Reusing content with aliases

Note

This section only applies to installations such as the django-cms-quickstart project which use the djangocms-alias package.

An alias is a piece of content that is maintained in one place and displayed on as many pages as you like. When you change the alias content, every page showing it is updated at once. Typical uses are footers, contact blocks, banners and announcements. For the background, see the explanation of aliases.

Create an alias

  1. Open the project menu in the toolbar (it shows the name of your site) and select “Aliases…”. The alias overview opens in the sidebar.

  2. If you want to group aliases, create a category first; otherwise use an existing one.

  3. Click “Add Alias”, give the alias a descriptive name, and save.

    Aliases overview with a category, an alias and the Add Alias button

  4. Open the alias to edit its content. An alias has a placeholder which you fill with plugins exactly like a page: open the structure board, add plugins, and arrange them (see filling in content).

  5. Publish the alias using the toolbar, just like a page.

Turn existing content into an alias

If content that should be reused already exists on a page:

  1. Open the structure board on that page (working on a draft).

  2. Open the context menu of the plugin you want to reuse (the hamburger menu on the right of the plugin’s entry) and select “Create Alias”.

  3. Choose a name and category for the new alias and save.

The selected plugin and its nested plugins are copied into the new alias. You can now replace the original content with the alias plugin so future edits happen in one place only.

Insert an alias on a page

  1. On the target page (working on a draft), open the structure board and click the add button of the placeholder where the alias content should appear.

  2. Select the “Alias” plugin.

  3. Choose the alias in the dialog and save.

  4. Publish the page.

The page now displays the alias content at that position.

Edit alias content

  1. Open the project menu and select “Aliases…”, then open the alias — or click on the alias content on any page that shows it and follow the edit link.

  2. Create a new draft if the alias is published, make your changes, and publish.

All pages displaying the alias show the updated content as soon as the alias is published. You do not need to touch, or republish, the pages themselves.

Note

Aliases are versioned like pages: drafts of an alias are not publicly visible until published, and you can revert to earlier versions through its version history (see Managing versions).