Ektron CMS400 - change content type?

Question

I'm completely new to Ektron CMS400 and and fumbling my way through things.

I'm working with Smart Forms at the moment and have managed to get to the point where I need to change the 'Content Type' for an entry from HTML Content to my new smart form. However, I do not see an option to select or change the content type under 'Edit Properties' which is where I expected to change it much like at folder level.

I hope that makes sense.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks, ozmo

Answer 1

I see your comment that you answered your own question, but for completeness...

You can change content from one Smart Form definition to another Smart Form definition, with the result that you will lose any information that doesn't have field alignment between the two types. Since Smart Forms are essentially an XML Schema, you're switching from one mapped Schema to another.

For example, if you have these two types:

<root>
    <Name />
    <Address />
    <Phone />
</root>

And

<root>
    <Name />
    <Address />
    <Email />
</root>

When you convert from the first type to the second, you will retain the content values for Name and Address, but lose Phone. Similarly in the opposite direction, but losing the value for Email because the XML has changed and the new schema doesn't have a definition for that property. This requirement for the schemas to be similar in order to minimize data loss means that the feature to change from one Smart Form to another is typically used to change content from one Smart Form to an updated version of the same Smart Form, not a completely new & different definition.

This works because both are XML structured content. Converting from unstructured HTML content to structured XML content would result in losing all the HTML regardless because it won't map directly to the new XML schema.

Aside from retaining some settings such as ID, Category, or Metadata, there is little value to converting the content itself since you wouldn't be able to retain any of the information.

The Ektron Workarea has a check to see whether content is created using a Smart Form. If not, the option to change the Smart Form configuration for the content item is hidden. If it is derived from a Smart Form, then you'll see a field to change the Smart Form Configuration for the item within its Content Properties: