Managing Versions with eZ Publish
Friday 17 August 2007 6:00:00 am
Recall from the first article in this series that a content type is called a content class (or "class" for short), while a specific piece of content is called a content object (or "object" for short). A content class can be thought of as a structural blueprint for a particular type of content. The properties of that content are referred to as attributes. A content object consists of one or more versions. It is this additional layer that makes it possible to have different versions of the same content. Versions are also known as the second dimension of content objects.
Version-related information
The system stores various information related to each version, including a version number, timestamps for when it was created and last modified, the user who created the version and the version status. In addition, for multilingual sites, the system keeps track of the translations within each version.
The life cycle of a content object consists of several statuses (also called "states"), as shown in the illustration below. The main statuses are Draft, Published and Archived. The version with the Published status is the one that is displayed to site visitors. A draft contains content that has been saved but not yet published. Archived versions represent old content that you can revert to if needed.
Life cycle of a content object