Configuring Live Copy Synchronization

Last update: 2023-11-18
  • Created for:
  • Admin

Adobe Experience Manager provides several synchronization configurations out-of-the-box. Before using Live Copies, you should consider the following to define how and when Live Copies are synchronized with their source content.

  1. Decide whether existing rollout configurations meet your requirements
  2. If existing rollout configurations do not, decide whether you need to create your own.
  3. Specify the rollout configurations to use for your Live Copies.

Installed and Custom Rollout Configurations

This section provides information about the installed rollout configurations and the synchronization actions that they use, and how to create custom configurations if necessary.

CAUTION

Updating or changing an out-of-the-box rollout configuration is not recommended. If there is a requirement for a custom live action then it should be added in a custom rollout configuration.

Rollout Triggers

Each rollout configuration uses a rollout trigger that causes the rollout to occur. Rollout configurations can use one of the following triggers:

  • On Rollout: The Rollout command is used on the blue print page, or the Synchronize command is used on the Live Copy page.
  • On Modification: The source page is modified.
  • On Activation: The source page is activated.
  • On Deactivation: The source page is deactivated.
NOTE

Use of the On Modification trigger can impact performance. See MSM best practices for more information.

Rollout Configurations

The following table lists the rollout configurations that are provided out-of-the-box with AEM. The table includes the trigger and synchronization actions of each rollout configuration.

If the installed rollout configuration actions do not meet your requirements, you can create a rollout configuration.

Name Description Trigger Synchronization Actions
Standard rollout config Standard rollout configuration which allows to start rollout process on rollout trigger and runs actions: create, update, delete content and order children nodes On Rollout contentUpdate
contentCopy
contentDelete
referencesUpdate
productUpdate
orderChildren
Activate on Blueprint activation Publishes the Live Copy when the source is published On Activation targetActivate
Deactivate on Blueprint deactivation Deactivates the Live Copy when the source is deactivated On deactivation targetDeactivate
Push on modify Pushes the content to the Live Copy when the source is modified
Use this rollout configuration sparingly as it uses the On Modification trigger.		 On Modification contentUpdate
contentCopy
contentDelete
referencesUpdate
orderChildren
Push on modify (shallow) Pushes content to the Live Copy when the blueprint page is modified, without updating references (for example, for shallow copies)
Use this rollout configuration sparingly as it uses the On Modification trigger.		 On Modification contentUpdate
contentCopy
contentDelete
orderChildren
Promote Launch Standard rollout configuration for promoting launch pages. On Rollout contentUpdate
contentCopy
contentDelete
referencesUpdate
orderChildren
markLiveRelationship

Synchronization Actions

The following table lists the synchronization actions that are provided out-of-the-box with AEM.

If the installed actions do not meet your requirements, you can Create a New Synchronization Action.

Action Name Description Properties
contentCopy When nodes of the source do not exist on the Live Copy, this action copies the nodes to the Live Copy. Configure the CQ MSM Content Copy Action service to specify the node types, paragraph items, and page properties to exclude.
contentDelete This action deletes nodes of the Live Copy that do not exist on the source. Configure the CQ MSM Content Delete Action service to specify the node types, paragraph items, and page properties to exclude.
contentUpdate This action updates the Live Copy content with the changes from the source. Configure the CQ MSM Content Update Action service to specify the node types, paragraph items, and page properties to exclude.
editProperties This action edits properties of the Live Copy. The editMap property determines which properties are edited and their value. The value of the editMap property must use the following format:
[property_name_n]#[current_value]#[new_value]
current_value and new_value are regular expressions and n is an incremented integer.
For example, consider the following value for editMap:
sling:resourceType#/(contentpage‖homepage)#/mobilecontentpage,cq:template#/contentpage#/mobilecontentpage
This value edits the properties of the Live Copy nodes as follows:
The sling:resourceType properties that are either set to contentpage or to homepage are set to mobilecontentpage.
The cq:template properties that are set to contentpage are set to mobilecontentpage.		 editMap: (String) identifies the property, the current value, and the new value. See the description for more information.
notify This action sends a page event that the page has been rolled out. To be notified, one must first subscribe to rollout events.
orderChildren This action orders the child nodes based on the order on the blueprint.
referencesUpdate This synchronization action updates references on the Live Copy.
It searches for paths in the Live Copy pages that point to a resource within the blueprint. When found, it updates the path to point to the related resource inside the Live Copy. References that have targets outside the blueprint are not changed.
Configure the CQ MSM References Update Action service to specify the node types, paragraph items, and page properties to exclude.
targetVersion This action creates a version of the Live Copy.
This action must be the only synchronization action included in a rollout configuration.
targetActivate This action activates the Live Copy.
This action must be the only synchronization action included in a rollout configuration.
targetDeactivate This action deactivates the Live Copy.
This action must be the only synchronization action included in a rollout configuration.
workflow This action starts the workflow that is defined by the target property (for pages only) and takes the Live Copy as payload.
The target path is the path of the model node.		 target: (String) is the path to the workflow model.
mandatory This action sets the permission of several ACLs on the Live Copy page to read-only for a specific user group. The following ACLs are configured:
ActionSet.ACTION_NAME_REMOVE
ActionSet.ACTION_NAME_SET_PROPERTY
ActionSet.ACTION_NAME_ACL_MODIFY
Use this action for pages only.		 target: (String) is the ID of the group for which you are setting permissions.
mandatoryContent This action sets the permission of several ACLs on the Live Copy page to read-only for a specific user group. The following ACLs are configured:
ActionSet.ACTION_NAME_SET_PROPERTY
ActionSet.ACTION_NAME_ACL_MODIFY
Use this action for pages only.		 target: (String) is the ID of the group for which you are setting permissions.
mandatoryStructure This action sets the permission of the ActionSet.ACTION_NAME_REMOVE ACL on the Live Copy page to read-only for a specific user group.
Use this action for pages only.		 target: (String) is the ID of the group for which you are setting permissions.
VersionCopyAction If the blueprint/source page has been published at least once, this action creates a Live Copy page using the version that is published. Note: this action is only available for creating a Live Copy page based on a published source page, not for updating an existing Live Copy page.
PageMoveAction The PageMoveAction applies when a page has been moved in the blueprint.
The action copies rather than moves the (related) Live Copy page from the location before the move to the location after.
The PageMoveAction does not change the Live Copy page at the location before the move. Therefore, for consecutive rollout configurations it has the status of a live relationship without a blueprint.
Configure the CQ MSM Page Move Action service to specify the node types, paragraph items, and page properties to exclude.
This action must be the only synchronization action included in a rollout configuration.		 Set prop_referenceUpdate: (Boolean) to true (default) to update references.
markLiveRelationship This action Indicates a live relationship exists for launch-created content.

Creating a Rollout Configuration

You can create a rollout configuration when the installed rollout configurations do not meet your application requirements by performing the following steps.

  1. Create the rollout configuration-
  2. Add synchronization actions to the rollout configuration.

The new rollout configuration is then available to you when configuring rollout configurations on a blueprint or Live Copy page.

Excluding Properties and Node Types From Synchronization

You can configure several OSGi services that support corresponding synchronization actions so that they do not affect specific node types and properties. For example, many properties and subnodes related to the internal functioning of AEM should not be included in a Live Copy. Only the content that is relevant to the user of the page should be copied.

When working with AEM there are several methods of managing the configuration settings for such services. See Configuring OSGi for more details and the recommended practices.

The following table lists the synchronization actions for which you can specify the nodes to exclude. The table provides the names of the services to configure using the Web Console and the PID for configuring using a repository node.

Synchronization Action Service Name in Web Console Service PID
contentCopy CQ MSM Content Copy Action com.day.cq.wcm.msm.impl.actions.ContentCopyActionFactory
contentDelete CQ MSM Content Delete Action com.day.cq.wcm.msm.impl.actions.ContentDeleteActionFactory
contentUpdate CQ MSM Content Update Action com.day.cq.wcm.msm.impl.actions.ContentUpdateActionFactory
PageMoveAction CQ MSM Page Move Action com.day.cq.wcm.msm.impl.actions.PageMoveActionFactory
referencesUpdate CQ MSM References Update Action com.day.cq.wcm.msm.impl.actions.ReferencesUpdateActionFactory

The following table describes the properties that you can configure:

Web Console Property OSGi Property Description
Excluded Node Types cq.wcm.msm.action.excludednodetypes A regular expression that matches the node types to be excluded from the synchronization action
Excluded Paragraph Items cq.wcm.msm.action.excludedparagraphitems A regular expression that matches the paragraph items to be excluded from the synchronization action
Excluded Page Properties cq.wcm.msm.action.excludedprops A regular expression that matches the page properties to be excluded from the synchronization action
Ignored Mixin NodeTypes cq.wcm.msm.action.ignoredMixin A regular expression that matches the names of mixin node types to be excluded from the synchronization action (only available to contentUpdate action)

CQ MSM Content Update Action - Exclusions

Several properties and node types are excluded by default, these are defined in the OSGi configuration of CQ MSM Content Update Action, under Excluded Page Properties.

By default properties matching the following regular expressions are excluded (that is, not updated) on rollout:

Live Copy exclusion regexes

You can change the expressions defining the exclusion list as required.

For example, if you want the page Title to be included in the changes considered for rollout, remove jcr:title from the exclusions. For example, with the regex:

jcr:(?!(title)$).*

Configuring Synchronization for Updating References

You can configure several OSGi services that support corresponding synchronization actions related to updating references.

When working with AEM there are several methods of managing the configuration settings for such services. See Configuring OSGi for more details and the recommended practices.

The following table lists the synchronization actions for which you can specify the reference update. The table provides the names of the services to configure using the Web Console and the PID for configuring using a repository node.

Web Console Property OSGi Property Description
Update Reference across nested LiveCopies cq.wcm.msm.impl.action.referencesupdate.prop_updateNested Select this option in the web console or set this boolean property to true using the repository configuration to replace references that target any resource that is within the branch of the top-most Live Copy. Only available for referencesUpdate action.
Update Referencing Pages cq.wcm.msm.impl.actions.pagemove.prop_referenceUpdate Select this option in the web console or set this boolean property to true using the repository configuration to update any references to use the original page to instead reference the Live Copy page. Only available for PageMoveAction.

Specifying the Rollout Configurations to Use

MSM enables you to specify sets of rollout configurations that are used generally, and when required you can override them for specific Live Copies. MSM provides several locations for specifying the rollout configurations to use. The location determines whether the configuration applies to a specific Live Copy.

The following list of locations where you can specify the rollout configurations to use describes how MSM determines which rollout configurations to use for a Live Copy:

  • Live Copy page properties: When a Live Copy page is configured to use one or more rollout configurations, MSM uses those rollout configurations.
  • Blueprint page properties: When a Live Copy is based on a blueprint, and the Live Copy page is not configured with a rollout configuration, the rollout configuration that is associated with the blueprint source page is used.
  • Live Copy parent page properties: When neither the Live Copy page nor the blueprint source page are configured with a rollout configuration, the rollout configuration that applies to the Live Copy page’s parent page is used.
  • System default: When the rollout configuration of the Live Copy’s parent page cannot be determined, the system default rollout configuration is used.

For example, a blueprint uses the WKND tutorial site as source content. A site is created from the blueprint. Each item in the following list describes a different scenario regarding the use of rollout configurations:

  • None of the blueprint pages or the Live Copy pages are configured to use a rollout configuration. MSM uses the system default rollout configuration for all Live Copy pages.
  • The root page of the WKND site is configured with several rollout configurations. MSM uses these rollout configurations for all Live Copy pages.
  • The root page of the WKND site is configured with several rollout configurations, and the root page of the Live Copy site is configured with a different set of rollout configurations. MSM uses the rollout configurations that are configured on the root page of the Live Copy site.

Setting the Rollout Configurations for a Live Copy Page

Configure a Live Copy page with the rollout configurations to use when the source page is rolled out. Child pages inherit the configuration by default. When you configure the rollout configuration to use, you are overriding the configuration that the Live Copy page inherits from its parent.

You can also configure the rollout configurations for a Live Copy page when you create the Live Copy.

  1. Use the Sites console to select the Live Copy page.

  2. Select Properties from the toolbar.

  3. Open the Live Copy tab.

    The Configuration section shows the rollout configurations that the page inherits.

    Live Copy inheritance from parent page

  4. If necessary, adjust the Live Copy Inheritance flag. If checked the Live Copy configuration is effective on all children.

  5. Clear the Inherit Rollout Configuration From Parent property, then select one or more rollout configurations from the list.

    The selected rollout configurations appear below the drop-down list.

    Overriding Live Copy configuration inheritance

  6. Select Save & Close.

Setting the Rollout Configuration for a Blueprint Page

Configure a blueprint page with the rollout configurations to use when the blueprint page is rolled out.

The child pages of the blueprint page inherit the configuration. When you configure the rollout configuration to use, you could be overriding the configuration that the page inherits from its parent.

  1. Use the Sites console to select the root page of the blueprint.
  2. Select Properties from the toolbar.
  3. Open the Blueprint tab.
  4. Select one or more Rollout Configurations using the drop-down selector.
  5. Persist your updates with Save.

Setting the System Default Rollout Configuration

To specify a rollout configuration to use as the system default, configure the following OSGi service.

  • Day CQ WCM Live Relationship Manager with the service PID com.day.cq.wcm.msm.impl.LiveRelationshipManagerImpl

Configure the service using either the web console or a repository node.

  • In the web console, the name of the property to configure is Default rollout config.
  • Using a repository node, the name of the property to configure is liverelationshipmgr.relationsconfig.default.

Set this property value to the path of the rollout configuration to use as the system default. The default value is /libs/msm/wcm/rolloutconfigs/default, which is the Standard Rollout Config.

Previous page
Next page

On this page