The Versions Window
The Versions window in the Model Manager workspace shows the version history of an item — that, is a model, file, or tag — with respect to the latest version on a particular branch. The version history entries correspond to a subset of Commits on the branch for which a new version of the item was saved. Click the link button in the upper right corner to select another branch in The Select Location Dialog Box. If the branch was created from another branch, older versions saved on the parent branch are also appended to the table. If the item was created from another item — via, for example, Save as New () in the Save or Export windows — the version history of that item is appended as well.
As for The Versions Window for the COMSOL Desktop Model, the Versions window in the Model Manager workspace is used to visualize how one version has progressed to the next by going upward in the table until reaching the latest version on the selected branch. Versions saved on a parent branch after the selected branch was created are not included in the table by the assumption that they correspond to independent work done in parallel and whose changes are not reflected in the latest version.
You can see all versions of an item, irrespective of branch, by adding the item to The Maintenance Window in the Model Manager workspace. From the window, you gain a complete overview of the full footprint of the item in the database, but may lose a sense of how the item has evolved over time.
The version history shown in the window follows the current item selection in The Databases Window or The Model Manager Window (depending on which window has focus). Click Link with Selection () to disable this automatic linking. You can still update the Versions window with a new item by right-clicking and selecting Versions ().
The versions are shown in a table sorted in chronological order. A maximum of 100 most recent versions are initially retrieved. Click the Show More button () to append the next 100 versions to the table. You can set another value for this default page size in the Result Page Size field on the Model Manager page in the Preferences dialog box. If a viewed model is opened in the COMSOL Desktop, the table row for the corresponding model version is highlighted in bold in the table.
The table columns are:
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The type column — the type of the item represented by an icon.
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The Title column — the title set for the item in that version.
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The Saved column — the time when the version was saved.
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The Saved By column — the name of the user that saved the version.
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The Branch column — the target branch of the commit in which the version was saved.
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The Comments column — the optional comment provided when the version was saved.
The Versions Window Toolbar
The toolbar in the Versions window contains the following toolbar buttons:
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Click the Refresh button () to refresh the table in case any new versions have been saved. The table will automatically refresh if you save a new version on the branch from the COMSOL Desktop.
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Click the Show More button () to append older versions to the table.
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Click the Link with Selection button () to enable or disable whether to automatically update the Versions window based on the current selection in the Databases window or the Model Manager window (which ever had focus last).
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Click the Version Details button () to open The Version Details Dialog Box containing more information on the version.
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Click the Open button () to open a selected model version in the COMSOL Desktop.
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Click the Run button () to launch and run a selected version in the COMSOL Desktop. Only enabled if the selected version is an application.
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Click the Preview File button () to open a selected file version using the default application for its file type. See Previewing Files.
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Click the Compare button () to compare a selected model version with the model opened in the COMSOL Desktop. Select two model versions to compare them with each other.
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Click the References button () to open The References Window to view all references between the selected version and other item versions.
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Click the Restore Version button () to save the selected version as a new latest version of the item whose version history is shown in the window. The target branch for the save is given by the currently selected branch in the location link button. See Restore Version for further details.
If you right-click a version in the table, you can also
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Select Disk Space Usage () to see an estimate of the required disk space usage if the version is saved to the file system. See Estimating Disk Space Usage.
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Select Export () to export the version to the file system — see Exporting Items.
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Select Export to New Local Database () to export the version to a new local database — see Export to New Local Database.
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Select Branch () to create a new branch from the commit that the version was saved in.
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Select Snapshot () to record a snapshot of the commit that the version was saved in.
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Select Copy Location () to copy a text string with a URI that uniquely identifies a model or file version in the database to the clipboard. See Copying Model and File Locations for what you can do with this text string.
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Select Clear Computed Data () to clear all built, computed, and plotted data of a model version. Data shared with other model versions via deduplication will not be deleted from the database. Clearing cannot be undone. See Built, Computed, and Plotted Data.
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Select Permanently Delete () to permanently delete a version in the database. Data shared with other versions via deduplication is not deleted. Permanently deleting cannot be undone. See Permanently Deleting Models and Data Files.
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Select Settings () to update the Settings window with the version. You may find this useful to see settings for an older version not available when searching with respect to a branch or snapshot.
Estimating disk space usage, clearing computed data, and permanently deleting is also supported when selecting multiple versions in the table.
The Version Details Dialog Box
The Version Details dialog box shows further details for an item version. The following is shown for all items:
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Location — the database, repository, and branch that the version was saved to.
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Saved — the time when the version was saved.
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Saved by — the name of the user that saved the version.
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Title — the title set on the item in the saved version.
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Comments — the optional comments provided when the version was saved.
For a model version:
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Saved in — the COMSOL Multiphysics versions that the model version was saved in.
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Item save type — if the model is a regular model or a draft model.
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Item version type — if it is a model, application, or physics.
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Filename. The filename used by the model version when exporting it to the file system.
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Description. The description of the model in the saved version.
For a file version:
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Item version type — if it is a file or fileset.
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File size. The size of the file version when stored on the file system. For a fileset, this is the total size of all files.
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Description. The description of the file in the saved version.
Click the Edit Comments button () to update the comments for the commit associated with the version — see also The Commit Details Dialog Box. Click Save to save the updated comments to the database. Click Cancel to revert back to the original comments.
For a Model Manager server database, only a root administrator or the user that saved the version can update the comments.
You can find an older version in your database based on its commit comment by selecting All Versions in Database () in the Model Manager window, for example, and applying a Commit Comment filter.
Export to New Local Database
You can export a single model version to a new local database by right-clicking a version in the Versions window and selecting Export to New Local Database (). Select a name for the database directory in the New Local Database dialog box and click Save. You can then open the created database in the COMSOL Desktop — see Opening a Local Database.