Multi-Site Manager (MSM)

🔍 What Is It?

MSM provides a way to manage content across multiple related sites:

• →Blueprint — The master site that defines the canonical content
• →Live Copy — A site that inherits content from the Blueprint
• →Rollout — The process of pushing Blueprint changes to Live Copies
• →Rollout Config — Rules that define what gets rolled out and when
• →Synchronization — Keeping Live Copy content in sync with Blueprint

Common use cases:

• →Multi-country sites (US, UK, DE, FR) with shared base content
• →Multi-brand sites with shared component library
• →Franchise or dealer networks with local variations

🎯 Why Do We Need It?

Without MSM, managing 20 country sites means:

• →Copy-pasting content 20 times for every update
• →Inconsistent content across sites
• →No way to enforce brand standards globally

With MSM:

• →Update once in Blueprint → rollout to all Live Copies
• →Local teams can customize their copy within allowed areas
• →Brand consistency enforced through inheritance locks

🏗️ What Happens in Real Projects?

Real Project Example:

A global retail brand has sites for 15 countries. The US site is the Blueprint. Each country gets a Live Copy. Product descriptions, brand content, and legal pages come from the Blueprint. Local teams add country-specific promotions and translate content.

When the global marketing team updates the homepage hero, they update the Blueprint and roll out to all 15 countries. Local variations (different promotional banners) are preserved because they're set as "local" content.

⚙️ How It Works

MSM Relationship:

/content/mysite/
  us/         ← Blueprint (master)
    en/
      home/
      products/
  uk/         ← Live Copy of us/en
    en/
      home/   ← Inherits from us/en/home
      products/
  de/         ← Live Copy of us/en
    de/
      home/   ← Inherits + translated

Inheritance States:

• →Inherited — Content comes from Blueprint, can't be edited locally
• →Cancelled — Inheritance broken, content is now local
• →Suspended — Inheritance temporarily paused

Rollout Configs:

Define what happens during rollout — which properties are synced, which are excluded, what triggers rollout (manual, on publish, on modify).

💻 Example

MSM Setup Concepts — Key MSM concepts and configuration.

<!-- Standard Rollout Config - most common setup -->
<!-- Rolls out: page properties, content, structure -->
<!-- Excludes: local translations, local promotions -->

<rolloutConfig
    jcr:title="Standard Rollout"
    cq:trigger="rollout">
  <actions>
    <contentUpdate
        jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured"
        class="com.day.cq.wcm.msm.impl.actions.ContentUpdateActionFactory"
        excludeProperties="[jcr:language,cq:lastRolledout]"/>
    <orderChildren
        jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured"
        class="com.day.cq.wcm.msm.impl.actions.OrderChildrenActionFactory"/>
    <referencesUpdate
        jcr:primaryType="nt:unstructured"
        class="com.day.cq.wcm.msm.impl.actions.ReferencesUpdateActionFactory"/>
  </actions>
</rolloutConfig>

🤔 Common Confusions

🚨 Common Production Issues

✅ Best Practices

🏛️ Architect's Note

💬 Frequently Asked Questions

🎯 Key Takeaways

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