Introduction to projects

A project lets an editor manage the publishing process for multiple related content items. The editor can add a landing page, blocks, pages, and products (if Commerce is installed) to a project and publish them (manually or scheduled) at the same time.

There are two options when working with projects, either the projects feature (also known as Project Mode) is enabled for the entire site or each user can, independently of others, use the "old" project gadget.

Project mode features:

• The projects feature is either enabled or disabled for the entire site and affects all users. When enabled, from admin view > Config > System settings > Editing > Enable Projects, a project bar displays at the bottom of the user interface. A project overview and a Project Items navigation pane also appear.
• Editing actions, such as creating and updating items, automatically associate a content item with a currently active project. Exceptions to this rule include moving items in the structure, setting content to expired, changing access rights or language settings. These actions do not associate content items with the active project.
• A project must be manually deactivated to stop items from being automatically added to the project.
• Project items are only available to users who have access rights to the items.
• Content associated with a project is locked for editing if another project is active.
• It is a version of the content that is associated with a specific project, which means that one draft of a page can be associated with project A and while another draft of the same page is associated with project B.
• You can continue working with a project after some or all of the items within a project are published.
• The project overview has a commenting feature, letting editors collaborate by adding comments and replies to comments to project items and to projects. Editors also can tag users in the comments.
• You can set up Episerver to send out email notifications to editors.

Example workflow when working with projects

1. Create a project (or set a project as active).
2. Edit content items.
3. Collaborate with other editors by adding comments to the edited project items and review changes.
4. Preview the site as if the items in the project are published.
5. Set all items in project as Ready to Publish.
6. Publish all items at once (or schedule them for later publishing).

Versioning

Versioning in Episerver works slightly different when then projects feature has been enabled. For more information on versioning, see the Episerver User Guide.

Email notifications

Note: You need to configure the SMTP settings for Episerver CMS to send out email notifications, see Configuring your email server.

Scheduled jobs

Notification Message Truncate

The Notification Message Truncate job truncates (deletes) 3-months old notification messages that could not be sent and are still in the system. The job is enabled by default, and set to run every day.

Notification Dispatcher

The settings in the Notification Dispatcher job determine how often Episerver CMS sends notifications of new or updated comments or replies posted in projects by a notification provider (for example, an e-mail provider). Notification messages are sent to:

• users who are tagged in a comment or reply,
• users who receive replies to their comments,
• users who receive comments on their project actions (such as setting a project item to Ready to publish),
• and other users who have previously replied to the same comment.

No notification is sent if no new comments or replies were posted since the job last executed.

The job is enabled by default, and set to run every half hour.

Last updated: Nov 02, 2015