{"id":61218,"date":"2012-12-10T13:12:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T18:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/?page_id=61218"},"modified":"2013-04-11T13:57:16","modified_gmt":"2013-04-11T17:57:16","slug":"use","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/tech\/services\/cccs\/websites\/www\/wordpress\/advanced-workflows\/versions\/use\/","title":{"rendered":"Use the BU Versions Plugin"},"content":{"rendered":"

The alternate versions workflow starts with a published post.<\/p>\n

WordPress uses the term post generically to refer to all content that shares the Post<\/strong> admin user interfaces. A post type is a specific instance of a post \u2014 both Post<\/strong> and Page<\/strong> are built-in examples of post types. In addition, plugins and themes may add their own custom post types for managing special types of content. For instance the BU Profiles plugin<\/a> uses a custom post type called Profile to allow management of faculty and staff profiles.<\/p>\n

The alternate version workflow is designed to work on published content. Publish<\/strong> is an example of a post status \u2014 other statuses include Draft<\/strong>, Pending<\/strong>, and Trash<\/strong>. If you see one of these status labels next to your post title on the edit posts page, you will not be able to create alternate versions for them.<\/p>\n

\"Example

Example of different post statuses<\/p><\/div>\n

By default all post types that appear in your UI will gain the alternate version workflow.<\/p>\n

Clone -- Creating an Alternate Version<\/h3>
<\/p>\n

\"Pages

Pages table, with additional Alternate Versions column<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

As soon as the BU Versions plugin is activated for your site, published posts will gain an extra column in the edit posts table \u2014 Alternate Versions<\/strong>. From this column you can clone a post, creating an alternate version that can be used to stage content changes.<\/p>\n

Click on create clone<\/strong> to create an alternate version for a published Post or Page.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Edit an Alternate Version as a Site Admin or Lead Editor<\/h3>
<\/p>\n

\"Home

Home page alternate version<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Clicking on create clone<\/strong> will bring you to the familiar post editing interface, with a few twists. A blue heading will let you know that you are editing an alternate version, and give you a link to edit the original if needed. After the alternate version is created, changes can be made without affecting the original post.<\/p>\n

An alternate version starts with the an exact copy of the content and supported meta data (content banner, post details, etc.) from the original post. Alternate versions even have their own revision history, allowing you to spread content changes over multiple editing sessions by saving the alternate version as a Draft.<\/p>\n

Once the alternate version is created, changes to the original post will not propagate to the alternate version \u2014 they are two separate posts from the point they are created. Care must be taken when an alternate version exists. Changes made to the original, but not also made to the alternate version, can be lost when the original post is replaced.<\/div>\n

\"Publish

Publish metabox for alternate versions, as viewed by a site admin<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

While you are editing an alternate version, there are a few actions available through the Publish<\/strong> metabox.<\/p>\n