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Multisite Management, 2025.2
Multisite Management, 2025.2
Documentation

Best Practice

Multisite Management (MSM) enables your company to distribute FirstSpirit content to all FirstSpirit projects within an instance. This allows you to reuse individual files or entire sections of a project in another department or branch.

To simplify the use of MSM, two best-practice setups are described below that you can use as a guide when using it for the first time.

  • Translation in the target project: Content is maintained in the source language in the source project and transferred to the target project. The translation from the source language into the target language takes place directly in the target project.
  • Translation in the source project: Content is translated directly in the source project from the source language into the target language. The content is transferred to the target project in the target language.

Translation in target project

In this setup, content is maintained in the source language within the source project. The content is transferred to the target project in the source language with the help of MSM, and it is translated into the target language in the target project. Additionally, the content is localized in the target project.

We recommend this setup for languages that are used only in one target project.

Ensure that editors can view only the target language in the target project.

Example 1

If the source language is English, the content is maintained in this language in the source project and is then transferred to the target project in English. The translation into French and the localization are carried out directly in the target project.

In a setup that corresponds conceptually to this example, a project-specific workflow or a project-specific script can be used to simplify the translation in the target project. The workflow or script automatically translates all transferred content from the source language into the target language if the corresponding elements in the target language are empty. This ensures that manual adjustments are not overwritten in the target project.

Example 2

If the source language is French and the target project is the French country project, content in the source language, i.e. French, is transferred from the source project to the target project.

Assuming that editors with access to the French country project are experts in the language, adjustments can be made to the French content in the country project. These adjustments can be transferred back from the target project to source project using the Back Transport functionality.

The editor in the target project can request a transfer of their adjustments back to the target project. However, the decision on their acceptance lies with the editor of the source project. If changes are not accepted into the source project, they are overwritten in the target project during the next transfer from source to target.

Translation in source project

In this setup, content is maintained in the source language within the source project and translated directly there. The translation is transferred to one or more target projects and copied into localized versions of the language. Localization work is performed in the localized version of the language.

This setup is recommended for languages that are used in multiple target projects and need to be adapted.

Ensure that editors can only access the localized version of the target language.

Example 1

The source language of the source project is English (EN). The English content is translated into German (DE) and French (FR) directly in the source project. The content is then transferred into the country project Switzerland (target project) in all three languages.

In the target project, localized language versions for German (DE_CH) and French (FR_CH) are created. Localization work and similar adjustments are made in the localized language versions only.

Example 2

The source language in the source project is German. The German content is transferred to both the German and the Austrian country project. In the respective country projects, localized language versions are created, i.e., DE_DE and DE_AT. Improvements and localization work is carried out in the localized language versions only.

Given that editors with access to the German country project are experts in the language, adjustments to the content in the German country project may occur. These adjustments can be transferred back to the source project from the target project using the Back Transport functionality.

To transfer edits made in the target back to the source in this setup, a project-specific release workflow can be used. For this purpose, a project property must be utilized in all target projects, which determines whether changes from a target project should be transferred back. For example, changes in DE_DE should be transferred back, but changes in DE_AT should not.

The release workflow determines whether there are differences between the source language (here DE) and the localized versions of the language (here DE_DE or DE_AT). If differences are found and the project property states that changes from the localized version of the language should be transferred back (here for DE_DE but not for DE_AT), all adjustments are transferred into the source project using the Back Transport functionality.

To ensure that localized content is not overwritten in this setup, two project-specific scripts should be available when creating a bundle in the source project. One script ensures that content is only transferred to localized language versions when the individual input components in the localized language version are empty. The other script does not perform such a check and ensures that all changes transferred from the source project are always adopted in the localized language version. The person creating the bundle can choose which script to execute depending on the content being transferred.

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