Limitations to promoting data

SiteSync module intentionally imposes several limitations to the content promotion process. These limitations are implemented by design and cover the following:

SiteSync can be configured to promote content only in one direction. You cannot use SiteSync in scenarios where you need to keep two environments in bi-directional sync (content editing happening on both environments and using SiteSync to push content to each other). This scenario is not supported as it might result in overwriting content and data loss.

SiteSync does not support promoting content to one target environment from multiple source environments. By design, the module handles content promotion from one source environment to one or more target environments. Promoting content from multiple sources to one destination may result in unexpected behavior, database conflicts, or potential data loss.

SiteSync only detects content changes that affect the content visibility on the website frontend, that is, Publish or Schedule operations. In other words, once you publish an item or schedule it for publishing / unpublishing, SiteSync marks this item as pending for sync. Any consecutive changes you apply to the item from the moment of publishing / scheduling until you perform the sync operation will also be included. After promoting an item, it is no longer marked for sync, until you apply a schedule or publish operation to it again. For example, if you promoted the published item, and then unpublish it, SiteSync will not consider this item as pending sync. If you unpublish the same item, then publish again, and finally unpublish (or save a new draft), SiteSync will mark the item as pending sync with its latest status – Unpublished (or Draft, newer than Published) and you will be able to promote these changes. The following diagram visualizes this behavior:

Once you configure your environments and start promoting content using SiteSync, you must absolutely restrict the following actions on the destination environment(s):

• Configuration changes
  The configuration of the source and destination environments need to match, so SiteSync can operate normally. Performing any configuration changes (such as adding a new website, language, or modifying a dynamic module) on the destination environment will result in the two environments having different configuration files and consequently, different behavior. This will lead to failed content promotion operations, unexpected behavior, or potential data loss. When using SiteSync, you must apply any configuration changes on the source environment first, and then promote them to the destination environment(s) using a mechanism you prefer (for example, via deployment in combination with the Sitefinity CMS import/export functionality, or by manually copying the configurations and restoring the database). For more information, see Best practices: Difference between SiteSync and Export / Import. Once you have promoted the configuration changes, you can continue using SiteSync as a mechanism to promote new or modified content.

• New content creation or content deletion
  You must create new content only on the source environment and then promote that content to the destination environment(s) via SiteSync. Creating content directly on the destination environment will result in database differences between your environments and can lead to unexpected behavior when SiteSync is used (for example, duplicate content IDs, broken parent-child hierarchy, and potential data loss).

NOTE: Even in cases where you need to apply an urgent content change, keep in mind that SiteSync promotes content to your destination environment in a very efficient manner. Minor content changes get applied almost instantly, so you must simply sync the required content on demand. If, however, you absolutely need to create content on your destination environment first, you must then take care of restoring the modified database of this destination environment to the source environment. This way, you will restore the sync between the two environments and only then you can continue using SiteSync.

• Content edits
  You must always edit content on the source environment, and then promote the changes to the destination environment(s) via SiteSync. If you edit content directly on your destination environment, you risk losing these changes the next time you promote content from the source environment using SiteSync. SiteSync always overwrites the existing content on destination with the content you are promoting from the source environment. If in case of an emergency, you edit a chunk of content on the destination environment, you must make sure to apply the same change on the source environment before you use SiteSync.