Automatic Item Reference Updating

What problem does this solve?

Copy or clone an item with descendants

1. Have a page with references to child items (rendering datasource, internal link, etc.)
2. Clone or copy the item (which copies descendants)
3. The new copies now reference the old child items.

Create an item from a branch template

1. Have a branch template with references to child items (rendering datasource, internal link, etc.)
2. Create a new item from the branch template
3. The new item now references the child items in the branch template, not the newly created child items.

How do I use it?

There is no special action necessary. Simply copy items or create items from branch templates like normal, and all references within the copied/created items will be automatically updated to reference the new items.

How does it work?

There are multiple extension points to implement this functionality…

• item:added event handler added to update references when creating an item from a branch template
• ItemDuplicate processor for the uiDuplicateItem pipeline has been replaced and extended to update references when duplicating an item
• Processor added to the uiCopyItems and uiCloneItems pipelines

Credit

Implementation is based heavily on this article by Uli Weltersbach.