Updating Web Forms

[vertigo]

I hope this isn't a nube question – I've attempted to scour the forum looking for a previous post related to this topic:

After a Web Form is added to the Data Dictionary, and Web Content files are created using that Web Form – how do you update that Web Form without orphaning all the content that was created using the previous version of the web form.  What if you need to add a field, change the name of something, etc?

Thanks,
Ryan

[pmonks]

Updating a web form has zero impact on existing content created via that web form - Alfresco neither "orphans" the content, nor does it attempt to upgrade the content to the new schema, nor does it automatically rerun any renditioning templates that may have been configured as part of that web form (although there is an option to manually force regeneration of all renditions).

If you think about it for a moment, this is actually the best way to handle schema evolution, since it puts control over when and how to update existing content solely in the hands of the developer - the developer may choose to upgrade all content immediately via some kind of upgrade script or leave it for editors to manually upgrade on a case-by-case basis (ie. as they edit their content via the new web form).