An update set is a group of configuration changes that can be moved from one instance to another. This feature allows administrators to group a series of changes into a named set and then move them as a unit to other systems for testing or deployment.
An update set is an XML file that contains:
A set of record details that uniquely identify the update set.
A list of configuration changes.
A state that determines whether another instance can retrieve and apply configuration changes.
Update sets track changes to applications and system platform features. This allows developers to create new functionality on a non-production instance and promote the changes to another instance.
Note: Properties that are tagged as Private are excluded from update sets. Keeping system properties private prevents settings in one instance from overwriting values in another instance. For example, you may not want a system property in a production instance to use a particular value from a development instance.
Application developers have additional options with update sets such as:
Create an update set for a specific version of an application.
Specify which application tables to track in update sets.
Update set tables
Each update set is stored in the Update Set [sys_update_set] table, and the customizations that are associated with the update set, which are entries in the Customer Update [sys_update_xml] table, appear as a related list on the update set record.
When a tracked object is customized, a corresponding record is added or updated in the Customer Update [sys_update_xml] table and is associated with the user current update set. The associated application file properties are tracked and transferred along with the customized object in a single update record. A corresponding record is also added to the Versions [sys_update_version] table.
The Customer Update table contains one record per customized object, per update set. The Versions table contains one record per change to a customized object.
Administrators can compare two versions and revert to a specific version of an object.
Administrators can suppress versions for specific tables.
Administrators can specify fields on tracked tables that you can change without skipping updates to the rest of the record (exclude the field from the update).
Note: Do not directly modify Customer Updates [sys_update_xml] records.
Because update sets make changes to an instance, review this information to avoid errors and performance issues. Learn how to plan the update process and avoid common mistakes.
