Pre-Activation and Activation ID: PM-CP-PA

A draft version may only be installed on other sites after it has been activated. Activation is the process of finalizing a draft version so that:

1. No more assets or dependencies may be added, removed, or modified.
2. The version contains everything that is necessary for it to be installed on other sites.
3. The version contains all of the latest data from the source site.

Note that activating a draft version is immediate and final. After you activate a draft version, you will not be able to make any changes to it other than editing the changelog. For this reason, it is imperitive that you do not activate a package version until it is completely ready. It is also a good idea to test each package version on another site to make sure it works as anticipated.

What is Pre-Activation

Before you can activate a package version, there are a number of tests that it must pass - which may modify the version in the process:

1. Each asset may only belong to package. Assets belonging to another package will automatically be removed. This should be rare except in the case where you attempt to author multiple packages on the same site at the same time with one or more overlapping assets.
2. Any assets that are marked as trashed but are no longer trashed on the source site will be changed to Install and Update.
3. Any assets that are trashed or no longer exist on the source site will either be removed (if they are mapped or ignored) or set to trashed.
4. All mappings will be updated in the package version:
   1. Any required assets referenced from InstallOnly or Update assets in the version will be set to MapRequired
   2. Any "optional" assets referenced from InstallOnly or Update assets in the version will be set to MapOptional
   3. Any existing mapped assets in the package version that are no longer necessary will either be set to ignored if you have already assigned it a description or removed if you have not assigned it a description.
5. All asset names will be updated where possible

When to Pre-Activate

Your package version will automatically be pre-activated for your when you attempt to activate it, so you may not always need to manually pre-activate your packages. However, if you have made significant changes to your package - such as adding new pages or other objects that have a lot of dependencies - it may be beneficial to manually pre-activate your package and review the affects of your changes. Generally speaking this will be most valuable directly before beginning your internal review process or activing the new version.

Following pre-activation, you should pay particular attention to the mapped assets. Users will not be able to install your package until they have either selected mappings for all of the assets that require mapping or have ignored them. Furthermore it can be helpful for them to select values for most of the optional mappings as well. Providing a description for mapped assets can help users significantly in their determination of how to handle them. The best practice for asset descriptions is to write descriptions for all required and recommended mappings where the description is as short as necessary to accurately communicate both the purpose of the mapped asset and how it is used in the package.

How to Pre-Activate

There are two ways to pre-activate your package version:

The first way to pre-activate your package version is to attempt to activate it. Before activating a version, Marketpath automatically pre-activates it. If there are any changes during pre-activation, you will be prompted to review the changes before re-activating the package.

The second way to pre-activate your package is to click the "Pre-Activate" button in the Assets & Dependencies toolbar.

Before Activating

Whether or not you manually pre-activate your draft version, Marketpath will run all of the pre-activation tests on your version prior to activating it. If any of these tests fail and/or change your draft version you will be prompted to review the version and try again.

While you can skip the manual pre-activation if desired, the recommended best practice is to manually pre-activate your draft version once you have added all of the primary assets to it. This makes it easy for you to review everything as it will be present in the final version.

Following pre-activation, there are a number of additional checks that you should perform manually in order to guarantee a high-quality package that is easy to install:

1. Are all of the assets in the draft version "final"? It is always worth checking the source site to make sure that everything looks good and functions properly. Keep in mind that assets should be exactly the way that you want them to be when installed on other sites - including links, branding, etc...
2. Are there any mapped assets that should be included in the package instead?
3. Are there any assets in the package that should be mapped instead?
4. Are there assets in this package that should be in their own package and included as a dependency instead?
5. Do all of the required and recommended mapped assets have descriptions? Are the descriptions concise and instructive for assisting users during package installation?
6. Does your draft version have the correct Version Number and a descriptive Changelog?

Remember that activation is final. There is no way to modify a package version once it has been activated. Furthermore, because an asset can only be included in one package, it is much easier to organize assets into multiple packages before activating them. A few extra minutes now can save a lot of time and headache later.

During Activation

When you activate a package version, all of the pre-activation checks are automatically run. If the draft version is modified as a result of the pre-activation checks you will be prompted to review the changes and try again.

If all of the pre-activation checks are passed without modifying the draft version, then all of the assets in the version will be finalized. The system will take permanent copies of all relevant assets as they are on the source site so that future changes to the source site will have no effect on historic package versions. THERE IS NO WAY TO ADD, MODIFY, OR REMOVE INFORMATION FROM AN ACTIVATED PACKAGE VERSION. The only information that can be edited after activation is the changelog.

Within minutes of activation, Marketpath will begin updating sites and notifying administrators about your latest release.

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