Master Doc Updates can Propogate to Copies

[raine]

I think this part of the post is most relevant:

@dmonad

It is generally not possible to cherry-pick specific changes from a version history (in the form of a document update) and apply them to another document. In some cases, this might work, but sometimes updates depend on each other. You always need to merge all changes from the diverged documents in the order in which they have been produced. Instead, you could work with a different representation for the changes (e.g. prosemirror transactions or the delta format.)

So if you saved the delta from the teacher’s change, or a simple diff, then you could apply it to the copies. In other words, separate Docs (with different guids) are completely separate, so in order to apply some changes from one to another you have to pull them out of the Doc and apply them like a normal user edit.

On a more theoretical level, whether you can merge an upstream document depends how “deep” or “structural” the change is. If the teacher fixed a typo or changed the wording of a question, the student’s response is still valid. If the teacher deletes a question or changes it completely, the student’s response is no longer valid. Each domain has its own concepts of identity and change.

I wonder if your architecture would be easier if you referenced the master document from each student’s work rather than copying it.