edit MyPlugin's plugin.xml and in the editor's Overview tab change the vfrom 1.0.0 to 1.0.1. Save the changes.
- Edit MyFeature's feature.xml. In the editor's Overview tab change its vfrom 1.0.0 to 1.0.1.
- Select the Content tab. Note that it still indicates MyPlugin (1.0.0) in its plugins list. Right click on that entry and select Properties.
- In the Properties view that opens, change the vproperty from 1.0.0 to 1.0.1.
- Create an Update Site as described previously in section 2.0.1 Building customizations for deployment and add MyFeature to it, or add MyFeature to an existing Update Site project. Note that an Update Site project can contain multiple versions of a feature, even if the Feature Project in the workspace only contains the latest version.
- Publish the new feature. Click on the Build All button.
- Export the built update
Related concepts
Deploy customizations to the IBM Sales Center