Documentation Center

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