Replace Product References Wizard

If you have created a Manual Product definition for a software product that is also defined by an Automatic Product (from the Product Recognition Service), the Replace Product References Wizard makes it easy to switch over to the definition from Sassafras. From the Task menu, select “Replace Product References...” — the wizard automates the process of changing all Purchases and Policies that refer to a specified product (e.g. your Manual Product) with references to a different product (e.g., the corresponding Automated Product).

Great care should be taken when using this Wizard since the changes are not easily reversible!

Automatic Products never include keyed variants as part of the product definition, so if your Manual Product has a keyed Application component, you must add this component to the corresponding Automatic Product. Note: while the Product Recognition Service (PRS) will occasionally update an Automatic Product if necessary, such an update will never add or remove any keyed variants from the definition.

The basic wizard UI is very simple - you must specify an “Obsolete” product definition as well as a “Replacement” definition. There is one additional option — “Include prior versions of the replacement Product when changing Policies”. This option allows you to end up with policies configured in either of two common ways — either managing a single product version, or managing any version up to a certain version (sometimes referred to as a license with “downgrade rights”). But in order for this option to have any effect, the Replacement product must in fact have an “Upgrade From” product specified as part of its product definition.

After performing a product replacement, the abandoned Manual product is of course no longer referenced in any Purchase or Policy, but the wizard also assigns it to the Ignored status so it will have no continuing affect on any Audit Products report. Rather than delete it from the Products window, it is usually best to leave it as Ignored so that historical usage reports can still resolve to the old product record. New usage will of course reference the Replacement product since relevant Policies (and Purchase records) have all been updated.