Version states reference¶
Note
This section describes the djangocms-versioning package used by the django CMS quickstart project. Because django CMS is modular, other installations may offer different version states and actions, or no version history.
Every editable content item — a page content in a given language, an alias, a blog post — has a series of numbered versions. Each version is in exactly one of four states.
The possible states and the actions which change the state of a version.¶
The four states¶
State |
Meaning |
|---|---|
Draft |
The version an editor can change. At most one draft exists per content item and language at any time. Drafts are only visible to editors. |
Published |
The version visitors currently see. At most one published version exists per content item and language. Published versions cannot be edited. |
Unpublished |
A version that was published at some point and is not any more — either unpublished manually or replaced by publishing another version. Retained in the version history. |
Archived |
A draft that was set aside for later use. Not visible to visitors and not editable until reverted into a new draft. |
Actions per state¶
The actions available in the manage versions view and the toolbar depend on the state of the version:
Action |
Draft |
Published |
Unpublished |
Archived |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Edit |
✓ |
— |
— |
— |
Publish |
✓ |
— |
— |
— |
Archive |
✓ |
— |
— |
— |
Discard / Delete |
✓ |
— |
— |
— |
Unpublish |
— |
✓ |
— |
— |
Revert (new draft) |
— |
— |
✓ |
✓ |
Compare |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
View / Preview |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
Notes:
Only drafts can be deleted. Published and unpublished versions are kept on purpose as a permanent history.
Publishing a draft automatically moves the previously published version to “unpublished”.
“Edit” on a published version in the version manager creates a new draft based on it (same as the “New Draft” toolbar button).
Reverting an unpublished or archived version creates a new draft with that version’s content; the old version itself is preserved. If a draft already exists, you are asked whether to discard it first.
Version locking¶
If version locking is enabled on your site, a draft can only be edited by the user who created it until the lock is removed or the draft is published. See the publishing explanation and the djangocms-versioning documentation.