Using the Search and Replace Wizard

This topic describes how to use the Search and Replace Wizard. The wizard allows you to modify multiple properties in many portal objects at the same time.

Caution Caution

Pay attention to the following:

Before you use the wizard, make sure you read and understand these instructions completely. If used incorrectly, the wizard can irreversibly damage an entire portal or parts of it.
The wizard will allow you to modify properties that are normally hidden or read-only properties in the Property Editor. In such cases, the wizard will indicate that the properties have been modified, but in effect they are not.
Before executing a property replacement in an object, you should determine if the current property value is inherited from another source object or is defined locally in the object itself. Applying local changes to a property in a delta link object breaks the inheritance between that object and its source for the modified property only. In certain cases, you may prefer instead to change an object higher in the delta link chain in order to maintain the property inheritance. Modifying the properties of an object also affects dependent objects in the delta link chain.
For information on viewing the delta link chain (including source objects and dependents) of an object, see Tracing Delta Link Dependencies.

End of the caution.

Prerequisites

To view objects in the result set, you must have at least administrator read permissions for each object. See Permission Levels.
To be able to change the properties of an object, you must have at least administrator read/write permission for each object.

Procedure

In the top-level navigation, choose Content Administration Multiple Property Replacement . The Search and Replace Wizard is displayed.

Follow the steps in the wizard, as described below (click Next after each step, unless instructed otherwise):

Step 1: Select Objects

Description:

In this step, you choose the unit objects and folders containing the objects you want the wizard to search in.

The wizard does not search the selected unit objects and folders themselves, but searches inside them; for example, the unit objects located in a selected folder or the objects embedded in a selected unit object. In step 2 of the wizard, you specify which object types to search (see step 2 below for further details).

In this step, you can add the following items:

folders
worksets
roles

Instructions:

To add an item to the Selected Objects list, right-click a folder, workset, or role in the Portal Catalog, and choose Add <object_type> to List from the context menu.

Note:

In the later steps of the wizard, you can remove objects from the search group.

Step 2: Select Object Types

Description:

In this step, you specify which object types the wizard searches.

The wizard does not search the actual folders or unit objects you selected in step 1, but searches inside them. If you selected a folder in step 1, the wizard searches the objects contained in it. If you selected a unit object in step 1, the wizard searches embedded objects assigned to the unit object.

Instructions:

Choose the appropriate checkboxes to specify which object types the wizard must search for.

Examples:

To replace the properties in a number of roles contained in the same folder, in step 1 choose their folder and not each role individually. In step 2, choose the Roles checkbox. The search disregards the folder, but searches only the roles contained in it.
To replace the properties in a role and in the iViews and pages embedded in that role, select in step 1 the folder of that role. In step 2, choose the Roles, Pages, and iViews checkboxes.

If you selected the role only, the recursive search would look in the iViews and pages only, without searching the role itself.

Step 3: Define 'Search and Replace' Criteria

Description:

In this step, you specify if the search looks for a property ID or a property value. You also enter the search and replacement values.

Instructions:

To search by property value:
1. Choose Search objects by property value.
2. In the Current Value box, enter the existing value you want to search for. Enter its real value, not the friendly display name of the value (see examples below).
3. In the New Value box, enter the new value that will replace the existing value in matching properties. Make sure you enter the real value, and not the friendly display value.
To search by property ID:
1. Choose Search objects by property ID.
2. In the Property ID box, enter the ID of the property you want to search for. Do not enter the friendly display name of the property.
  
  Note
  You can find a property's ID by viewing the attributes of the property in the Property Editor (see Defining Property Attributes).
  
  End of the note.
3. In the New Value box, enter the new value that will replace the existing value in properties matching the property ID you searched for. Make sure you enter the real value, and not the friendly display value.

Notes:

When searching by property ID, the search retrieves only one property per object. However, when searching by property value, the search may potentially retrieve more than one property per object. In the next two steps in the wizard, you can choose which properties from the result set you want to replace.
All search and replace input fields are case-sensitive. For example, enter true and false, not True or False, for boolean-type properties.
Wildcards are not permitted in the search criteria.
When searching for property values, you can search for any data type, except for string-type properties - such as Title and Description – which cannot be changed due to their translation requirements.

Caution Caution

Make sure the replacement value you enter is a valid value that the property recognizes. The wizard does not check if replacement values are valid. Incorrect values can severely affect the functionality of your content and in some cases the entire portal.
If a property displays several values in a drop-down list, an invalid value (by name or case usage) will not appear in the list within the Property Editor.
Properties with Yes or No values in the Property Editor, such as Object Is a Template, are text-based values. To search for or replace the values of such properties using the wizard, enter true and false, not Yes or No).

End of the caution.

Step 4: Select Properties to Replace

Description:

In this step, the wizard displays the search results: all the properties that match your search criteria. This result set is categorized according to property, displaying the following information:

Property ID
Current value
Number of objects in which the matching property exists.

You need to choose which properties in the result set you want to be modified.

Instructions:

In the search results list, deselect the checkbox of each property whose value you do not want to change. Those properties that you do not select will not be carried over to the next step in the wizard. By default, all properties are selected.

Note
In this step of the wizard, you can already click Finish to instruct the wizard to replace the values of the selected properties. However, it is strongly recommended to continue to the next step to validate the objects matching each property.

End of the note.

Notes:

In the next step of the wizard, you will be able to see which objects relate to each property.
In the next step of the wizard, you can further refine the list of properties you want to modify.

Step 5: Select Objects and Properties to Replace

Description:

In the Search Results pane on the left, the wizard displays a filtered result set based on your settings in the previous step. The properties matching your search criteria are now categorized according to object. Objects are listed in their corresponding Portal Catalog folder. You use the Objects and Properties to Replace pane on the right to finalize the list of objects and properties you want changed.

By default, all matching properties are selected for replacement. You must remove the objects or properties whose values you do not want changed.

Instructions:

To remove a folder, object, or property from the Objects and Properties to Replace pane, choose it and click Remove. You can select multiple objects using the Ctrl key while clicking.
To add a folder, object, or property to the Objects and Properties to Replace pane, choose it in the Search Results pane and click Add. You can select multiple objects using the Ctrl key while clicking.
To hide or show the contents of a folder or object in either pane, click the corresponding expand/collapse arrow. You can also double-click an item to hide or show its contents.
To hide or show the entire contents of either pane, click the (Collapse All) or (Expand All) icons, respectively.
When you have finalized the list of properties and objects you want modified, click Finish.

Notes:

You cannot cancel or undo an object or property replacement in the wizard. If you have executed a replacement that you want to undo, try using the wizard again by reversing the original search and replace criteria, or by changing the property values manually in the Property Editor. See Defining Property Values.
To restore inheritance between properties of delta link objects, it is also possible to use the reset capabilities in the Property Editor; see Resetting Properties.
After the replacement has finished, a report is displayed (see next step).

Summary Report

Description:

This step displays a detailed report of successful and unsuccessful replacements that were made based on your settings.

Instructions:

To display unsuccessful replacements only, choose Errors only in the Display drop-down list. To display the entire report, choose All.
To restart the wizard, click Restart Wizard.

Notes:

Errors may occur for any number of reasons, such as insufficient permission to modify an object (administrator read/write is required), locked objects, database problems, and network problems.