Work with projects
Overview
Projects allow you to change a set of items and ensure that they are published together at the same time.
Work with items in a project
To add an item to a project, you can either:
- Open an item in read mode and click Add to project.
- Open an item in edit mode and click Add to project and then save the item. If the item is closed before saving, the item is not added to the project.
- Select items in a view and click More actions | Add to project.
- Open a project and click the Add to project button and then select an item to add to the project.
- Open a project and click New to create a draft item in the project.
The maximum number of items that can be used in a single project is 500.
In order to add an item to a project, have editor access to that item.
When you add an item to a project:
- You can also select items that are referenced by the item you are adding to the project.
- Non-workflowed item types are saved as a draft.
- Workflowed items are added to a project in the first workflow stage of their workflow.
Once added to a project, you work with items in the same way as any other item by selecting an item in the project and clicking Edit:
- Non-workflowed item types are saved as drafts until you are ready to publish them by clicking Approve.
- Workflowed items are processed through a full workflow cycle until reaching a pending state.
- Draft items in a project are displayed alongside other items in item views, but are displayed with a status of draft. If you have created a draft of a previously published item, both the draft and published versions of item will appear in item views.
- When using selection dialogs, draft items from current project appear alongside currently published items allowing you to select and link to both current items and draft project items.
Workflow item types:
Workflows, workflow stages and workflow actions cannot be added to projects.
Previewing items in a project
While you are working on a project, you can preview the draft items in the project as if they were published together on the live site.
Delete items in a project
Remove From Project When you select an item in a project and click Remove From Project, the draft item is removed from the project but is still visible in the Library Explorer. Delete
When you select an item in a project and click Delete, the draft is removed from the project and also deleted. Mark for deletion
When an item is marked for deletion, the item is deleted when the project is published. You can mark items for deletion in a project by:
- adding the item to a project
- opening a draft project item in read mode and clicking Mark for deletion.
When an item is marked for deletion, other buttons in the edit view of the item are disabled. To cancel a deletion, click Cancel deletion.
Hierarchical items such as site areas and taxonomies cannot be marked for deletion.
Project status
When working with a project, the project progresses through the following states:
Active A project which has draft items in it is considered "active". These items can be individually approved until they reach a state of "pending". Syndicating If "All items" or "Live and project" syndication has been enabled for the library that the project is stored in, a status of "Syndicating" is displayed until all items on both the syndicator and subscriber have reached a state of pending. Pending A project which contains only items in a "pending" state is itself considered "pending". If the project publish option is set to automatic this state is skipped. When the project is published manually or when the publish date is reached, the project moves to the "publishing" state. Publish This is the state where all items in the project move from pending to published. Failed Indicates that one or more project items failed to publish. Published Once all items are published the project achieves a state of "published".
Publish a project
There are three publishing methods used by projects:
Date When Date is selected, all items are published as soon as all the items in the project reach a state of "pending" and the publish date selected in the project is reached. You can also click Publish in the project form before the date being reached once all items in the project reach a state of "pending". Manual When Manual is selected all items remain in a state of "pending" until the project is manually published by clicking Publish in the project form. The Publish button is not activated until all items in the project reach a state of "pending". Only users with editor access or higher to a project can publish a project. Automatic When Automatic is selected all items are published as soon as all the items in the project reach a state of "pending". Once the project is published, you can continue to review the status and version history of the items in the project by opening the project form.
Access controls
The access controls on a project do not affect the access controls on the items in a project. For example, a user that has editor access to a project but only read access to an item that is included in the project is not able to edit that item.
Syndicating a project
Projects are designed to be used only on a syndicator server. Although projects will be syndicated with other items in a library that is being syndicated, you cannot use the subscriber copy of the project to update or publish project. When a project is syndicated, the publish method on the subscriber is automatically changed to "deferred syndication", and the following actions are disabled on the subscriber:
- Publish project
- Add to project
- Remove from project
- Mark for deletion
- Cancel deletion
This means that the project on the subscriber cannot be updated or published unless it receives updates from the syndicator.
Disable a workflow in a project
A workflow can be configured so that it is disabled when an item using that workflow is added to a project.
- Any items using the disabled workflow have a status of draft when added to a project, but no longer require to pass through a workflow before being published.
- The workflow stage the item is returned to when the project is published is also defined in the workflow.
- Any actions set to run on entering the stage that the item is returned to are not run.
- An item has a status of "published" when the project is published regardless of the workflow stage it is returned to, even if the workflow stage does not use a publish action or if it precedes or follows a workflow stage that contains a publish action.
Parent
Change management features
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