What are releases?

A release in Earthster is a snapshot of your cycle and they help you keep track of the evolution of your cycle throughout time. You can consider a release an "official" version of your cycle. When there is a new release everybody using your cycle will know that there are updates to the data.

Every cycle that doesn't have a release appears in the system as a DRAFT. In order to share your data, you have to issue a release first. Any new release will be an official update to your cycle. For example, when your supplier updates their cycle and issues a new release, you'll get a notification to update your cycle with the latest release data.

A release is also needed when you want to download your cycle's data as a csv or json file.

NOTE: Issuing a release does not change your cycle's sharing settings.