We often find ourselves in a situation where we have to clone parts of previously built sites in the backend (Site tab). While it is great that there is the option to export/import structures in the backend, there are two features that I think would vastly improve this functionality.
1. The option to export structure alone (no data)
2. The option to export with blank (or none?) "id" attributes
#1 is important for exporting from a site that has already been populated with content, which happens quite frequently when we want to reuse some portion (a blog, say).
#2 has bitten me a couple of times because with current functionality the import ends up destroying the original source of the export. This is fixable by opening the XML and deleting all the id's, but for a whole site and especially one that already has content, this is obviously quite a pain.
I'd love to hear what you guys think about this.
You can already do #1. Click "Operations" in the top right corner when viewing a structure in the Vae tab. That should give you the option to export it.
With regard to #2, that should only be a problem if you are importing to a different part of the same site. I'm not sure why you would ever want to /copy/ data to multiple parts of the same site?
You can export the structure AND content, but you can't export just the structure.
As far as #2, there are lots of times when we need to do exactly that. For example, I can build a "Slideshow" component in the backend, but then when we use it in multiple places on the same site, I either have to edit the XML and strip out all the id's or rebuild it each time.
The point is that it would be helpful to be able to create a copy of any structure (including a whole site) that would not destroy the original on import.
Regarding #2, my understanding of the way that it works is that it deletes an existing entry IF there is an existing entry with the same Vae ID as the one in the import XML in the new destination structure.
So if you export out Slideshow and then import it in a totally different part of the site, it should not delete the old content but rather insert a new copy in the new location. If you are not seeing this, please let me know.
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