Sharing and copying content

You can share content from your site to make it usable by other Mosaic sites.

The administrators of the site that owns the content specify which site(s) are able to use the shared content.

The administrators of the consuming site(s) can choose whether or not to display the shared content on their site. Administrators of consuming sites can also create copies of pages shared with their site.

Erroneous items in shared content

Following a recent Mosaic release, a bug has been identified that causes 15 erroneous items to appear in the Manage Content > Shared Content tab across all Mosaic sites. This won't prevent you from working on your site. Find out more

 

Types of content that can be shared between sites

Examples of shared content

When content is shared from one site to another, it will be rendered on the consuming site using the site's colour and font theme.

  • A shared page viewed on its source site and a consuming site:
    Content on its owning site

    Shared content on its owning (source) site

     

    Shared content on a consuming site

    Shared content rendered on the consuming site using its site theme

Steps 1, 2 and 3 only need to be completed once for each site you want share content with

 
  1. Select sites that can use your content. To set up content sharing, select the site(s) that will be able to use content from your site in the input field on the Content Sharing tab. Select the sites that can use your content from the dropdown list or by typing the name of a site into the input field.
    Select sites to share content with by typing the site name
  2. Choose to let consuming sites make copies of shared content. Tick the 'Allow another site to make copies of shared content' checkbox to let consuming sites make copies of pages and reusable content items that you make available to them. Once copied, consuming sites can edit the newly-created versions of the content
    let other sites make copies of content you have shared with them
  3. Save the Site Settings
  4. Select the content that will be shared. Once sites have been selected to be able to use content from your site, a checkbox (1) will be visible on the Details tab in each page's edit mode. This provides you with the option to make the content available to sites you have selected on the Content sharing tab in Site Settings.
    Content sharing checkbox

When a site has made its content available to use on another site, a record of the shared content will appear on the consuming site's Manage Content > Shared Content screen (screenshot below).

shared content options on a site consuming other sites' content

To use shared content on your site:

  1. Go to Manage Content > Shared Content screen
  2. Find the content you want to use from the list
  3. Click 'Use shared content'

When you have successfully added shared content to your site, a record for it will appear in your site's Manage Content area:

  • records for added pages are visible in your site's Manage Content > Content screen
  • records for added reusable content are visible in your site's Manage Content > Reusable Content screen

Once added to a consuming site, shared content can be displayed just like any other page or reusable content item on your site: for example, it can be referenced in listing widgets; text links; navigation links.

Erroneous items in shared content

Following a recent Mosaic release, a bug has been identified that causes 15 erroneous items from the Oxford Mosaic site to appear in the Manage Content > Shared Content tab across all Mosaic sites. These items are not intended for sharing but are currently visible due to the bug. Your ability to work on your site is not affected.

Examples of erroneous content include: Accessibility, Listings, reCAPTCHA setup, Release notes, Request information, Service FAQs, Why use Mosaic, and several online consultation events.

However some content is now being correctly shared in the Shared Content tab (these were not previously displaying), including the Welcome Pack and five pages on cookies.

We have added a bug to fix the issue to our backlog which will be prioritised alongside other items. In the meantime, please disregard the unintended items in the Shared Content tab. If you have questions or need clarification, feel free to reach out to us through the support form.

 

Can't add shared content to your site?

See the help information for making shared content work with your site's content types and taxonomies

 

Shared content and Content Sub-types

To add a page shared with your site, the consuming site must possess the same content sub-type that the shared page belongs to. If the sub-type is not on the consuming site, a message will be displayed in place of the 'Add to site' button on the Shared content screen.

In the example below, the 'Press release' sub-type is not present on the consuming site so the 'Announcement about mosaic making' content has been flagged as not usable. To use the piece of shared content, the site owner/administrator needs go to Site Settings > Content types and add 'Press release' as a sub-type of the 'Article' content type. Once this is done, the Shared content screen can be reloaded and the 'Add to site' button will appear.

shared content management - content subtype not present on consuming site

Shared content and Taxonomies

If a piece of shared content has a taxonomy term associated with it, and the consuming site wants the content to be discoverable using the taxonomy term (e.g. using taxonomy filters above a filtered listing), the consuming site must include the taxonomy the term belongs to. Example: the shared 'Mosaic making class' in the screenshot above possess the taxonomy term 'All ages', which belongs to the taxonomy 'Age group'. In order for the 'All ages' term to be used on the consuming site, the taxonomy 'Age group' must be created on it. Once this is done and the content is added to the consuming site, the term 'All ages' will automatically be added to the 'Age group' taxonomy.

The taxonomy must be created on the consuming site before the shared content is added to the site for this to work.

To set up taxonomy sharing:

  • create the taxonomy
  • go to Manage Content > Shared content
  • add the shared content to the site (click 'Add to site')

To set up taxonomy sharing when the shared content is already being used on the consuming site:

  • create the taxonomy
  • go to Manage Content > Shared content
  • remove the shared content from the site (click 'Remove from site')
  • re-add the shared content to the site (click 'Add to site')

Once shared content has been added to the consuming site. The content will appear in the Content screen in Manage Content. For comparison, the screenshot below displays information about a shared profile page under the information about a profile page which belongs to the site.

Shared content information on the Content screen

When shared content is displayed in the Content list, the 'Shared from' information displays the name of the owning site, the operations buttons do not display, and a 'Contact information' is displayed.

Clicking the 'Contact information' button opens a modal to display information about the owning site and user who last updated the content.

Shared content contact information modal

  1. Go to Manage Content > Shared Content screen
  2. Find the content you want to remove in the Shared Content table
    shared content management - remove content
  3. Click 'Remove from site'

Content copying needs to be allowed by the site that owns the original content

The site that owns the original content needs to allow consuming sites to make copies of content that is made available for them to use. See the help text for making your content available for other sites to use

 

Known issue: it is not possible to copy an item which has a listing image. Remove the listing image before copying.

When a site has made its content available to use on another site, a record of the shared content will appear on the consuming site's Manage Content > Shared Content screen (screenshot below).

shared content options on a site consuming other sites' content

To copy shared content to your site:

  1. Go to Manage Content > Shared Content screen
  2. Find the content you want to use from the list
  3. Click 'Copy to site'

When you have successfully copied shared content to your site, a record for it will appear in your site's Manage Content area:

  • records for added pages are visible in your site's Manage Content > Content screen
  • records for added reusable content are visible in your site's Manage Content > Reusable Content screen

Once copied to your site, you can edit and use the page or reusable content item just like any other on your site.

 

Can't copy content to your site?

See the help information for making shared content work with your site's content types and taxonomies

 

 
Type of content Share Copy
General content

Content can be shared, and once accepted by the consuming site (under Manage Content > Shared Content) it will then:

  • appear on the consuming site, with the consuming site's styling
  • be listed in the consuming site’s Manage Content > Content tab
  • appear in relevant Filtered Content listings
  • be able to be selected in Selected Content listings
  • be able to be selected as a link

It cannot be edited or deleted by the consuming site. 

 Content can be copied by the consuming site (once shared by the originating site), and will then behave on the consuming site in all respects like content which originated on that site, including being able to be edited and deleted by the consuming site. 
Content created from a template

Content created from a template can be shared just like non-templated content.

(Templates themselves cannot be shared to another site.)

Content created from a template can be copied, but once copied, editing on the consuming site will not be restricted by the original template, even if a template of that name exists on the consuming site.

(Templates themselves cannot be copied to another site.)
Static content listing widget Will appear on consuming site as on originating site.  All content will be copied to the consuming site. 
Filtered content listing – simple (default settings, or filtering by content types only)  The page will be shared, but when it appears on the consuming site the listing will list filtered content from the consuming site.  The page will be copied, and the listing will list filtered content from the consuming site. 
Filtered content listing – filtered by taxonomy  The page will be shared, but the listing’s filtering will only work on taxonomy filters which exist on the consuming site. If the taxonomy or terms do not exist, that filtering will be ignored. 

The page will be copied, but the listing’s filtering will only work on taxonomy filters which exist on the consuming site. If the taxonomy or terms do not exist, the filtering configuration will be discarded.

If the taxonomy exists but the terms do not, the terms will be added to your taxonomy, but they will not automatically be added to any content which may appear in the listing. 
Selected content listing 

The page will be shared, and the selected content from the originating site will appear in the listing on the consuming site, with all links pointing to the originating site. 

 

Shared content can be selected in a Selected Content listing widget on the consuming site. 

 The page will be copied, and the selected content from the originating site will appear in the listing on the consuming site, with all links pointing to the originating site. 
Feed content listing  The feed content will appear on the consuming site, but the feed itself will not appear under Manage Content > Feeds (the feed is on the originating site).  The feed widget will be copied, but the feed itself will not be copied and will not appear on the copied page.
Copy this page  If you create a copy on your site of a page which is shared with another site, the copy is shared with the consuming site – they won’t have to ‘Use shared content’, the share is already accepted.  If you create a copy on your site of a page which has been copied to another site, the copy will not be copied to the consuming site. 
Delete this page  If you delete a page which is shared with another site, the page will no longer appear on the consuming site.  If you delete a page which has been copied to another site, the copy will remain present on the consuming site. 
Reusable content widget  If a page containing a reusable content widget is shared, the reusable content widget and its content will display correctly on the consuming site.  If a page containing a reusable content widget is shared, the widget will be copied but the reusable content itself will not, unless the reusable content itself has been shared or copied. 
Reusable content

Reusable content can be shared. Once shared, it will be available to select in Reusable Content widgets on the consuming site, but cannot be edited. 

Links in shared reusable content which point to content on the originating site (if created with Linkit, ie as relative links) will not work on the consuming site. 

 Reusable content can be copied. Once copied, it will be available to select in Reusable Content widgets on the consuming site, and can be edited like any other content. 
Images in a WYSIWYG  When a page containing images embedded in a WYSIWYG is shared, the images will display correctly on the consuming site but will not be added to the consuming site’s Files, or appear in the site’s Image Library when selecting images.  When a page containing images embedded in a WYSIWYG is copied, the images will display correctly on the consuming site. They will also be added to the consuming site’s Files, and will appear in the site’s Image Library when selecting images. 
Images in an Image Gallery  When a page containing an Image Gallery (Tiles or Featured Image) is shared, the images will display correctly on the consuming site but will not be added to the consuming site’s Files, or appear in the site’s Image Library when selecting images.  When a page containing an Image Gallery (Tiles or Featured Image) is shared, the images will display correctly on the consuming site. They will also be added to the consuming site’s Files, and appear in the site’s Image Library when selecting images. There is a known bug with this functionality.
Files in a WYSIWYG When a page containing files embedded in a WYSIWYG is shared, the files will display correctly on the consuming site but will not be added to the consuming site’s Files.  When a page containing files embedded in a WYSIWYG is copied, the files will display correctly on the consuming site. They will also be added to the consuming site’s Files. Known bug: if the file has a name longer than 80 characters, it will not display in the WYSIWYG or be added to the consuming site's Files.

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