Live Copy

Live Copy allows authors to copy a page within a site or from another site, that will remain in sync with the original source page so that changes to the source page will be reflected in the copy.

Within that copy, select components can be made independent of the source page, so they no longer match the source page and remain different when the source page is updated and the copy is refreshed.

This could be applied to a story on the central News Center that mentions one of your department's faculty. You could make a Live Copy and then tweak the existing text to better reflect your department's own needs, or change the page's tags so that it displays appropriately on your department's site, without impacting the source version on the News Center.

Because the copy is just a modified version of the source page, it uses the same template as the original, so changes are limited to what is supported by that particular template. Almost everything else can be modified, including title, page content, tags, and location, and these can continue to be modified independently locally, while the synchronized portions stay up to date with any modifications to the source.

Live Copy supports custom collections (e.g. a tag-based query from a large selection of Shared Content pages).  Since the copy can then be selectively edited without impacting the original pages, the resulting page or collection can be repurposed without impacting the source; e.g. to create a custom news feed, or even to repurpose individual news stories on an individual basis. Live Copies can include a source page's children, so an entire section of a site can be repurposed in this manner.

Note: There are optional settings that allow the copy to automatically be updated when the source changes ('Push on Modify'), or to automatically be published when the source is published ('Activate on Blueprint activation'), but there is no mechanism to notify the copy's owners that the source has changed.

You can make a Live Copy of any regular Web page or those in Shared Content. When you create the copy, you can include its children, and set synchronization ('Rollout') configurations. These configurations apply to the local copy and any copied children, but can be modified later in the Properties overview tab.

1. Navigate in the Sites Console where you would like to have this new page.
   
   • Shared content pages should be 'live-copied' into a corresponding shared content area on your site. You can move the live copy later if needed.
2. Click Create, then Live Copy.
3. Navigate to the source page, select it, then click Next.
   
4. Select the destination folder and click Next..
   
   • By default, this will be the location you started in.
   • Remember to select the parent page of the desired location.
5. For Configuration, provide:
   
   • Title (required)
     
   • Name (required)
   • Exclude sub pages - If checked, children of the source page are not copied. Read more about including/excluding children immediately below.
     
   • Rollout Configs - Recommended choices include:
     
     • Push on modify - Your copy is automatically updated whenever the source is modified (excluding any 'cancel inheritance' sections you have adjusted yourself).
     • Activate on Blueprint activation - Publish your copy (and any Live Copy children) whenever the source is published (with any local modifications you have made).
       
     • Deactivate on Blueprint deactivation - Unpublish your copy if the source page is unpublished. This will also unpublish local child pages, whether they are part of the Live Copy or not.
6. Click Create.
   
7. You can now select Open (open the new copy for editing) or Done (return to Sites Console).

If source children are included:

• Existing children of the source page will be copied and can be later modified using the Cancel Inheritance feature. (Children added after the Live Copy is set up will not be included in the Live Copy.)
  
• Any references from the copied (parent) page to those children will refer to your local copies (not the source pages), so visitors will stay on your site.
  
• If Rollout configs are enabled, these child page copies will also be updated (Push on modify) or published (Activate on Blueprint activation) or unpublished (Deactivate on Blueprint deactivation) as the synchronized source pages are modified.
• The source child pages can still be used for future Live Copies if desired, independent of this Live Copy.

If source children are excluded:

• Existing children of the source page will not be copied and thus cannot be modified locally. (But you can later add local child pages.)
  
• Any references from the source to its own child pages will refer back to those original pages, so visitors may undesirably click through to the original site.
  
• The source child pages can still be used for future Live Copies if desired, independent of this Live Copy but we recommend including them in the initial Live Copy if they are significant for your site as well.

Rollout / Synchronization - Once a Live Copy is made, changes to the source ('Blueprint') will automatically 'rollout' to the Live Copy if the Live Copy is configured to Push on modify. Otherwise these changes will need to be rolled out manually. *

Activation / Deactivation - If the source page is published or unpublished, and the Live Copy is configured to Activate on Blueprint activation / Deactivate on Blueprint deactivation, the Live Copy will also be published / unpublished. Deactivation will also unpublish the Live Copy's children, even if they are not Live Copies themselves. If the Live Copy is not configured with Activate on... / Deactivate on..., then the Live Copy (and any children) can always be manually published or unpublished locally.

Deletion - If the source page is deleted, the Live COpy connection is terminated, leaving the copy and any children in place.  

Annotations - These are not inherited from the source page but can be added to the copy.

Authoring Note - This is not inherited from the source page but can be added to the copy.

Child Pages - Child pages of the source page can be included when the initial Live Copy is set up. If additional children are added to the source after the Live Copy is established, they will not be copied over.

Reset Live Copy - Invoking this feature removes any inheritance cancellations and modifications to the local copy. The local copy will now match the current version of the source page. *

* more details below in Rollout Changes.

To modify content on a Live Copy page or for any its Properties, you will be prompted to 'cancel inheritance' for each element you wish to change, which means that element will no longer match the source page and those 'cancelled' elements will stop inheriting changes made to the source page.

Once this inheritance is cancelled, the corresponding component can be modified or deleted, or the copy's Properties can be changed (e.g. tags can be added or deleted).

To Cancel Inheritance, open a component for editing, or Properties (shortcut 'p'), and click the corresponding chain icon. Confirm the change and from that point on, that element is independent of any changes to the source page.

• Components can be added. Inheritance does not apply and they will not be overridden by changes to the source page. However, to add a new component within an inherited container (e.g. Collapsible Content, Form or Related Content), you must first cancel the inheritance on the entire container or your additions may be overridden when source page changes are rolled out.
  
• Components can be deleted. If they are synched to the source page, you must first cancel inheritance.
  
• Component order can be changed. When you try to move a component, you will be asked to cancel the inheritance of the paragraph system. If you agree, your copy's component order will be retained during a rollout, otherwise it will revert to the order on the source page.
  
• The Title and Name can be changed. They are always independent of the source page.
• The page can be moved without breaking the Live Copy inheritance.
  
• Child pages can be added without breaking Live Copy inheritance and are independent of source page modifications. But if the Live Copy source is unpublished or deleted, these local children will be impacted as well.
  
• Teasers (e.g. in Lists) that you create locally will reflect the referenced (Live Copy) page, and will thus reflect your copy and not the source.  

When a Live Copy is created, an additional tab is added to the copy's Properties that provides a summary of the Live Copy. Some of these settings can be adjusted here, plus it provides several synchronization tools that are described further in the Rollout Changes section.

• Source - Lists the Reference path to the source page.
• Status:
  
  • Suspended Live Copy: yes | no -- displays whether source rollouts have been temporarily stopped.
  • In Sync with Source: yes | no -- displays whether the copy is current with the source.
  • Last Rollout Date: When last sync occurred.
  • Last Rolled Out by: Who last synched with the source.
• Configuration:
  
  • Live Copy Inheritance - Apply this configuration to any Live Copy child pages. (Checked by default.)
    
  • Inherit Rollout Configs from Parent - Apply the configuration from this page's parent, if applicable.
    Warning, choosing this setting removes previous configurations -- cancel out to undo that change.
    
  • Choose Rollout Config: Remove or add Live Copy configurations (e.g. 'Push on modify').  

Note: 'Rollout' refers to source page (Blueprint) modifications being pushed out to Live Copy pages, which can happen automatically, or with a manual push from the source page or from the copy.

For the entire page - To see the inheritance status of all components on a page, open it for editing, click Edit (top right of the window) and Live Copy Status.

A modified view of the page appears:

• Components that are still in sync are marked in green
• Components modified with 'Cancel Inheritance' are in red.

When you are finished, click Live Copy Status and then select Edit.  

For a specific component - Inheritance status is displayed when a component is opened for editing.

For page Properties - Inheritance status is displayed beside each element.

Synchronised elements display a chain icon. When inheritance has been canceled, a broken chain icon is displayed instead. Click the icon to cancel or restore inheritance.

Re-enabling the original inheritance will remove any local modifications.

Automatic Rollout - When the Live Copy configurations are set as 'Push on modify', any changes to the source page automatically synchronize to the Live Copy page. (No notification is sent.)

• While editing the copy, open Properties, switch to the Live Copy (shortcut p). This option is available in the settings.
  
  • Change the configuration settings; e.g. add/remove 'Push on modify'. (NB. 'Live Copy Inheritance' refers to the child pages being synchronized as well.)

Manual Rollout - If 'Push on modify' is not configured, changes to the source page must be manually pushed to the copy. This can include child pages, and be scheduled.

• From the source page's Sites Console, select the source page, open References (shortcut Alt+3), expand Live Copies, select the copy and then Synchronize.
  
• From the copy's the Sites Console, select the Live Copy, open References (shortcut Alt+3), expand Blueprint, select the source and then click Rollout.
• While editing the copy, open Properties, switch to the Live Copy (shortcut p). These features are available in the toolbar:
  
  • Rollout - Synchronises any changes from the source to the copy.
  • Detach - Remove all connections from the source to the copy. This is permanent and non-reversible.
    
  • Suspend - Temporarily stop rollouts.
    
  • Resume - Available when the rollout has been suspended and returns rollouts to normal activity.
    
  • Reset Live Copy - Remove all changes to the Live Copy so it matches the source page
    
  • Synchronize - Run a Rollout and push any modifications from source to copy.
  • Refresh - Wash out any of your own changes to the copy and return to what is on the source page.

The source page is listed in page Properties, but References provides additional tools.

• Open the SItes Console.
  
• Select your Live Copy page.
• Open the References drawer (shortcut alt+3) and expand Blueprint.
  
• The source page will be listed with a last modified timestamp.
• Click the source page for options to:
  • Compare to Live Copy (using the Diff tool).
  • Rollout (manually sync source to Live Copy).
  • Reveal in Sites (display the source page in the Sites Console) *

* If you have sufficient permissions.

Discover the Live Copy(ies) of a source page in References. *

• Open the Sites Console.
  
• Select the source page (the page being 'Live Copied').
• Open the References drawer in the Side Panel (shortcut Alt+3).
• Any Live Copies page(s) will be listed with a last modified timestamp.
• Click the Live Copy page for options to:
  • Compare to Source (using the Diff tool).
    
  • Synchronize (manually rollout source page changes to copies).
    
  • Reveal in Sites (open the source page in the Sites Console) *
    
  • Edit Live Copy *

* If you have sufficient permissions.