I have an existing collection with a linked CMS template page. I want to create a new collection based on this and slightly tweak it. I have create the collection no problem and now ideally want to copy/duplicate the existing template. I understand this is no possible and I have to basically rebuild the template from scratch. Can anyone suggest confirm this and also suggest a workaround ??
many thanks
Here is my public share link: LINK
(how to access public share link)
Copy and paste.
So this isnât ideal because you may have a lot of top-level elements, and a lot of data-bindings.
Hereâs how I might approach that;
FROM PAGE
Collapse everything in the nav view so that you only see Body, and itâs 1st level children
Click BODY and add DIV. Drag it up so itâs just under the BODY
Drag each element from the bottom of the list up and into the DIV, until you have your entire page content wrapped in the DIV.
Click the DIV and copy
Click the BODY and paste
You now have two copies of your page
Now using Finsweetâs browser plug-in, select that second bottom DIV, and use the Finsweet Candies- the Unbind CMS items one.
It will reload the browser and everything in that second DIV ( only ) will be unbound.
Copy that second DIV over to your new collection page
TO PAGE
Now bind all of the elements on the new page to your second CMS collection.
Once youâre sure itâs working, delete that second DIV on the FROM page, and you can also âunwrapâ all of those page contents from that unclassed DIV.
Note that part of the purpose of the DIV is to work around a current Webflow bug with copy-paste, that duplicates the wrong elements.
Yeah, this is a process, but like 5 mins, instead of the 60+ you might need to completely rebuild the page from scratch.
thank you v much. will try it out
I managed to follow all steps until I got to the paste into TO page. I can paste some of the sections. But the main one generates an error: âMulti reference Collection lists can only be moved within the same connection.â what do I do?? thanks
That means you still have something data-bound in your elements in that section youâre trying to copy.
If you did the Finsweet unbind step properly it should remove all collection bindings, but thereâs a chance it could have missed something. Youâll need to expand that whole section and look for things that still need to be unbound.
CMS-bound things are usually indicated in purple.
Great workaround, thanks! Webflow should just make it an easy option to duplicate collection pages. They already enabled the function of duplicating collection.
And even this is inconvenient, in Webflow there are already a bunch of small and big inconveniences that force the developer to act strangely, uncomfortably, routinely.
I have used this practice more than once, but itâs terrible, itâs a crutch.
For example, right now I canât just create a copy of the page-wrapper because I have a nested collection inside, oh surprise! Nested collections have also been an unsolvable problem for more than 5 years.
I donât understand Webflow, such strange shortcomings need to be fixed first. Copying div blocks and then detaching everything from them, considering that the new page and collections have the same field names and variables, creates a strange feeling and makes me think that this is a circus and they are mocking me.
There are a lot of pain points in Webflow that burn with a red flame, but they have been ignored for several years. These shortcomings do not look like minuses for which you can pay extra and solve on a more expensive plan, they are not fixed at all, in essence, it looks like a bug called a feature.
âoh sorry, You cannot have more than 1 nested Collection List on a single page.â
but what it really means
âoh sorry, WE cannot have more than 1 nested Collection List on a single page.â
webflow, youâre awesome, Iâm grateful for your years of work and the opportunity to use your tools, but please show concern for the developers who work on your platform, who take weird positions to solve simple problems like duplicate collection pages, limiting nested collections, number of collection sheets per page and much, much more.
Here is a great example on how to unbound CMS data and copy your style across to another page.
https://youtu.be/0C2h-75Qk_E
Does this still work? Iâm getting this error when trying to copy my product template
Update, it seems the Finsweet unbind thing doesnât work for some elements like the quantity text box. Even when you select the element individually itâs still connected to the CMS
This guy in the video saved me a lot of time, I was having a hard time unbinding all the CMS references. And the workaround was to copy the whole site to a different webflow site and then copy-paste it to the page you want.
