Duplicating an entire site in one Umbraco instance
Hi,
I need to create a duplicate site in Umbraco parallel to my main site for Spanish-language. This raises a number of issues on which I'd love to get some advice from the pros out there.
The client wants the site to be completely separate since their maintainers will be separate. So the first thing I'd like to know is, is there a quick way to copy an entire site? Or do I have to literally recreate the new site in parallel?
The next issue is, how do I deal with the URLs once the site is populated in Umbraco? I tried creating a second Home page, for example, and the system gave it the same URL / Page Name as the original Home page. How is this possible? I have to have some way of toggling between the two sites/languages but if their URLs are the same, how can I do this? Do I really have to give an
Umbraco URL Name to every single page in the Spanish site?
Also, I'll need to use dictionary items for text translations in the site navigation. In the Edit Template interface, I see a button for "Insert Dictionary Item" but there is no such button in the Edit XSLT File interface. I have to be able to use the dictionary here because obviously my navs are Macros.
Thanks a lot, Paul-- I will try to follow these directions. Howeevr, I still need to know if I there is some way of duplicating the site. There are hundreds of pages. I don't have to create these subsites one page at a time, do I?!
I discovered the ability to copy the nodes, and that's done.
But, and this is a BIG but, as a result of changing the architecture of the site so fundamentally (according to this Wiki tutorial: our.umbraco.org/.../running-multi-lingual-sites-under-a-single-domain) every single Macro on the site is broken. I find the tutorial to bye incomplete. I assigned the subdomains to the different sub-home-pages but I'm still not really sure how this is going to work, how to navigate around the site.
Do I need two copies of every Macro, since their root nodes will be different? For example, my sitemap? One will need to iterate through all noides under the English home page, and the other one the Spanish? This doesn't seem like a very good plan to me.
When I'm creating a new language in a multi-lingual site, I start by copying the entire site - homepage and all - by just right-clicking and copying to under the content node. From here I assign hostnames to the new copy and start the translation process.
Is this what you mean? If so, it's totally possible. When you assign hostnames with your chosen language (after adding the language to the dictionary) the dictionary knows which one to use. To assign a hostname right-click on the new homepage node.
With regards to homepage nodes, you may need to change your xslt to compensate but after you do it once it will be easy from then on. Having said that, if you're finding your homepage by looking back up the tree to level one for a node of type "homepage" it should still work.
You should be able to use the same macros throughout the site without much issues. Feel free to post back with specific problems with your macros in the new site.
Really appreciate your response. I'm still totally confused though! I have so many issues I don't know where to begin because practically everything is broken ever since I created a global home page and put the two sites underneath it.
1.) I assigned no hostname to my global home page, as instructed, then en.localhost to one of the subsites and es.localhost to the other. Assuming I get the Macros working again (a whole other issue, as on most of them I have picked the root node using the media picker as a parameter of the Macro), how will I toggle between the two sites?? They have the same URL. Which I don't get.
2.) The Macros. You said "finding your homepage by looking back up the tree to level one for a node of type "homepage". I'm not. I'm just using pretty much a standard Navigation XSLT template. Eg. below:
Where the $level variable is set to 2 since my individual home pages are at level 2. Naturally, these links are being written twice since there are two home pages. If you can make me understand how to fix This then that would go pretty far and we can go from there.
In this situation, your homepages are at level 1 and your subpages are at level 2, regardless of which language they are applied to.
If (as i'm starting to suspect might be the case) your subpages are at level 1 and beside the homepage/straight underneath the content node, you'll have more problems duplicating the site and creating mulitlingual sites in the future.
* Content ** Home *** Home (EN) **** Subpage Subpage *** Home (ES) **** Subpage **** Subpage
I was under the impression that I was supposed to create a Global home page, under which the language-specific home pages would reside. Is this not the case?
What I did was create a new Home page at the parallel level of my existing home page, and then moved the existing home page underneath it, and then duplicated that. Not sure how removing this global home page is going to solve my problems though.
How to avoid the paths in the site changing to my.domain.com/HOME/blahblahblah.aspx? Or would This issue, in fact, be solved by eliminating the global home as discussed above and moving my home nodes up one?
Well this doesn't seem to be an issue since I ermoved the global home page. Now, a clarification.... How do I toggle between these two Homes / Sites? I am still confused that they have the same page name / url. I have a dropdown at the top of the page that offers Spanish and English. How can I make the users' choice select the correct home page and subpages?
Duplicating an entire site in one Umbraco instance
Hi,
I need to create a duplicate site in Umbraco parallel to my main site for Spanish-language. This raises a number of issues on which I'd love to get some advice from the pros out there.
The client wants the site to be completely separate since their maintainers will be separate. So the first thing I'd like to know is, is there a quick way to copy an entire site? Or do I have to literally recreate the new site in parallel?
The next issue is, how do I deal with the URLs once the site is populated in Umbraco? I tried creating a second Home page, for example, and the system gave it the same URL / Page Name as the original Home page. How is this possible? I have to have some way of toggling between the two sites/languages but if their URLs are the same, how can I do this? Do I really have to give an Umbraco URL Name to every single page in the Spanish site?
Also, I'll need to use dictionary items for text translations in the site navigation. In the Edit Template interface, I see a button for "Insert Dictionary Item" but there is no such button in the Edit XSLT File interface. I have to be able to use the dictionary here because obviously my navs are Macros.
Thanks,
Garrett
Oh, another thing-- after you put in the dictionary tags, how does Umbraco "know" which language to use?
Garrett -
A few quick searches on this site will get you most of the way to your answers. For starts have a look at these entries:
http://our.umbraco.org/wiki/how-tos/running-multi-lingual-sites-under-a-single-domain
http://umbraco.org/documentation/books/multilingual-11-sites
The later is a walk-through of creating a multi-lingual site.
-Paul
Thanks a lot, Paul-- I will try to follow these directions. Howeevr, I still need to know if I there is some way of duplicating the site. There are hundreds of pages. I don't have to create these subsites one page at a time, do I?!
//Garrett
I discovered the ability to copy the nodes, and that's done.
But, and this is a BIG but, as a result of changing the architecture of the site so fundamentally (according to this Wiki tutorial: our.umbraco.org/.../running-multi-lingual-sites-under-a-single-domain) every single Macro on the site is broken. I find the tutorial to bye incomplete. I assigned the subdomains to the different sub-home-pages but I'm still not really sure how this is going to work, how to navigate around the site.
Do I need two copies of every Macro, since their root nodes will be different? For example, my sitemap? One will need to iterate through all noides under the English home page, and the other one the Spanish? This doesn't seem like a very good plan to me.
//Garrett
Hi Garrett
When I'm creating a new language in a multi-lingual site, I start by copying the entire site - homepage and all - by just right-clicking and copying to under the content node. From here I assign hostnames to the new copy and start the translation process.
Is this what you mean? If so, it's totally possible. When you assign hostnames with your chosen language (after adding the language to the dictionary) the dictionary knows which one to use. To assign a hostname right-click on the new homepage node.
Dan
With regards to homepage nodes, you may need to change your xslt to compensate but after you do it once it will be easy from then on. Having said that, if you're finding your homepage by looking back up the tree to level one for a node of type "homepage" it should still work.
You should be able to use the same macros throughout the site without much issues. Feel free to post back with specific problems with your macros in the new site.
Hi Dan,
Really appreciate your response. I'm still totally confused though! I have so many issues I don't know where to begin because practically everything is broken ever since I created a global home page and put the two sites underneath it.
1.) I assigned no hostname to my global home page, as instructed, then en.localhost to one of the subsites and es.localhost to the other. Assuming I get the Macros working again (a whole other issue, as on most of them I have picked the root node using the media picker as a parameter of the Macro), how will I toggle between the two sites?? They have the same URL. Which I don't get.
2.) The Macros. You said "finding your homepage by looking back up the tree to level one for a node of type "homepage". I'm not. I'm just using pretty much a standard Navigation XSLT template. Eg. below:
Where the $level variable is set to 2 since my individual home pages are at level 2. Naturally, these links are being written twice since there are two home pages. If you can make me understand how to fix This then that would go pretty far and we can go from there.
Thanks again,
Garrett
Do you have a content tree like the following?
In this situation, your homepages are at level 1 and your subpages are at level 2, regardless of which language they are applied to.
If (as i'm starting to suspect might be the case) your subpages are at level 1 and beside the homepage/straight underneath the content node, you'll have more problems duplicating the site and creating mulitlingual sites in the future.
Dan
Hi,
No, my structure is:
I was under the impression that I was supposed to create a Global home page, under which the language-specific home pages would reside. Is this not the case?
//Garrett
The global homepage isn't necessary. Have you always had this? If not, you can safely remove it.
What I did was create a new Home page at the parallel level of my existing home page, and then moved the existing home page underneath it, and then duplicated that. Not sure how removing this global home page is going to solve my problems though.
No it probably wouldn't, to be fair. Do feel free to post specific problems with the xslt and multiple home nodes though.
Dan
How to avoid the paths in the site changing to my.domain.com/HOME/blahblahblah.aspx? Or would This issue, in fact, be solved by eliminating the global home as discussed above and moving my home nodes up one?
It may do, although you can try setting
to true in your web.config, if it isn't already. If it's not, that may be your way out of that one.
Hope this helps,
Dan
Hey Dan,
Well this doesn't seem to be an issue since I ermoved the global home page. Now, a clarification.... How do I toggle between these two Homes / Sites? I am still confused that they have the same page name / url. I have a dropdown at the top of the page that offers Spanish and English. How can I make the users' choice select the correct home page and subpages?
Thanks again,
Garrett
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