Editing topics in DRM

In IXIASOFT Dynamic Release Management (DRM), when you edit a topic, you must decide if the changes are for some or all of the Branches that topic appears in.

IXIASOFT CCMS Web keeps track of all the Branches topics are in. When you edit a topic, you can choose whether to edit the topic across all Branches or only some Branches.

If you choose to edit the topic in only some Branches, then the topic is forked. This means the topic in Branches you did not edit remains the same, but a new instance of the topic is created for all the Branches you want to make changes for. Two instances of the topic now exist, and you can update them independently.

Unavailable Branches

In some cases, you cannot edit a topic in all the Branches it appears in because one or more Branches are unavailable.

In this case, you can only fork the topic. However, you can still choose which available Branches to fork in if the topic is in more than one available Branch.

Branches can be unavailable for the following reasons:

  • The Branch is closed
  • You might not be able to edit the topic due to Content Level Security

Assignments and forked topics

All new instances created by forking a topic start unassigned to any user even if you were assigned to the original topic. The new instance is not automatically assigned to you.

Any users assigned to the original topic are still assigned to the original topic as long as the assignment is still valid after you fork the topic.

For example, Martin is assigned to Topic A in Branch 2 as a contributor. When a writer forks Topic A in Branches 2 and 3, Topic A is no longer assigned to Martin. The assignment is not valid because he was not assigned to the new instance in Branch 2 and the original topic does not exist in Branch 2 anymore.