We have a need to apply a new workflow to items in our content tree. This will replace the Workflow already in place.
I have a base item that these content items inherit from, so I can use that to change the default Workflow.
The problem is, how do I deal with items that are already in the various states of Workflow? Do I have to edit them individually to put them in the equivalent step of the new Workflow?
To answer your questions, yes. However, maybe consider switching them programatically rather than manually. Maybe you can run code to go through the items and switch WF states based on mappings from the old to new states. I recommend you post this question on the SDN forum or even ask Sitecore support as there may be consequences to doing this.
Related
Is it possible to open up all possible states for a work item - essentially removing the state transitions?
I am hoping to use a tool outside of TFS for managing work items and would like to know if it's possible to simply allow all states at any time?
If you want to remove the transitions between work item, you need to customize the work flow.
You change the workflow to accomplish the following objectives:
Add or remove a state, reason, or transition.
Specify a value for field to be applied during a change in state,
reason, or transition..
Specify a custom ACTION to automate field assignments based on a
change in state, reason, or transition.
Detail steps to customize the workflow and more info about it, please refer this Modify or add a custom work item type (WIT) from MSDN.
Moreover, here is a 3rd party extension called TFS Work Item Manager which is an innovative team workload coordination platform that helps you manage your TFS work items in a much more efficient and intuitive way. You can also take a look at it.
I am Using Sitecore 6.6
I believe item:setdefaultworkflow and item:resetdefaultworkflow commands are used to reset the workflow fields on an Item with values set on Standard values.
If not please correct me.
Here is the Path in Core:
/sitecore/content/Applications/Content Editor/Ribbons/Chunks/Workflow/Set Default Workflow
commands are not shown on the Ribbon. How do I use these commands? what is their purpose. Any Help is greatly appreciated.
I am aware of Version >> Fields(Reset)>> then choose the fields to reset with multiple clicks.
I am trying to use these commands if they solve my purpose to reset the Workflow Fields to standard values with a command on Review Tab >> Workflow section with one Click.
As far as I'm aware, these buttons are only visible on __Standard Values items. They are used to assign the workflow that will be used for new versions of that template going forward, or to clear the workflow that has been set (note that items which are already part way through a workflow will still need to finish it before they are no longer associated with a workflow).
The idea is that you assign the workflow to the standard values of templates (or base templates) in your solution, and those settings then get carried through to your content items.
Although you are able to, I'd advise against fiddling with the workflow fields on individual items before you fully understand the purpose of the fields.
For more information, I'd suggest looking at the Sitecore workflow reference document: https://sdn.sitecore.net/upload/sitecore6/60/workflow_reference_sc60orlater-a4.pdf
I would like to know how do you do pre-loading of components in sitecore 7.1?
What I tried so far:
Create a standard value for the page.
Then modify the presentation details of the standard value.
Then add components that I want preloaded in the page.
Then create a Branch for the page.
Use the Branch to create the page.
This works fine except when I add new components in the page's standard value, all existing page is affected with my changes.
What I need to know - is there away that the old page is not affected by my changes in the standard value?
Is there a way only the new page that I create is affected when I modify the pre-loading of components in my page?
Your input is appreciated.
There are few things one should consider:
If there current Sitecore installation is upgraded from 6.4 or prior version to your current version; the item's layout deltas might be an issue. You will have to check the raw values of the Layout details field and figure it out.
Any changes made on the Layout Details on Standard Values do get cascaded down to the items created from that specific Template.
If you don't want these changes to get inherited try multiple inheritance. And change the template of those items created.
Lastly, if the above doesn't work, try creating a new template with the changes you want and change the Template of those items created.
Hope the above helps. Share any further questions you might have or even if the above haven't answered your questions.
Happy Sitecoring!
The main purpose of __Standard Values is automatic update of existing items.
In this case, you should not configure the item's layout in the __Standard Values.
You need to use Branch and configure layout in the Page item instead of __Standard Values.
Currently working in SC7 where I have implemented a kind of scaffolding so that editors can add an article to a page and add sections and paragraphs under it. You get the idea, html5 stuff...
Now, the problem...
Editors are working in Page Editor:
Suppose you make a new page, and add an article. It has a title, hero image on top and an introduction. You choose to create new content and I save it in an ItemBucket called ContenStore where I store all my articles, sections, paragraphs... The SC7 way to use the search if they want to re-use any of that content.
Suppose my editor creates another new page, and he wants to re-use a section from the content store. He will find the section but when he has placed it on the page, non of the paragraphs that were on the original section show up... Of course not, since I guess the layout details are saved on the context item level and not on that section level...
Has anyone tackled this problem before? A sublayout (or rendering) should be able to remeber what layout details it has, so that if you re-use it, all the items it had originally are put in its placeholders again as well, and this recursively of course...
Any thoughts welcome...
Erwin
The problem you describe is not new to Sitecore 7. You would have the same problem in Sitecore 6, you would just have to go through the additional effort of keeping your content organized. This is a fundamental limitation of Sitecore's presentation framework.
I have worked around similar problems before by using Presentation Inversion of Control. (I should probably write an update for that since the rules engine approach no longer works)
I believe that Cognifide is doing something similar with the "Composites" in their Zen Garden, but instead of using a dummy layout they use an empty layout so any item can be opened as a page. Then they added a custom experience button which navigates to that non-page content item within the page editor. (Note that this is speculation based on a brief demo that I saw).
Thomas Eldblom also blogged years ago about what he called Composite Layouts. It's similar to PIoC, but puts the presentation settings on a special rendering type.
In short, there are ways to achieve what you want, but they all involve custom development and will require extra attention to maintain a smooth page editor experience.
I have read what I can on cloning and it seems like a partial solution for our client. I read http://www.sitecore.net/Community/Technical-Blogs/Getting-to-Know-Sitecore/Posts/2010/10/Cloning-What-Ifs.aspx but the commenters didn't finish out the answer.
Sitecore clones give notification on changes which is nice and supports the idea of workflow for all items, but the clone parent does not give information on what is cloned from it. So when a change is made on our (mainly) master site, finding each cloned item in the 5 sister sites is going to become much too tedious too fast.
I believe that proxy items would have once been the true solution, but considering that they are deprecated, I don't think it's a solution we are looking to implement.
Besides modifying our workflow and messing around with the clones, is there a built-in or easier way to maintain clones?
Desired Behavior:
When parent of clones becomes approved into a final workflow state => Accept the changes on the clones as well.
Or
Less Desired:
Give a list of all child clones of an item in the Content Editor with links to edit.
For your desired behavior: you'd have to implement either an event handler or pipeline processor that when an item is approved, you use the Links Database to find all clones of it and programmatically approve those. I believe this is certainly do-able from a code perspective.
For your less desired behavior: you can use the Navigate tab > Links drop-down to find clones. Just look at the Referrers that have the _source field displayed, meaning they refer to that item via the "_source" field which means they're a clone of it.
UPDATE
To modify the workflow of an item via C#, refer to Changing the Workflow State on an Item.