Baselines

Last Updated : Oct 14, 2022 |

The baseline of a publication is a table that identifies all objects in a version of a publication. Tridion Docs identifies objects by GUID and version. Use a baseline to correspond to a deliverable for a specific product version. For example, Using_Avaya_J16_ SIP_IP_Phone-v12-GUID-123ABC-2022/04/23 07:13:01 is a baseline and Using_Avaya_J16_ SIP_IP_Phone-v13-GUID-123ABC-2022/10/18 05:14:05 is a new baseline.

You can use the baseline to identify the versions of the objects that are included in a publication. However, the baseline does not contain the languages, output formats, or the conditions you specified when publishing. By omitting this information, you can change condition settings and output formats to produce different, custom output from the same, frozen publication baseline.

Object versions in a baseline

When creating a publication, you must select the version to use for each topic, map, and library that the publication references.

When you add a topic or map to a publication, the latest version is selected by default, select an earlier version of the object if necessary.

If you create a new version of an object from:

  • the repository, the new version does not automatically gets selected in the publications where the object is being used.

  • Publication Manager, the new version is automatically selected in the baseline.

Versions do not have to match within the publication. For example, you can use version 3, which may be the latest version of an object, and use version 1, which may be an older version of another object.

Important:

Use the Autocomplete option on the Baseline tab cautiously.

Here are some considerations to use autocomplete:

  • Use Autocomplete when you create a latest version of the publication for the new release of the product.

  • Sort by the Newer version column, and select new versions of topics only if the changes in the latest version applies to the release of the product. This applies when you are publishing outputs of older versions and projects that reuse content from other publications and projects.

Baseline freezing

After you publish a deliverable, and all content, that includes topics, maps, and images in the publication is released, you can freeze the content as the publication baseline. After you freeze the baseline, you cannot change the content. The baseline becomes an archive of your publication. If the baseline is frozen, you can find the version of each object that was used for the publication.

When you freeze a baseline, each object version that is used in the publication is labeled using the baseline name (Baseline label property). You cannot delete the object versions contained within a frozen baseline.

Baseline cleanup

You can use Clean Up to remove all objects from the baseline that are not used in the publication anymore.

Related information
Versions and branches