Clone and Shipped Documents
Reuse what you already have. Clone copies any of the four knowledge base document types, an Article, a Snippet, a Template, or a Document Profile, together with its links. The documents that ship with Nodinite stay locked and current, and you customize them through a clone.
- ✅ Clone keeps the kind: an Article clones to an Article, a Template to a Template
- ✅ The copy keeps the source's links to Repository Model entities and Resources
- ✅ Shipped documents are updated by every upgrade; your clones never are
Walkthrough of Clone to customize on the shipped Standard Technical Article Document Profile: the clone gets its own name and a renamed section, and the list then shows both, the clone without the lock.
Clone a Document
Clone, Clone from this revision in Revision History, and the MCP tool duplicate_article copy the source's links: to Resources, Applications, and Categories, and to Systems, Services, Integrations, Contracts, Message Types, Endpoints, and Domains. Links to C4 Diagrams nodes and boundaries are not copied. Copy as Template copies no links. The copy gets a unique title and slug (see Slug Auto-Fill), and cloning a Template records it as the copy's Source Template.
Cloning needs Create on Articles in the Permission Set. New 7.12 It also needs the right to see every entity the source is linked to:
| Linked to | Right needed |
|---|---|
| System, Service, Integration, Contract, Message Type, Endpoint, Domain | Access on that entity, for example Systems |
| Application, Category | Access to the Repository Model |
| Resource | A Monitor View that holds it and allows View Articles |
Otherwise nothing is created, and the dialog names every kind you can't see: Forbidden, the Article is linked to Systems you are not allowed to see, so it cannot be cloned with its links. Nothing was created. Copy as Template still works. Administrators may always clone.
Shipped by Nodinite
New 7.12
Nodinite installs a few ready-made documents with the database: the Standard Technical Article Document Profile with its Template and the Standard Snippets (see Seeded Examples), and the four BizTalk Document Profiles used by Generate Articles from BizTalk (see BizTalk Document Profiles and Section Keys). These documents are marked Shipped by Nodinite:
- They belong to Nodinite and are locked: a shipped Snippet, Template, or Document Profile can't be edited or deleted. The What you can change card says so, the editor shows the Shipped by Nodinite: clone to customize banner, and the designer has no Save or Delete.
- Every Nodinite upgrade updates them in place, so they always match the version you run.
- To make your own version, click Clone to customize (or Clone) and change the copy. The copy is an ordinary document: no lock, editable, and its Revisions start at 2 (the clone, then your first save). Upgrades never touch it.
- Tick Hide shipped documents to leave them out of a list. The option is on every document list: the Articles Overview, Snippets, Templates, and Document Profiles.
- Apply Document Profile never changes a shipped Article.
The editor of a shipped Document Profile shows the Shipped by Nodinite: clone to customize banner instead of letting you edit it. Clone to customize makes your own, editable copy.
Warning
Before you upgrade to 7.12, clone any shipped Snippet, Template, or Document Profile you have changed, such as an edited Standard Header or Standard Technical Article. The upgrade overwrites the shipped documents with the Nodinite version, and your changes to them are lost. Then move your Articles to the cloned Document Profile with Apply Document Profile, and use the cloned Snippets in your own Document Profiles.