BluePrinting
A BluePrint is a hierarchy of Publications in which Parent Publications share content to Child Publications based on priorities. Child Publications can contain shared content from a Parent Publication, localized content, and local content. BluePrinting is a key concept in SDL Web.
BluePrinting allows you to reuse content by defining global content at a high level which is then shared down the BluePrint hierarchy. The basic layers in a BluePrint hierarchy are:
- Root Publication
- The Root Publication is the only Publication in a BluePrint that has no parent. When you create a BluePrint, all Publications in the BluePrint share the Root Structure Group, items, organization (Structure Groups and Folders), and permissions from the root Publication, based on the inheritance of shared items.
- Parent Publication
- A Parent Publication can also be a Child Publication.
- Child Publication
- A Child Publication can contain local items. An Author can edit items shared from the Parent by localizing shared items.
Publications can contain a combination of the following content:
- Shared items
- Shared items are items created in a Parent Publication and shared to Child Publications down the BluePrint. These items are read-only unless you localize them in which case they become local copies.
- Local copies
- Localizing is the process of creating a local copy of a shared item.
- Local items
Shared content is automatically synchronized: when you make changes to a local item in a Parent Publication, those changes are automatically passed on to shared items in Child Publications. If you have created a Local Copy of the shared item, you break the connection between these items therefore these changes are not passed. The following diagram shows a simple BluePrint hierarchy and demonstrates how content is shared from Parent to Child Publications:
Example BluePrint 1
In the following BluePrint, the primary Parent has two Child Publications. The Child Publications share content directly from the Parent.
Example BluePrint 2
In the following BluePrint, the primary Parent has only one direct Child Publication:
- Root Parent Publication—Child Publications will share the root Structure Group and all content. Shares organizational item permissions (Read, Write, Localize, Delete) with Child Publications. Shares rights with Child Publications.
- Child Pub A—Shares content from the primary Parent, can contain local content, and can localize and edit shared items from the Parent Publication
- Child Pub B—Shares content from Child A , can contain local content. and can localize and edit shared items from Child A