Versions and variants
A version is a form of a product configuration or product
that is different in some way from other forms. A variant is a variation
of a product. Both versions and variants are ways of configuring your
product. In Rational® Engineering
Lifecycle Manager, variants are called branches.
Dimension values precedence
Product configurations use dimension
and value pairs to determine the versions of all the products in a
configuration. You can order values to make certain values more specific
than others.
Checking in a product version
Teams usually check in a product version to mark
a milestone, for example, a weekly build.
Creating a variation to branch a product
A branch is a variation of a product. For example,
a product that is called Interior is branched
to create Interior (cloth=leather, model=luxury) for
the Car (model=luxury) configuration. Interior is
branched again to create Interior (cloth=suede, model=sport) for
the SuperCar (model=sport) configuration.
Replacing a branch
A branch is a variation of a product. Replace
a product branch to use a variation. For example, as costs decrease,
a team might replace Sound System (shared:model=base) with Sound
System (shared:model=premium) that was previously available
on luxury branches only.
Manipulating product configurations and products
Product configurations and products are flexible
artifacts. You can mark often-used product configurations as favorites
and then filter the product configurations you see in the product
tree to show your favorites only. You can reuse configurations and
products as child configurations and products in multiple or the same
configurations and products. You can move a configuration or product
and include it as a child in a different configuration or product.
You can rename a configuration or product, and the new name is propagated
to wherever the configuration or product was reused. If you no longer
need a configuration or product, you can remove it.
Viewing audit history
The Audit History page
is a visual list of past events performed on a specified product.
The page shows both versions and branches, if both exist. The history
shown is metadata: the user who changed the product, what and when
changes were made, and the name of added, imported, and removed products.