How can I use content from legacy branching with Unified Localization?

To use content from legacy branching with Unified Localization, you must branch not only the Published map, but all its dependencies as well.

Description

In CCMS Desktop, you can only branch content in the Published cycle when you use legacy branching. When you branch a map, that action creates a new instance of it in the Authoring cycle, but all the map's references remain in the Published cycle until they are individually branched.

Suppose you publish the Quick Start Guide and its five topics and then branch it to branch 2.0.
Figure: Sample branch 2.0 of a map

Where you have map Quick Start Guide in Authoring, which is identified as legacy branch 2.0, it references the five topics still in Published. In IXIA CCMS Web, you can access the map you branched in Unified Localization, but the map cannot access any of the children that remain in Published. Unified Localization uses only content in the Authoring cycle or its previously translated equivalents in either the Localization or Translation cycles.CCMS Web only makes Published content visible through Advanced Search or Structure view, but does not utilize that content.

To access all map children, move all the map's dependencies to the Authoring cycle.

Solution

These steps are broad and may require additional substeps, depending on your situation. For details on legacy branching, refer to the User Guide for IXIA CCMS Desktop.

  1. In CCMS Desktop, branch the map at Published:done.
  2. Open the branched map in the DITA Map view.
  3. Search for all the map's dependencies using the Dependencies of DITA Map View option in the Search view.
  4. Branch all dependencies and conrefs using the process, as described in User Guide for IXIA CCMS Desktop.

When you have branched all the branched map's dependencies and all related topics are in Authoring, you can localize the branched map using Unified Localization in CCMS Web.

Important: When you branch Published content to Authoring, CCMS Desktop creates a new distinct instance for each object. This instance is not linked to the original object in the Authoring cycle that was originally used to publish the object. Branching all objects from Published to Authoring means that it’s not easily possible to skip branches and leverage previously translated content even if the objects in Authoring have not changed. If you require this scenario, consider implementing Dynamic Release Management which allows sophisticated branching and management of shared content across all types of branching models.