Issue
Page Templates and Staging –> Page Versioning used together have limitations. The two features serve different purposes:
- Page Templates are reusable layout patterns that make page creation easier and avoid the manual work of users.
- Staging –> Page Versioning can be considered a page history tool that keeps track of the page version in the system. It makes the page usage more dynamic.
Some limitations:
- If a page template is updated then all page versions that are based on it will be modified. Basically, the page history is lost if these features are both active at the same time.
- While Staging –> Page Versioning is enabled and a new page is created from a page template, all page variations will have the same look and feel configuration. With both features activated Page Versioning cannot fulfill its original purpose.
Environment
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Liferay DXP 7.0
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Liferay DXP 7.1
Resolution
- If you are in the first stage of creating your environment, we don’t suggest using Page Templates and Staging –> Page Versioning together. We rather propose using simple Widget pages with Staging –> Page Versioning. Going further with this approach you won’t run into the limitations presented in the ‘Issue’ section.
- In case using Page Templates is a requirement, we suggest you disable the propagation from the page template after the page creation. This way you will have the initial page templates pattern and more dynamic usability of the actual layout. Please note that changes made on the template won’t appear on the page until the propagation is disabled. If the propagation is re-enabled, all page variations will be overwritten by the last changes. Every page variation will be lost.
- If the limitations presented in the ‘Issue’ section are not relevant for your system and having the same page variations is the goal, the infrastructure of Page Templates and Staging –> Page Versioning can be used. However, we cannot guarantee that certain limitations which were not mentioned in this article won't appear in the long term.
Additional Information
In order to understand in a detailed overview, the points from the ‘Resolution’ section, it is required to have a basic knowledge about Page templates and Staging –> Page Versioning. Please find below the links to read more about the features:
https://portal.liferay.dev/docs/7-0/user/-/knowledge_base/u/page-templates
Most of the information shared in this KCS article is based on customer tickets and the proposed ideas are based on having conversations with our technical colleagues about the subject. Please feel free to reach out to the Support Team if further clarification or guidance is required.