Overview

In this tutorial we will cover cloning content types through the web using Plone.

Why would someone want to clone content types?

You may want to create types that help your content contributors better understand what type to choose from when they are adding content.  For example you may want to clone the Page type to make a Policy type if your web site will have a lot of pages about policies.  By cloning the policy type we can change its behavior in a number of ways, such as controlling whether it can be added anywhere on the site, what workflow it follows, or which versioning policy will be applied to the type.  Similarly we could clone the folder type and make a new version that only contains our policy types.

There are some limits on what is possible with cloning.  You cannot add, change, or remove any of the fields in your copy of the type.  Also be aware that some of the built-in Plone portlets will only work with the original built-in types (such as the news and events portlets).

• In portal_types we will copy, paste, rename, and edit our cloned type to create the type and configure its views and other basic settings.
• Using the Types configlet of the Plone Control Panel we will set a versioning policy, workflow, and a few special options.
• We will control how Kupu, the visual editor, interacts with our type in the Visual Editor configlet of the Plone Control Panel.
• Customizing or creating page templates for our type using the portal_skins/custom folder.
• Optionally making CacheFu (if installed) aware of our types so they can be cached efficiently.