Versioning

An overview on how to view the version history of an item, compare versions, preview previous versions and revert to previous versions.

Creating a new version

Plone includes a versioning feature. By default, the following content types have versioning enabled:

• Pages
• News Items
• Events
• Links

Note that all other content types do track workflow history (so, when an item was published, unpublished etcetera)

Content items can be configured to have versioning enabled/disabled through the Site Setup Plone Configuration panel under “Types”.

When editing an item, you may use the change note field at the bottom; the change note will be stored in the item’s version history. If the change note is left blank, Plone includes a default note: “Initial Revision”.

A new version is created every time the item is saved. Versioning keeps track of all kinds of edits: content, metadata, settings, etc.

Viewing the version history

Once an item has been saved, you can see the History by clicking on the clock item in the Toolbar.

*** Settings ***

Resource  plone/app/robotframework/server.robot
Resource  plone/app/robotframework/keywords.robot
Resource  Selenium2Screenshots/keywords.robot

Library  OperatingSystem

Suite Setup  Run keywords  Suite Setup  Test Setup
Suite Teardown  Run keywords  Test teardown  Suite Teardown

*** Variables ***

${FIXTURE}  plone.app.robotframework.PLONE_ROBOT_TESTING
@{DIMENSIONS}  1024  768
@{APPLY_PROFILES}  plone.app.contenttypes:plone-content


*** Keywords ***

Suite Setup
    Run keyword if  not sys.argv[0].startswith('bin/robot')
    ...             Setup Plone site  ${FIXTURE}
    Run keyword if  sys.argv[0].startswith('bin/robot')
    ...             Open test browser
    Run keyword and ignore error  Set window size  @{DIMENSIONS}

Test Setup
    Import library  Remote  ${PLONE_URL}/RobotRemote

    Run keyword if  sys.argv[0].startswith('bin/robot')
    ...             Remote ZODB SetUp  ${FIXTURE}

    ${language} =  Get environment variable  LANGUAGE  'en'
    Set default language  ${language}

    Enable autologin as  Manager
    ${user_id} =  Translate  user_id
    ...  default=jane-doe
    ${user_fullname} =  Translate  user_fullname
    ...  default=Jane Doe
    Create user  ${user_id}  Member  fullname=${user_fullname}
    Set autologin username  ${user_id}

Test Teardown
    Run keyword if  sys.argv[0].startswith('bin/robot')
    ...             Remote ZODB TearDown  ${FIXTURE}

Suite Teardown
    Run keyword if  not sys.argv[0].startswith('bin/robot')
    ...             Teardown Plone Site
    Run keyword if  sys.argv[0].startswith('bin/robot')
    ...             Close all browsers

*** Test Cases ***

Create sample content
    Go to  ${PLONE_URL}

    ${item} =  Create content  type=Document
    ...  id=samplepage  title=Sample Page
    ...  description=The long wait is now over
    ...  text=<p>Our new site is built with Plone.</p>
    Fire transition  ${item}  publish

    Go to  ${PLONE_URL}/samplepage
    Click element  css=#contentview-edit a
    Click element  css=#form-widgets-IDublinCore-title
    Input text  css=#form-widgets-IDublinCore-title  Hurray
    Click element  css=#form-widgets-IVersionable-changeNote
    Input text  css=#form-widgets-IVersionable-changeNote  Title should be Hurray, not Sample Page.
    Click button  css=#form-buttons-save

Show history
    Go to  ${PLONE_URL}/samplepage
    Click link  css=#contentview-history a
    Wait until element is visible
    ...  css=#history-list
    Update element style  portal-footer  display  none

    Capture and crop page screenshot
    ...  ${CURDIR}/../../_robot/content-history.png
            ...  css=#content-header
            ...  css=div.plone-toolbar-container

The most recent version is listed first. The History view provides the following information:

• The type of edit (content or workflow)
• Which user made the edit
• What date and time the edit occurred

In the above example, Jane created a Page, then published it. Then, she decided to edit the Page, change it’s title and she put in “Title should be Hurray, not Sample Page.” in the “Change notes” box. Here you can see why it’s good to put in change notes: you get a good overview of why an item was edited.

Comparing versions

From the History viewlet you can compare any previous version with the current version or any other version with the version just before it.

To compare any previous version with the one just before it, click the Compare link located between two adjacent versions in the History overlay.

By clicking this button, you’ll see a screen like this one where you can see the differences between the two versions:

You may also compare any previous version to the current version by clicking the Compare to current link.

Viewing and reverting to previous versions

You can preview any previous version of a document by clicking the View link to the right of any version listed.

To revert back to a previous version, click on the Revert to this revision button to the right of any version listed.