What Is Content Mirroring?

Use

Content mirroring enables you to select a source folder and copy its contents to a target folder. The complete structure of the source folder is recreated in the target folder and is populated with the copied objects. The new objects in the target folder are directly related through delta links to the original objects in the source folder.

For more information about object instance types and how they relate to one another, see What Are Portal Content Objects? and How Are Portal Objects Linked?

For information about using the Content Mirroring tool, see Mirroring Portal Content .

The following table compares the use of the Content Mirroring tool with the Copy/Paste actions performed on a Portal Catalog folder, rather than on an individual object:

Content Mirroring	Copy/Paste (of a folder)
Correlating source objects and the copied objects are directly related to each other through delta links (see following figure).	Correlating source objects and the copied objects are not directly related to one another through delta links (see figure below). The result is similar to when you copy and paste individual objects using the Copy and Paste as Delta Link actions.
In the Portal Catalog, you cannot selectively choose individual objects to copy. You must choose the parent folder of the relevant objects you want to copy.	Allows you to select either objects or folders to copy in the Portal Catalog
Copies only folders, iViews, pages, roles, worksets, and systems.	Copies all object types.
Allows you to choose which object types to copy.	Does not allow you to choose which object types to copy.
Allows you to specify if only templates or all objects must be copied.	Does not allow you to specify if only templates or all objects must be copied.
Allows you to specify a new namespace for copied objects.	Does not allow you to specify a new namespace for copied objects.

The following figure illustrates the main difference between using the regular Copy and Paste actions (on a Portal Catalog folder) and the Content Mirroring tool, which is the resulting delta link relationship between the original object and the copied object (a detailed description follows):

In the previous figure, the top area (i) displays a snapshot of the Portal Catalog at a given time. Folder 1 is the root folder. Object 1 is located in Folder 2 . Object 1' is a delta link (DL1) to Object 1 , and is located in Folder 3 . Folder 3 is then copied to Folder 1 using both the Copy/Paste action and by means of the Content Mirroring tool.

Copy/Paste scenario (ii) : Using the Copy action (choosing Copy in the context menu of Folder 3 ), Folder 3 is copied, and then pasted into Folder 1 using the Paste action (choosing Paste in the context menu of Folder 1 ). The result is Folder 3a with Object 1'' in it. Object 1'' is a delta link (DL2) to Object 1 .
Content mirroring scenario (iii) : Using the Content Mirroring tool, Folder 3 is selected as the source folder and mirrored to Folder 1 (similar to the copy/paste scenario above). The result is Folder 3a with Object 1'' in it. However, in contrast to the previous scenario, Object 1'' is a delta link (DL2) to Object 1' , not to Object 1 .