Using Content Versions in Joomla
Do you edit a particular article on a regular basis?
Do you ever make mistakes and hit Save and Close too quickly?
If you answered “Yes” to either question, then there is a Joomla feature that you really need to use.
“Versions” is a feature that allows you to keep a copy of your Joomla articles every time you save a change, and that can really be a lifesaver! To make sure Versions is turned on for your site, you can go to: Components->Articles and click on the Options button in the top right of the screen. Then select Edition Layout and make sure Enable Versions are turned on.
You can also limit the maximum number of versions here. The default is ten and is usually more than enough.
Once enabled, the Versions button appears in the toolbar at the top of your articles screen between the Save as Copy button and the Close button.
Whenever you save your article, a new version will be available. Just click on the Versions button and a pop-up window will be available. The current version of the article is marked by a gold star.
To compare the current version with a previous version, check the boxes next to the versions and click Compare. Any text, links, or links to images that were removed will be highlighted in red. Any text that has been added will be highlighted in green.
In addition to content, Joomla also stores the settings for your articles, hits, featured image changes and timestamps. In this example, you can see the timestamp change.
To restore a previous version, and make it current, check the box next to the version and click “Restore”.
To make comparing two versions a little easier, simply click on the “Changed Values” option. Now only the changed areas are shown. Click on “All Values” to return to the previous view.
By default, versions will show only the article text, but there is a “Show HTML Code” button: This HTML feature will be useful because the versions don’t display images. Even if they did, there wouldn’t be room inside the pop-up to cleanly display large images.
Even if the “Maximum Versions” is set to 10, it is possible to mark a version so that it can not be deleted.
Article versions in Joomla can be incredibly helpful if you have multiple authors, or even if you just want to rotate between different versions of an article at different times!