Understanding conflicts

Roxen CMS allows the same page to be edited by multiple users at the same time. While at first this can sound dangerous, the system ensures that information contributed by the editors involved is not lost in the final version. However, in order to do this correctly, an editor also needs to take special action in circumstances where another person publishes a page that he is working on.

Why is Roxen CMS using this approach at all? Because there is a clear benefit in avoiding locks. Not all editing operations need to produce conflicting changes; for example, if one person fixes a typo in one paragraph at the top of a page while another person adds new text to the bottom of the same page, both changes can be merged together with a minimum of effort.

An overview to resolving conflicting changes

Web pages created in the Insite Editor environment will get a special status icon and message when a conflict is detected. You will also see that the "Publish" button is replaced by an "Update" button.

To take care of the conflict, follow this procedure:

1. Merge the latest changes from the site into your copy
   

   By clicking "Update" the changes made in the most recently published version will be merged into your working copy.

   
   

   Already at this stage it is possible that the conflict has been resolved since the changes that were imported may be made in a part of the page which you have not modified. Still, you need to review the page to see that it looks good together with your changes.

2. Resolve metadata conflicts in your unpublished page
   

   If the published version of a page contains metadata and properties that conflict with your version (e.g. a different page title) you will be asked to select which values that should be preserved.

   This process is taken care of in a special wizard that lists the possible choices together with radio buttons. Once you have completed the wizard, Roxen CMS continues to analyze the page to see if the content conflicts in some way. If true, you will be taken to the next step below.

3. Resolve content conflicts in your unpublished page
   

   You will use the same page editor as you normally use to work on the content of a page. When you start using it you will however notice that it contains some extra messages and guiding elements as well as content originating both from your copy and the latest published version. Details of how this works can be found later in this section.

   All analysis of content is performed on a component by component level. Your task now is to decide what content that should be removed, moved to a different place, or edited to become correct.

   The type of changes necessary depends on what type of conflict the system has found. For instance, one of the types is created by moving a component while another person modifies it, and another type of conflict is caused when components are deleted. There are too many combinations to list them all, but regardless of how the situation arose you only need to learn about a handful of actions to solve all of them.

4. Publish the new version
   

   At this point the "Publish" button should be enabled for your use. When you click it, the page will be published exactly as it looks when you preview it.

Resolving metadata conflicts

As described above, if the page has conflicting metadata you are given the opportunity to resolve this in a wizard. The wizard will appear when you click the "Update" button in the main toolbar tab.

You can leave the file untouched by clicking "Cancel". If you choose to proceed you will need to make a selection from each pair of radio buttons in the left-hand column. The following selections are available:

• You
  

  A selection in this column preserves the metadata value from your version of the page.

• You (Old)
  

  Same as You but indicates that the chosen value equals the value that existed when you initiated the editing of the page. This means you will disregard a more recent change that someone else has made during your editing session.

• Site
  

  A selection in this column substitutes the metadata value coming from the site version of the page.

• Site (Old)
  

  Same as Site but indicates that the value in the site version is the same as it was when you initiated the editing of the page. In other words, it has not been changed by someone else during your editing session.

Resolving content conflicts in the page editor

Here is an example illustrating a conflict in the page editor:

Aside from the help text at the top, the most visible changes are the brackets and information message that have been added to the right-hand side of the window.

Each bracket associates an information message to a specific component in the page. Moreover, several components can be part of a single conflict; this is indicated by the "Conflict #x" text.

The example shown here (from user A's point of view) has one conflict where users A and B have added a Text & Picture component at the bottom of the page, each one with some unique content. In addition to this, the first Text & Picture component in the page (beneath the Header component) has been modified by user B, though not in a conflicting way. User A is therefore only be notified about this change but no futher action is required.

Returning to "Conflict #1", user A should now choose whether to keep either or both of the conflicting paragraphs. The following options exist:

• Delete one or both of the components
  

  As soon as one of the conflicting components is deleted, the conflict disappears. Normally, the user will also choose to edit the other component to incorporate the new information from the component that is about to be removed.

• Keep both components
  

  Preserving both components in the page is a possibility. The user may decide to make further changes to either or both of them first.

  The conflict message will remain on the screen until the user actively acknowledges it. This step is needed to ensure that an unfinished page isn't published accidentally. To acknowledge the conflict and mark it as solved, click on either of the components to open its editor form and click the brown checkmark icon in the upper right corner:

  
  Acknowledge a resolved conflict by clicking the brown checkmark (far left among the icons seen here)

Only after all conflicts are resolved or acknowledged can the page be published. Note that you do not have to resolve all conflicts at once; you can click "Save Page" and return at a later time to complete the remaining conflicts.

When a component is moved by two users you will run into the situation illustrated by the second example:

You need to decide which position is the right one for the conflicting component. You can toggle between the two possible solutions by clicking the icon (or link) labeled "Move to the other side".

When you are satisfied with the result, click the icon/link labeled "Keep on this side". This acknowledges the conflict as resolved.

We are going to present a third example:

In this case several changes have taken place at once. One of the components in the page has been moved and edited in two different ways by users A and B. The conflict is therefore two-fold:

• Conflicting position
  

  You will have to select the proper location of the conflicting component. (Illustrated as "Conflict #1" in the image.)

• Conflicting content
  

  You must decide which text the conflicting component should have. (Illustrated as "Conflict #2" in the image.)

You are free to resolve the conflicts in any order using the methods presented earlier in this section. In other words, the movement conflict is handled by the icon/links closest to the right edge of the window, and the content conflict is handled by deleting at least one of the components or acknowledging the presence of both in the page (using the brown checkmark icon seen when clicking on either of them to edit their content).