Versions and Link Groups

The Versions feature was significantly upgraded and expanded in Laserfiche 8.3. Versions are now stored directly in a single document, rather than spread across multiple separate documents, and support many new features such as automatic version creation, version comparison, and reverting, among others. Because these new versions are significantly different, in both concept and behavior, than versions in Laserfiche 8.2 and before, this document will walk you through the basics of versions in Laserfiche 8.3 and later, and will also explain how versions from Laserfiche 8.2 and before are handled in your Laserfiche 9 repository.

Note: If you did not use the Versions feature in Laserfiche 8.2 or before, or if Laserfiche 9.0 is your first version of Laserfiche, you do not need this transitional information and can learn about versions in the Versions section.

Link Groups and Laserfiche 8.2 Versions

The feature previously called "versions" in Laserfiche 8.2 and before has been renamed "link groups." A link group is a collection of separate documents that are related in some way. These documents have separate properties and metadata, and may be stored in different parts of the repository. They function as entirely individual documents, connected by belonging to the same link group. In essence, a link group behaves the same as the Laserfiche 8.2 versions feature.

Your Laserfiche 8.2 versions have automatically been converted to link groups in Laserfiche 8.3 and later; no additional configuration is necessary to keep using them as link groups. This allows you to continue to work with them exactly as you did in Laserfiche 8.2: the only difference is that the feature's name has changed and it can now be found in the Links tab of the Metadata dialog box. Keeping this functionality intact allows you to keep your workflow consistent. You do not need to learn a new feature to continue using your repository in the way you are used to. However, if you want to convert your link groups to versions to take advantage of the many new features of that metadata type, you can do so. See below for more information.

For more information about link groups, see Link Groups.

Versions in Laserfiche 8.3 and later

Versions in Laserfiche 8.3 and later are significantly upgraded and expanded--in essence, they are a new feature with the same name. (As mentioned above, the old behavior of versions is retained in the link groups feature.) Versions are not stored as separate documents, but within an existing document. From a document's version history, you can view older versions, compare two versions, copy or export a version, or revert to a prior version. No matter how many versions of a document are created, they are all stored within the same document, and do not clutter the repository or its search results.

When a document is placed under version control, all changes to that document will be saved as new versions in the version history. Unlike older versions, versions in Laserfiche 8.3 and later do not require users to manually choose to save as a new version. This ensures that your version history will be retained, without worry of user error. (It is also, however, still possible to split an individual version into a new document when needed.)

For more information about versions, including in formation about how to place documents under version control, see Versions.

Because the use and behavior of versions is so different in Laserfiche 8.3 and later, prior versions and their version behavior were retained as link groups instead of being updated to match the new version behavior.  However, if you want to use new versions with your updated repository, you can convert your link groups to versions. See Link Group Conversion Utility for instructions.

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