Journeys has a layered version control and it’s important to know how the different version statuses affects your Journey.
But first things first; what’s the difference between a Journey and a Journey version?
Consider your Journey as a container, for example, you have a Happy-birthday-container, this is your Journey. In your Journey, you can have 1 or more versions. It’s in the Journey version where you build all the different steps of your Journey; starting condition, all messages, the time between the messages and other actions.
When you’ve built and activated a Journey version, the version framework can’t be edited, but you can still update the content in your messages.
If you want to add a new step to a Journey, say add a message, this will change the framework of your journey. Whenever you want to update the framework of an active Journey version you must create a copy of your previous version.
To get any usable statistics it’s important separate different versions since the framework can affect the Journey result quite dramatically.
Version example
Let's say we have the journey below with the following steps:
Send email > Wait > Send sms > Exit
If we update the content in our email, we'll just layer that specific email, the Journey version framework will not be affected and look exactly like it did before we updated the email content. In this case we don't need to add a new Journey version.
But, if we add a split with two new messages, the framework will be changed and a new Journey version must be created.
Journey version statuses
A version of a Journey can have four different statuses and it’s crucial to know the differences between these since they will affect your Journey:
1. Draft
A version that never has been active (see below) is called a draft. Drafts are editable and you can play around testing new things.
2. Active
A draft can be set to active. Active versions will process all new subscribers and lead them through your Journey. Only one (1) version can be active in a Journey.
The steps in an active version can not be edited (but message content can).
3. Closing
An active version (above) can be set to closing. This means that the door to the version is locked and no new subscribers can enter. But if there are subscribers in any of the steps when closing, these will complete the remaining steps. When all subscribers have completed all steps in the version, the status will change to Closed (see below).
You may have several closing versions. The steps in closing versions can not be edited (but message content can).
4. Closed
An active or closing version can be set to closed. A closed version has no activity and can not be reactivated. If there are subscribers in any of the steps when closed, they will not complete the remaining steps.
You may have several closed versions in a Journey and these can not be edited.
When stopping a version you must decide to whether the version should be closing (3) or closed (4).
If you already have an active version running and you activate a new version, the currently active version will be set to closing (3).
When your new version is active and you want to stop the now closing version completely (the previously active version), you must select the version in the dropdown and manually set it to closed.
The image below is an overview of the versions in a Journey. Here are one active version, two closing versions (closed for new subscribers to enter but with subscribers still completing the flow) and one closed version (no subscribers entering or in the flow).
In other words, a Journey can have different versions running at the same time but only one of them will accept new subscribers to enter.
In the example below there are two parallell versions running, one active and one closing. The door (starter) to the active version is open and new subscribers enters and completes the steps. The door (starter) to the closing version is locked and no subscribers can enter but the ones already in the version will complete their Journey. When all subscribers have exited, the version is closed and all activity stops. The active version goes on.
Journey statuses
Just like versions within a Journey, also a Journey itself can have different statuses.
-
Draft
A Journey draft has never had an active Journey version. As soon as a version in a Journey has been activated the Journey will never return to draft again. -
Live
A live Journey has some kind of activity in one or more versions. It could be an active version or versions that are closing. -
Past
A past Journey has no activity. All previously activated versions in a past Journey has the status closed. A past Journey can go live again if a new version within the Journey is activated.
Activating new versions
When activating a journey version, the version will run for the first time the following day.
Journeys with API Request starters will however be able to enter contacts immediately, but any following steps (after hourly or daily waits) will not be processed until the day after.
Message versions
The messages in your Journey have a parallell version control.
Message versions can be updated regardless of the status of your version.
You can create new message versions with completely new content and/or layout of a specific message step without creating a new step.
Due to the version control and the statistics connected, published content can’t be edited. Instead you replace the published message with a new version of the message.
This enables you to view statistics for each separate version.
When you want to update a version you click on Edit of your message step. Scroll down to Draft versions and select to edit a draft, make a copy (of the active version, a draft or a deactivated version) or start from scratch.