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About Bundles

Bundles have a number of specific properties and behaviors, described in this topic.

Bundle contents

You can add any type of content item in a Publication to a Bundle, including other Bundles. Bundles can contain any number of items and an item can be in any number of Bundles.

Bundle creation

You can create a Bundle and then add items to it, or you can create a content item and create a Bundle for it on the fly. When created, a Bundle is stored in a default Folder location, unless you choose a different location.

Bundles and search

You cannot search inside a Bundle's contents. You can however, successfully search for a Bundle itself.

Bundles and BluePrinting

Bundles can be localized in a child Publication, but only their title and metadata can then be changed. You cannot add items to the localized Bundle.

You can put items shared from a parent Publication in a Bundle. When a Bundle containing a shared item is put in workflow in the current Publication, the following rules apply:

  • The user who starts workflow must have at least read permissions on every item in the Publication from which the shared item originates. (The user does not need Publication Management rights to the Publication.)
  • The shared item cannot enter workflow in any other Publication until it finishes workflow in the current Publication.
  • While the shared item is in workflow, it cannot be localized or unlocalized (neither in any parent nor in any child of the current Publication).
  • While the shared item is in a Bundle in workflow, it is also not possible to change the BluePrint Publication hierarchy or the priorities of BluePrint Publications.
Bundles and workflow

A Bundle may be subject to a Workflow Process Definition. While a Bundle goes through workflow, so do all of the items it contains. These items can have completely separate Workflow Process Definitions associated with them. A Bundle's Workflow Process can be started only when all of its items have completed their own Workflow Processes (if applicable).

A Bundle may contain items that must be in a Bundle (it may also contain items that do not need to be in a Bundle). Any changes to the mandatory items in a Bundle cannot be checked in until the Bundle has started and finished its Workflow Process. That means that even before the Bundle enters workflow, changes to the mandatory items are not checked in.

To illustrate what this means, imagine the following sequence of events:

  • Alice opens a mandatory item that is in a Bundle. The Bundle is subject to workflow but has not entered workflow yet.
  • Alice modifies the item and saves and closes the item to commit her changes. The changes are committed but not checked in.
  • Boris opens the same item (or explicitly checks it out) and makes a change, but halfway through editing, he changes his mind.
  • Boris selects Undo Checkout to discard his changes.
  • Content Manager discards all changes that were not checked in, including the changes made by Alice.

To alert the user to this, Boris sees a prompt when he opens (or explicitly checks out) the item, alerting him that he is taking ownership of other users' changes to the item, in addition to the changes he will be making. If Boris explicitly checks out the item and takes ownership, he is not prompted again.

When a Bundle that contains another Bundle enters a Workflow Process, the 'inner' Bundle itself, as well as all items contained in it, are added to the 'outer' Bundle.

When a Bundle has entered a Workflow Process, you can perform certain tasks only if the current Workflow Activity is configured to allow them: adding or removing items in the Bundle; editing the items in the Bundle; or editing the metadata of the Bundle.

Depending on configuration, Content Manager may dissolve the Bundle after the Workflow Process is completed. This means that the Bundle is destroyed, but its items remain. If the Bundle contains any Bundles, finishing the 'outer' Bundle's Workflow Process may also cause any or all of those 'inner' Bundles to be dissolved, even if the outer Bundle is not.