Acme's requirements
When Acme removes a feature from a specific release, they have to ensure that the content for the feature is not included in the output for subsequent releases. However, it is important that it is still available for previous releases, in case an older manual needs republishing.
Solutions
When a feature is discontinued, you can "remove" the topic from the published output for a specific build using one of the following approaches:
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Remove the topic from the book. If you republish a manual for an older release add the topic to the book again. Use this option when publishing to XML-based outputs.
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Leave the topic in the book and create a variant based on a special template that has the check boxes cleared for the publishing outputs on the template's General tab. Use this option when publishing to print or HTML based outputs.
Requirements:
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Create a variant of the topic for the release where the feature will be discontinued.
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Assign the "non publishing" template.
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Ensure that the "release" variant criteria is assigned to this variant topic using the release in which the feature was discontinued.
Behaviors:
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When you filter the book, the "discontinued" topic still displays.
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When you publish the book, the "discontinued" topic is omitted from the output.
Important: When you remove a topic using this method, if the topic has any child topics they are also removed from the published output because the parent no longer exists in the output. If the child topics must appear in the published output, consider reorganizing the book's structure or use a normal variant update and change the parent topic's content.