To keep track of changes in Brightspace Platform releases, Brightspace Data Sets (BDS) have their own version number. This version number updates every month as a part of the Continuous Delivery (CD) software update.
When the BDS version number changes, any updates will appear in the data the next time the BDS are generated. Specific changes to individual BDS are captured in their respective reference tables. Each reference table displays the BDS version number for each change under Version History.
BDS version numbers have two parts:
- Major version (the number before the decimal point)
- Minor version (the number after the decimal point)
For example: in BDS version 10.4, the major version is 10 and the minor version is 4.
BDS major version updates
When a new major version is released, clients normally have a 4-month opt-in window where they can choose to adopt the new major version; when this window is over, clients are automatically updated.
Major version updates can impact assets you created in Insights Report Builder and Analytics Builder. For instructions on how to update your affected assets, refer to Updating Insights Report Builder for Brightspace Data Sets Major Versions or Updating Analytics Builder for Brightspace Data Sets Major Versions in Brightspace Community.
BDS minor version updates
Minor version updates contain low impact changes that will not break downstream systems or reporting, such as adding a column.
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Note: The BDS minor version number increases every month, even when there are no changes to the data sets in the release. This process has been in place since the September 2017/10.7.5 release. |
For more information about managing BDS updates, refer to Brightspace Data Sets Change Management Policy on Brightspace Community.
If the BDS are in the process of being generated when the version number changes, any data set generated after that change reflects the latest version. As a result, you might have some data that reflects the previous version and some data that reflects the latest version, for a short time.
Version History
Since the August 2025/20.25.08 release, the default BDS major version is 10. For more information about major version 10, refer to Motivations behind the changes in Data Hub Brightspace Data Set (BDS) Major Version 10 on Brightspace Community.
We may refer to a minor version with no documented changes (such as v9.5) in the BDS reference tables under Version History. This means we published a correction or clarification to the BDS documentation during the release that corresponds with that minor version number.