Matrix content gets overwritten on import

[filip-van-hoeckel]

Description

When updating content in a Matrix field content gets overwritten

Steps to reproduce

1. Import English content (posts) with a unique key so language versions can be matched, for all sites
2. Import Dutch content, set to update, match with unique key to determine which post is corresponding translation
3. All fields are correctly updated, except for the Matrix field: that gets overwritten

Additional info

• Plugin version: 3.1.2
• Craft version: 3.1.7

[low]

I seem to have the same issue: Matrix content gets overwritten for all sites/languages. Other fields work fine.

Craft 3.1.30, Feed Me 4.1.0.

[brandonkelly]

This happens because Feed Me doesn’t have a way of matching your feed’s blocks with existing entry blocks, so it will always just delete the current entry blocks and recreate them with whatever’s in the feed.

You can work around that by enabling the “Manage blocks on a per-site basis” setting on your Matrix field (under “Advanced”), which will cause each site to have its own unique set of blocks. Then Feed Me will only delete the blocks assigned to the current site, replace them with the feed’s blocks.

We are considering adding a Unique Identifier setting for Matrix fields within the feed settings, which would give you a way of matching incoming blocks with existing ones.

[amityweb]

About this "so it will always just delete the current entry blocks and recreate them with whatever’s in the feed." - but can it not do that for just the group or the site importing into? Why does it do it for all sites? If I am importing content for say just German, why does it have to overwrite the field in all the other sites? Needs to only overwrite it for that site or group. If its only for the site, then that will be OK providing we can set the matrix block to translate per group.

[amityweb]

What happens if you set the matrix field as "Manage blocks on a per-site basis", import all the sites content, then disable "Manage blocks on a per-site basis"?

Because with this setting currently disabled, if I edit a block field that is translatable per group, it does maintain that content within the group sites only. So editing German does not update US. So I am curious what happens when its unchecked, do the blocks all link back up again but with the imported content kept (and therefore linked within each group as now)? Or will it delete all blocks from all sites and re-copy the default site blocks? If its the former then that may work.

Edit: Tried it but doesn't work. Once I switch back to not manage blocks on a per site basis, then edit and save an entry, that entry on every site turned the language I saved it in, even though on subsequent saves of that entry it did allow me to have different content. If only on that first save it did not copy across that content to all sites but just the group, and re-saved the content that was in there, then this process should work.

[brandonkelly]

We just released Craft 3.2 RC1, which replace’s Matrix’s “Manage blocks on a per-site basis” setting with a new “Propagation Method” setting, with the following options:

• Only save blocks to the site they were created in – same behavior as before, if “Manage blocks on a per-site basis” was enabled.
• Save blocks to other sites in the same site group – when saving an entry, all of its blocks will be saved to any other sites that are in the same site group as the current site.
• Save blocks to other sites with the same language – when saving an entry, all of its blocks will be saved to any other sites that have the same language.
• Save blocks to all sites the owner element is saved in – same behavior as before, if “Manage blocks on a per-site basis” was not enabled.

I’m posting that here because it can serve as a workaround for this issue. For example if you set your Matrix field’s propagation method to “Save blocks to other sites with the same language”, and then import your English feed, only English sites will have their current blocks deleted, and new blocks created based on the feed. Other sites’ blocks will be left alone.

It’s not a complete fix for this issue, but it was a lot cleaner than the alternative Feed Me enhancements we are considering, so it’s a good first step.

[amityweb]

Thanks Brandon, I will give this a try and its a great step forward for matrix and multi-sites.

I am experiencing a few strange issues, which I guess may be due to the data I had already imported, and one of the issues prevents me deleting it to start again too. I will open a new Github thread on it here craftcms/cms#4450

[urbantrout]

I am using a similar setup. Except that I don't import anything into the matrix field. But on import all blocks inside the matrix field get deleted.

Here is what I would like to do:

1. Import events via feed-me (daily import). The only fields I get from the external API are ID, title and date.
2. Manually add content via Craft CMS matrix field (page builder)

An option to ignore the matrix field on import would be really nice!

[urbantrout]

OMG. There is a config setting for this: skipUpdateFieldHandle

[urbantrout]

Unfortunately this setting is used to not update the whole element. Not only a specific field…

[urbantrout]

Maybe my PR helps…