​Akamai​ often modifies behaviors and matches, each time deploying a new internal version of the feature. By default, the Property Manager interface in ​​​Control Center​ uses the latest available behavior and match versions. In the interest of stability, some Property Manager solutions like Includes or API don't support this system of selective updates for each feature. Instead, the feature sets are simply versioned as a whole and known as rule formats.

Rule formats in properties

Latest rule format

When you create a property, the value in the Rule Format field defaults to latest.

The latest rule format changes continuously, so there are a few points you need to consider:

• If there's a new option available, Property Manager will prompt you with behavior upgrades in ​Control Center​.
• While on latest, your PAPI code may return errors and you'd have to adjust JSON tule trees accordingly to resolve them.
• Includes don't support the latest rule format. If you want to use includes, make sure the parent property and includes you want to reference use the same dated version of the rule format. For more details, see Restrictions on parent properties and includes.

Dated rule formats

The most recent dated version is the stable rule format that's recommended for interacting with PAPI and includes. See PAPI for more information about the current GA rule format version.

Change the rule format

You can change your property's rule format in the Editor view:

1. Save the property version.
2. In the Property Version Information panel, next to the Rule Format, click the ✏️ icon.
   
3. Select the rule format you want to use for your configuration and click Change Rule Format.

After you change the rule format, you may get validation errors. The number of validation errors depends on the age difference between the rule format version you used to work with and the one you changed to.
To fix these validation errors:

1. In the Property Configuration Settings panel, navigate to each behavior that causes an error.
2. Make note of the behavior settings.
3. Delete the behavior from your property configuration.
4. Re-add the behavior and configure it as previously.

If you can't add the behavior after removing it, it means the rule format you selected is older than the version you previously used and doesn't support the behavior in question. You need to select the newer rule format to be able to use such behaviors.

Rule formats in includes

When you create an include, you can select the rule format the similar way you do in properties, except includes don't support the latest rule format. Also, once you create an include, you can't change its rule format in the edit mode.

Change the rule format

To change the rule format version for an include:

1. Clone an include, selecting a new rule format version.
2. Update all your parent properties to use the new rule format.
3. In the parent properties, click on each validation error you get as a result of the rule format change. Update all instances of the include behavior to point to the new cloned include.