Propagate entries, but only across site group

[piotrpog]

Lets say we have this setup:

site group cats
    cats - english
    cats - russian
site group dogs
    dogs - english
    dogs - russian

When I create entries, for example blog posts, i want them to propagate across multiple language versions, but only within their site group.

Right now entries would propagate across both cats and dogs groups, or no at all.

[naboo]

+1

Would be very appreciated!

[croxton]

Yes please. This would be extremely useful.

[pgrzyb]

This would be very useful indeed!
I am working on a Craft project, where a franchisor creates sites for their franchisees, on separate domains, with completely different content structures (but within the same sections and using the same templates). The fact that they need to have each site localized to 2 or more languages is the cherry on top.

Propagating within site groups would be a lifesaver!

[brandonkelly]

Just added a new “Propagation Method” section setting for the next Craft 3.2 alpha release, with the following options:

• Only save entries in the site they were created in
• Save entries to other sites in the same site group
• Save entries to other sites with the same language
• Save entries to all sites enabled for this section

The first and last of those have the same behavior as the previous “Propagate entries across all enabled sites?” setting when disabled and enabled, respectively.

To get this update right now, edit your composer.json file and change the craftcms/cms requirement to:

"require": {
  "craftcms/cms": "3.2.x-dev as 3.2.0-alpha.1",
  "...": "..."
}

Then run composer update.

[pgrzyb]

Switching a section to use Only save entries in the site they were created in results in:

[error][yii\base\UnknownPropertyException] yii\base\UnknownPropertyException: Getting unknown property: craft\records\Section::propagateEntries in /home/vagrant/sites/***/craft3/vendor/yiisoft/yii2/base/Component.php:154

Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug?

// Edit

I stand corrected - it happens when selecting any of the options, not just the one i mentioned before.

[brandonkelly]

@pgrzyb That was due to a merge from the develop branch into the 3.2 branch, which I should have spent a little more time reviewing before pushing. Fixed it yesterday though. Run composer clear-cache followed by composer update and you should be good.

[amityweb]

Any idea when a stable 3.2 is released? I think we need this feature now as per a few recent issues I posted on Stack Exchange. Looks like this will fix it. Our site will go live next month, curious to know if 3.2 is stable to use now, I am importing content using FeedMe but cant get it all to work keeps overwriting all the other groups sites. Cant see how else we can get the site finished if we cant sync content within groups.

[brandonkelly]

@amityweb 3.2 will be stable soon, but I don’t think this feature will help you with your importing question (assuming that’s the one you are referring to). When the new Propagation Method setting is set to ”Save entries to other sites in the same site group”, entries won’t exist at all in any sites that aren’t part of the same group they were created in.

[amityweb]

About "entries won’t exist at all in any sites that aren’t part of the same group they were created in." I already have all sites created in English though. I followed this article to import all content, which initially imports all sites in English, then FeedMe for each site would update the entries https://caffeinecreations.ca/blog/importing-entries-into-a-multi-lingual-craft-cms-website/. Its just FeedMe is replacing Matrix outside of the groups, all sites, not just the site I am importing into. So wondered if this setting at all would help.

If its not related to FeedMe updates and only when creating new Sites, it would be great if someone could address the issue of the import overwriting all sites and not those within the group? e.g. perhaps the Matrix field needs the translation setting to only translate per group, like other fields?

Thanks

[brandonkelly]

@amityweb I think something is getting lost in translation here. I do understand what you’re trying to accomplish but it’s currently not possible, as I’ve tried to explain at craftcms/feed-me#463 (comment) and above. Maybe best to email [email protected] and book some consulting time with us, so we can work with you on a solution.

[amityweb]

Yeah I am going to need someone to help me do this. I am quite surprised by all this, 75% into a project to find its not possible. Its not very clear. Fields are translatable per group, so you just expect all fields including Matrix. I can edit a field in a site in a group and they maintain their separation. I'm going to need to import the content, we have too much to manually add. We have some serious issues now choosing Craft without being able to have matrix fields duplicate across a group. P.S. I dont see this as a specific solution for our setup but something missing in Craft.