Activating editions in development or test mode

When you are working on a server in development or test mode, you can activate editions even if the editions contain issues that require attention. By default, PolicyCenter is more lenient when you are working in these modes, and does not require that you fix all issues until you are ready. PolicyCenter displays messages when it encounters these issues. These messages appear on Installed Editions tab displays in Requires Attention - Preloaded and Requires Attention - Activated sections at the bottom of the screen.

You can run policy transactions, such as submissions, with either the visualized or installed versions of the product. When the policy transaction encounters an issue, it outputs a message to the log file. There is no message in the user interface.

About issues requiring attention

Issues can occur when there are multiple people working on a product, and the editions become out of sync with the generated product.

For example, you add a new field to the visualized product, referencing it in a product model property. This causes an issue when you preload the edition because the new field does not exist in the generated (installed) product. These are the steps to produce this kind of an issue:
  1. Generate a visualized product.
  2. Add a new field to a visualized product. For example, add a text field that asks, “Do you have more than two dogs?”
  3. Create a condition on a clause that references the field. For example, make Flea and Tick coverage not available if you answer Yes to the question.
  4. Export the visualized product as a template.
  5. On the Installed Editions tab, click Preload Editions and select the template.
  6. Even though an issue was detected, you can activate preloaded editions.

If you add a new field to the visualized product but do not reference it in a product model property, an issue is not raised when you preload editions.

Disabling the Activate button

You may choose to work in a more restrictive mode, where the Activate button is disabled if there are issues requiring attention in preloaded editions. This may be useful when you have completed developing editions and want to resolve all issues.

To disable the Activate button, go to Administration > Utilities > Script Parameters. Change the APDBlockInvalidEditionsInDev parameter to true. In the base configuration, this parameter is false. The Activate button is disabled if preloaded editions contain issues.

If there is already an invalid activated edition before you change the parameter from false to true, PolicyCenter throws an exception when it executes an existing invalid rule.

In production mode, this parameter is ignored. In this mode you cannot activate preloaded editions with issues.

In production mode, structural changes in a product can cause existing, formerly valid, properties in an already-activated edition to become invalid. PolicyCenter throws an exception when it executes an invalid rule.