The Clone content feature allows users to create a page/content item (Basic page, Custom page, FAQ item, etc.) and then efficiently create a copy of that page/content item, including any page customizations.
About cloning content
Users can use the Clone feature to create and customize pages to use as "templates." These template pages can remain unpublished, so anonymous visitors won’t see them in lists, search results, or menus. The primary purpose of the Clone Content feature is to make it easier to create pages with similarly-customized layouts and widgets or other page settings and options.
Cloning process:
- choose an existing page;
- make a copy of it, including all fields, widgets, and layouts;
- update the parts of the page that are different from the source page.
Enable cloning on content types
By default, cloning is not enabled for any content types. Site Managers and Site Builders can configure which content types allow cloning. The "Clone content" settings can be found in the "Site Administration" and "Settings" section of the user admin menu and dashboard. See Figure 1, below.
After selecting the "Clone content" item on the Settings page, there will be a list of every content type that is available on your site. Check the box for each content type where cloning should be available and then select the "Save" button. See Figure 2, below.
Once the Clone content settings have been saved, the "clone" option will be available for the enabled content types.
Use the Clone feature
Once cloning has been enabled for certain content types, there will be a "Clone" tab available at the top of the page/item, at the end of the list of tabs (Edit, View, Manage Revisions). See Figure 3, below. If you do not see a "Clone" tab as described, try flushing your site caches first and then check again.
Clone a page
Select the "Clone" tab (see Figure 3, above) for the page/content item you would like to clone. This will take you to the edit form of a new page with all of the same field and page settings as the source page, and the Title field will have placeholder text.
On a Basic page, you can make the various changes to the Title, Body, and other page settings and then save. On a Custom page and any other content type where page customizations are available, you can make the changes to the Title and other page and field settings and save, and then select the "Customize" tab to make widget and/or layout updates. All field content will be the same on the cloned page as on the source page except for the publication date for News items, which will be reset to the current date.
See Figure 4, below, for an example of a cloned Basic page edit form.
Additional clone content notes
- unpublished content: if the source page is unpublished, the new cloned page will be published by default unless you uncheck the "Published" checkbox before or after saving
- menus: cloned pages do not inherit any menu settings from their source page. If you want the new page to be in your menu, configure the menu settings as you would for any other new page.
- book pages (TBA): cloning a Book page will set the cloned page as a sibling of the source page with the same parent page in the Book outline. If you need to move the cloned page to a different place in the hierarchy, or a different Book, you can do so using the Book Outline vertical tab. If you clone a top-level Book page, the cloned page will be the top page of a new Book.
- reusable widgets: reusable widgets on the source page will not be "cloned" by definition, but they will show up on cloned pages. The cloned page will use an instance of the reusable widget as if you had chosen the widget from the Reusable Content category and added it to a page. When you update a reusable widget anywhere it's used (both cloned and non-cloned pages), all instances of that widget will be updated as expected.
- revisions: cloned pages do not copy the revision information from their source page. When you first save a cloned page, that version becomes the first revision of the new page, and then additional revisions are created as they would be for any other page.