Overriding previous version of a Process

Question

While deploying a new version of process, I want to override the existing process instance to use the new code/version.
I believe the right way to do this is to override the previous version of the project with the new version when you deploy the new version of the project. Am I correct ? Or there is any other way to achive this?
I tried to do that , and I get an error that the project versions are incompatible. Is there any documentation of how to know - what changes in the process design makes the versions incompatible??
Thanks
Pal

Answer 1

Hi Pal,
A process version is split into 3 parts, major, minor and revision number, separated by dots, '1.0.0' for example.
When you publish a project ALBPM performs a compatibility check on the new processes against the last published versions to determine if they are 'compatible'. If the changes to the processes are compatible any current running instances created in the old version are migrated to the new version - called a revision change. The version number will move to 1.0.1.
If, however, the change is not compatible and it is not possible to migrate running instances a minor revision will be created. The previous instances will continue running on the previous version but any new instances will be created using the new version. The version will move to 1.1.0.
It is not possible to force a revision change when ALBPM determines that processes are incompatible. But it is possible to force a minor change when only a revision change is required by the engine's compatibility checks.
As far as I know the major version is up to the user to change and isn't ever modified by the deployment tools.
What exactly constitutes compatibility is defined in this doc : http://edocs.bea.com/albsi/docs55/pdfs/Fuego5-ProjectCompatibilities.pdf
Hope this helps,
Tim