Automatic Creation of Page Variants

Usually a page variation is automatically created for a page in the following situations:

The automatic creation is initiated from either the ItemUpdated event or ItemCheckedIn event implemented in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.PagesListCPVEventReceiver class, which are bound to the Pages library.

If moderation and minor versions are disabled on a Pages library, the ItemCheckedIn event will initiate the content propagation.

If moderation and/or minor versions are enabled on the Pages library, the ItemUpdated event will initiate the content propagation if the item is in either in approved or scheduled moderation state.

As discussed in an Part 4 the event receiver will create a Scheduled Work Item for the PropogateVariationPageJobDefinition which will perform the content propagation. The same timer job is also responsible to propagate changes done to existing pages in the source label to the target label.

Manual Creation of Page Variants

There are certain situations where customers do not want to have automatic page creation or recreation in the target labels. Therefore automatic page variant creation might be disabled.

In case that automatic page variant creation is disabled it is required to create a variant manually using one of the following options:

a) From the Publish Tab of the Ribbon while browsing the page

b) From Site Manager:

Both options redirect to the _layouts/CreatePage.aspx page passing in details about the original item for which the variant should be created like item id, list id, web id and folder the item resides in:

When creating a page variant manually it is possible to select a different but compatible page layout (means a page layout associated with the same content type). You can also choose a different Url name, title and description but not a different site and folder relative path. The page will be created in the peer site of the source site and the same folder in the pages library as the item in the source site. If a different folder location is required you can move the item to the desired folder after it got replicate to the target label.

It is also possible to specify for each created page variant whether to copy the resources used in the page to the target label or to reference them in the source label.

The settings choosen on the page will be passed to the CreateVariationPageJobDefinition timer job within the Scheduled Work Item.

Manual Update of page variants using the UI

Usually content changes are automatically propagated to all existing page variants through the PropagateVariationPageJobDefinition.

Except if automatic content change propagation is disabled by settings the DisableAutomaticPropagation option to False.

In case that automatic propagation is disabled, the only way to force a content update in the target labels is to use the Update Variations option in the Ribbon.

From the Publish Tab of the Ribbon while browsing the page:

The content propagation will be performed by the PropogateVariationPageJobDefinition timer job.