Publishing module

The module handles publishing of content from an author instance to a public instance. In the Enterprise Edition of Magnolia, the functionality of this module is extended by the Publishing Transactional module (in Magnolia EE), which ensures synchronization of content between multiple public instances.

By bringing a neater and more logical structure for the publishing (activation) functions, the Publishing module is a convenient replacement for the former Activation module.

The bundles and webapps in this Magnolia branch are by default provided with the Publishing module. However, using Activation is still possible, but only after replacing the Publishing module and the Publishing Transactional module with the Activation module and the Transactional Activation module.

Module structure

The module (parent) consists of four submodules. All of the submodules are required for correct functioning of the publishing feature.

Installing

<dependency>
  <groupId>info.magnolia.publishing</groupId>
  <artifactId>magnolia-publishing-core</artifactId>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>info.magnolia.publishing</groupId>
  <artifactId>magnolia-publishing-sender</artifactId>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>info.magnolia.publishing</groupId>
  <artifactId>magnolia-publishing-receiver</artifactId>
</dependency>

<dependency>
  <groupId>info.magnolia.publishing</groupId>
  <artifactId>magnolia-publishing-app</artifactId>
</dependency>

Configuration

Publishing is configured in Configuration > /modules/publishing-core .

Main part

The main part of the configuration is under  /modules/publishing-core/config .

publicationByPathVoters 

Sets publication by path (default is by uuid) to configured workspaces.

publishingLogStorage

Defines where the information about publishing is logged. The default implementation MemoryActivationStorage keeps the information in memory.

receivers

Contains the list of receivers ( subscribers in the Activation module) where content will be published.

operations

Contains the list of operations provided by Magnolia and the respective operation classes:

• publish ( activate )
• unpublish ( deactivate )
• commit (EE only)

• rollback (EE only)

  You can define your own operations and add them to the list, but in this case you will also have to implement your own send and receive operations. The SendOperation is a base interface that all send operations must implement.

  With a custom-defined operation you can publish content to something that is not a Magnolia public instance, for example to a custom API or a Content Delivery Network.

lockManagerMode property

The property has been introduced with module version 1.1.9. By default, path-based locking is configured using lockManagerMode=path. Node-based locking can be set with lockManagerMode=compatibility.

The setting is applicable only on public instances. Changing the property on the author instance has no effect.

Publish and unpublish commands

Users typically publish content by clicking Publish in the Action bar. The click executes a publish  command which pushes the content from the author instance to the public instance(s). Conversely, when users click  Unpublish  the system executes an unpublish command which deletes the content from the public instance(s).

The publish and unpublish commands are configured in /modules/publishing-core/commands . The default catalog contains the commands which just publish the content without versioning. Magnolia also provides a versioned command catalog. It contains identically named publish and unpublish commands which first version the content and then delegate to the default commands.

Both in the default catalog and in the versioned catalog, the command tree contains also the activate and deactivate commands (not shown below), which extend the publish and unpublish commands, respectively. The two commands are included in the configuration for compatibility reasons.  

To use one of these commands, define the catalog and the command name in the action definition. See an example in Executing commands with actions.

Disabling publishing

If necessary, you can disable publishing on the public instance(s) by adding the enabled node in Configuration > /server/filters/publishing and set its value to false .

How publishing works

For an overview of how publishing works see the Publishing overview page.

Troubleshooting

• Instances are not in sync
• Non EE Subscriber
• Activation errors