When using multiple languages/cultures in the Sitecore CMS the content of an item isn’t usually copied over from an existing language to a new language version.
While working on a multi lingual website after content was added to the primary language (en-US) I had to write a script to copy all fields from the primary language into other languages (Example en-GB).
Here is some code that I used for Sitecore 6.2.
The following method copies an item from the Source Language to a Target Language provided that the source item has at least one version. Note that if the Target Item lacks a version one is created and only the custom fields (ones not starting with a __) are copied over.
void Copy(Sitecore.Data.Items.Item item, Sitecore.Globalization.Language sourceLanguage,
Sitecore.Globalization.Language targetLanguage)
{
//get a reference to the master DB
Sitecore.Data.Database masterDB = Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.GetDatabase("master");
Sitecore.Data.Items.Item targetItem = masterDB.Items[item.ID, targetLanguage];
Sitecore.Data.Items.Item sourceItem = masterDB.Items[item.ID, sourceLanguage];
if (targetItem == null || sourceItem == null || sourceItem.Versions.Count == 0)
return;
//Disable the security context
using (new Sitecore.SecurityModel.SecurityDisabler)
{
try
{
if (targetItem.Versions.Count == 0)
{
//add a version if none exist
targetItem = targetItem.Versions.AddVersion;
}
//edit item in target language
targetItem.Editing.BeginEdit;
sourceItem.Fields.ReadAll;
//copy over all fields from source to target language
//we omit internal fields which start with __
foreach (Sitecore.Data.Fields.Field field in sourceItem.Fields)
{
if (!field.Shared &&!field.Name.StartsWith("__") && field.Name.Trim!= "")
{
targetItem.Fields[field.Name].SetValue(field.Value, true);
}
}
targetItem.Editing.EndEdit;
targetItem.Editing.AcceptChanges;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
targetItem.Editing.CancelEdit;
Response.Write(ex.Message);
}
}
The following method copies an item from a Source Language to a Target language. In this case two items can be different but are expected to have the same Fields.
void Copy(Sitecore.Data.Items.Item sourceItem, Sitecore.Globalization.Language sourceLanguage,
Sitecore.Data.Items.Item targetItem, Sitecore.Globalization.Language targetLanguage)
{
Sitecore.Data.Database masterDB = Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.GetDatabase("master");
targetItem = masterDB.Items[targetItem.ID, targetLanguage];
sourceItem = masterDB.Items[sourceItem.ID, sourceLanguage];
if (targetItem == null || sourceItem == null || sourceItem.Versions.Count == 0)
return;
using (new Sitecore.SecurityModel.SecurityDisabler)
{
try
{
if (targetItem.Versions.Count == 0)
{
targetItem = targetItem.Versions.AddVersion;
}
targetItem.Editing.BeginEdit;
sourceItem.Fields.ReadAll;
foreach (Sitecore.Data.Fields.Field field in sourceItem.Fields)
{
if (!field.Shared &&!field.Name.StartsWith("__") && field.Name.Trim!= "")
{
targetItem.Fields[field.Name].SetValue(field.Value, true);
}
}
targetItem.Editing.EndEdit;
targetItem.Editing.AcceptChanges;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
targetItem.Editing.CancelEdit;
Response.Write(ex.Message);
}
}
}
You can call the above methods after querying Sitecore’s Master DB for items you would like to clone.
protected void Import(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
try
{
Sitecore.Data.Database masterDB = Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.GetDatabase("master");
Sitecore.Data.Items.Item[] items = Sitecore.Context.Database.SelectItems
("/sitecore/content/Home/MySectionToCopy//*");
//get source and target language for the copy
Sitecore.Globalization.Language sourceLanguage = Sitecore.Data.Managers.LanguageManager.GetLanguage("en-US", masterDB);
Sitecore.Globalization.Language targetLanguage = Sitecore.Data.Managers.LanguageManager.GetLanguage("en-GB", masterDB);
if (sourceLanguage == null || targetLanguage == null)
return;
foreach (Item item in items)
{
//copy item from source to target language
Copy(item, sourceLanguage, targetLanguage);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Response.Write(ex.Message);
}
}
Note: You also have the option to plug into Sitecore’s event pipeline and automatically copy a source language into the target language when a version is added.
More on Event Handling in Sitecore here: