Look inside a package, compare it with your site, import single items #

This page is for administrators who install content packages on a site that already has content. A content package used to be a sealed box: install it and hope. Since 29 and 30 September 2026 you can browse every file in it, see how each of its content classes and objects differs from your site, and import only the items you choose, after a confirmation that lists exactly what will change.

All of it is in the kernel (no extension needed) and uses the administration's package views.

1. Browse a package's files #

Open Setup > Packages, click a package. package/view/full/<name> now has a contents browser.

• Every file of the package's own directory is listed: package.xml, every content class and object item, simplefiles/, documents/.
• 25 to 1,000 files, or all, per page; filter by type or by a path search.
• Click View on a row: an .xml item is pretty-printed, a content object shows its own attributes and translations read straight out of the file, an image is shown inline. Download gives the raw bytes (package/viewfile).
• A hidden file or directory (the package's own .cache/) is never shown.
• A package that is already installed offers Reinstall next to Uninstall, going through the same install wizard. The install wizard's own header and error pages link back to the package and the package list on every step.

The browser keeps its state in view parameters, like other paged kernel views:

package/view/full/slash_quotes/(offset)/4300/(file)/4342

The parameters are (type), (search), (limit), (offset) and (file), each left out at its default. The search (the only free text) is encoded twice, because the path is decoded once before it is split. Old links with query strings are redirected once to the view-parameter form.

The page is laid out as an administration page: header badges for version, type and install state; one definition list for summary, state, license, maintainers, documents and description; an actions bar that leads with the safe primary action (Install, or Export to file when installed) and sets Uninstall apart on the right; a file list with type badges and sizes; a pager above and below. Buttons follow their own policy now: Install, Reinstall and Uninstall need package / install, Export to file needs package / export; when there is nothing to install the page says why (a site package imported by the setup wizard with the packages it requires, a package without install items, or a user without package / install).

Security fixes in this group: a package's description is printed as text (it comes from an uploaded package.xml), and a file opened from package/viewfile is sent with a sandboxing Content-Security-Policy so an SVG with script cannot run as the signed-in user.

2. Compare a package with the site #

Click Compare (before Reinstall) on a package that installs content, or open package/compare/<name> (policy package / read, like package/view).

The comparison is read-only: nothing is installed or stored.

• Content classes are matched by identifier. Both sides are serialized by the same code that writes a class into a package, so names, settings and per attribute the datatype, names, flags, placement and datatype parameters compare like for like.
• Content objects are matched by remote id. The site's current version is serialized by each datatype's own package serializer, then values are normalised per datatype: plain values as text, rich text as canonical XML, relations by the remote ids they point to, images and files by name, size and checksum, anything else by its serialized XML. Translations only on one side and node placement are compared too. Objects under a package's top node that the package does not carry are listed as "only on the site".

Each item gets a status shown as a chip with its own glyph and label as well as a colour (so colour is never the only signal): new, changed, only on the site, identical, class missing. The chips also filter. You can filter by status and class, search by name or remote id, show 25 to 250 rows per page and sort by status, name, class or number of differences (all as view parameters such as (sort)/<column>/(dir)/<asc|desc>, kept by the pager).

Open an item to see its values side by side (stacked on a narrow screen): removed text struck through in red, added text underlined in green, the XML of rich text and serialized values at hand, and its placement. Compare again rebuilds the cached comparison. The whole comparison is built once, in batches with single-table queries, and cached in the cache directory keyed by the package's files and the site's content and class state; every value from the package is escaped.

3. Import chosen items #

With package / install on top of read, each row that is not identical has an Import button and a checkbox, beside Import selected and Import all changes of this filter. The open item has Import this item and a tick per value, so a value can be kept as the site has it.

Every import is a POST guarded by the form token and leads to a confirmation that lists exactly what will be set and kept, and why an item cannot be imported. Confirm to import; the result is shown item by item, with the next step when a filter holds more than one step (at most 25 items per request).

Rules the importer follows (eZPackageComparisonImport):

After a class import the cached comparison is rebuilt; after an object import only the imported objects are compared again. A package's install now also places objects whose parent comes later in the package: passes are repeated per parent, parents are found by remote id regardless of language, and the package's node remote id is kept on the placed node. A package's new version of an existing object no longer carries a translation's values twice.

Package wizards: Back button and order #

Every step of the package creation wizards has a Back button beside Next. What you entered is kept when valid, and a step is initialized only on its first visit. Back from the first step returns to the choice of wizard, and Back there to the package list. The class and extension steps show the choices made on them when you return. The content object export wizard leaves templates related to the objects out unless you choose them. The Create package page lists the wizards in [CreationSettings] HandlerList[] order (content, classes, extensions, site styles).

Old packages work again #

• An archive in the old V7 tar format (no ustar magic; the class packages of the 3.x releases) made the import hang forever. It is now opened with the V7 reader; every other archive keeps the GNU reader so long file names work.
• Class definitions from before 3.9 that carry only <name> install again.
• A datatype written for PHP 4 and 5 with a constructor named after its class (for example the newsletter list and edition types) is created without eZDataType::__construct() and its old constructor is called, so classes of such packages can be installed again.
• Importing the first package into an installation whose package repository does not exist yet raises no warning; a user with no package policy gets a plain false.

Related pages #

• ezpm: the package manager on the command line, package installer batching, package licenses and versions
• Kickstarter: install a whole site from one file, installer logs and seed data
• About and copyright pages, translations and languages
• Behaviour changes, 16 to 30 September 2026
• Changelog 6.0.15
• History: 16 to 30 September 2026, June 2026, second half