Copy selected sub-items
This page is for editors who copy several items at once. Copy selected copies several items, with everything below them, to a new place in the tree in one step. Before January 2025 the sub-items list could remove or move the selected items, but not copy them.
Use it
- Open a node in the admin. In the Sub items list, tick the check boxes of the items to copy.
- Open the More actions menu above the list and choose Copy selected.
- A browse dialog asks for the new parent. Choose it and confirm.
- Exponential copies each selected node and its subtree below the new parent and, if notifications are on, shows a summary of what was copied.
The same action is in the pop-up menu of a single item and in the content/copysubtree view.
What is checked first
- The user must be able to read every selected node, and must have create permission for the class of each copy under the chosen parent.
- A node cannot be copied into itself or one of its own descendants.
- When the copy is larger than
MaxNodesCopySubtree, current releases do not refuse it: the copy view offers to run it as a background content job, which cannot hit a request time limit (see content jobs). The first version of the feature (January 2025) copied at most that many nodes.
Settings
All keys are in settings/content.ini, block CopySettings. Scope: override or siteaccess.
| Key | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
MaxNodesCopySubtree | 30 | Maximum number of nodes a copy-subtree request handles |
VersionHandling | all | user-defined, last-published or all: which versions of each object are copied |
CreatorHandling | current | user-defined, keep-unchanged or current: who is recorded as the creator of the copies |
TimeHandling | current | user-defined, keep-unchanged or current: which timestamps the copies get |
ShowCopySubtreeNotification | enabled | Show the result page after copying |
Where it lives in the code
| Piece | File |
|---|---|
Menu entry (value 2, form field CopyButton, label "Copy selected") | Label in design/admin/templates/children_detailed.tpl and design/admin4/templates/children_detailed.tpl; the menu and its submit in design/admin4/javascript/ezajaxsubitems_expdatatable.js (the 2025 script ezajaxsubitems_datatable.js no longer exists) |
Actions CopyButton and CopyNode (browse for the target) | kernel/private/classes/views/content/action.php |
| Operation | eZContentOperationCollection::copyNode() in kernel/content/ezcontentoperationcollection.php and eZContentObjectTreeNodeOperations::copySubtree() in kernel/classes/ezcontentobjecttreenodeoperations.php |
| Result page | design/standard/templates/content/copy_subtrees_notification.tpl |
| View | kernel/content/module.php, view copysubtree (needs the create function) |
Related pages
- Content jobs for large copies
- Hide and unhide selected
- Sub-items table options
- The responsive admin design (admin3), the admin4 design, left sidebar width and font size
- Changelog 6.0.7
- History: August 2024, October 2024, November 2024, January 2025, June 2025, June 2026, second half
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