Introduction to Application Versioning

Application Versioning enables development teams to create and manage multiple versions of an Unqork application. Each new application version automatically captures a complete snapshot of its configuration, creating a robust version history with significant benefits for development teams.

The benefits include the following:

Tracking and Saving Changes: When you publish a version, all the configuration in the application is saved. Meaning, you don't have to worry about losing all that work and time if something accidentally gets deleted, overwritten, or other issues occur. Think of each version as a digital backup, keeping your progress intact.
Enables Rollbacks: The ability to roll back to a previous version provides you with a crucial safety net. If a recent change causes issues, you can easily revert to a stable application version. Doing so ensures smooth operation and allows for the flexible testing of new features that can be quickly withdrawn if undesirable.
Collaborate Safely Without Conflict: In a collaborative development setting, there's always a risk that one team member's work could unintentionally interfere with another's work. Versioning solves this risk significantly. It lets teams work on separate branches, so their changes do not destabilize what other team members are working on.

Unqork’s Application Versioning transforms application development agility for enterprise no-code applications by offering parallel workflows, version rollback security, precise release control, and improved governance. Because this feature represents a significant change in how your team works in Unqork, it’s important to understand the full considerations for employing Application Versioning before applying it.

Discover if Application Versioning is right for your team in our Evaluating Application Versioning for Unqork Creators article.

Core Features of Unqork Application Versioning

Below are the core features of Unqork Application Versioning, along with a description of when to use them in your application:

Key Features	Description	Supported Elements
Dependency Management	Manage direct and transitive dependencies between application versions to ensure that components work together and the application remains stable and functional as updates are made.	Versioned/Unversioned dependencies Dependency Promotion Default Dependency Branches as Dependencies
Branching	Create, edit, and test multiple versions of the same application in parallel, without disruption.	Module-type applications Workflow-type application
Branches of Branches	Create a branch from a branched application so multiple creators can work in a single branched application.	Module-type applications
Merging	Merge multiple branches of applications into a single one.	Module-type applications Workflow-type applications Module diffing Module merging
Promoting	Copy applications from one environment to the next. Set default versions of an application in each environment.	Module-type applications
Published Application Versioning	Create and run multiple versions of the same application in parallel, without disruption.	Module-type applications Workflow-type applications Styles

Create Design-Time Versus Run-Time Versions

Without Application Versioning, making changes to a Production application automatically displays the results to your end-users. Application Versioning introduces a distinct separation between Design-time and Run-time applications. These distinctions are the following:

Design-time: Applications you edit and configure in Designer View (Module Builder).
Run-time: Applications your end-users interact with.

This separation lets you select any of your Run-time application versions and make it the default one. Default application versions are those that you promote to your Production environment so your end-users can interact with them.

Comparison of app versions with one marked as active and others listed.

Learn all about Application Versioning by reviewing our Getting Started With Unqork's Application Versioning article.