Localization Section propagation settings, and related entry field setting "Manage relations on a per-site basis"

Question

Craft 3.4.20. Site is running multiple localizations

Sections:

Blog Post Propagation method set to, "Save entries to all sites enabled for this section"

Blog Category (Structure entry with nothing more than the default Title)

Blog Post Section entry has a field to relate to our Blog Category Structure. We have a field under our Blog Posts entry with the option, "Manage relations on a per-site basis".

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A Blog Post entry has an entry field to where you can select multiple Blog Category entries from a Structure.

Issue is that editors publish Blog Posts and may not consider the other locales. You would think the relationship field would take into consideration of the setting, Manage relations on a per-site basis.

When publishing an entry under the Default site (in our case North America), and the publishing editor disregards the other Locales (the toggle drop-down for an entry on publish view), the field data of the entry relationship for "Blog Category" on North America duplicates itself to the Europe relationship field.

I don't know if this is intentional, or if the Manage relations on a per-site basis setting is not being factored in?

Is there a way to exclude certain fields from being populated with the same localization data as the default entry. I simply thought the field settings, Manage relations on a per-site basis would be factored into this and be left null when publishing a North America entry, but Europe, and all the other sites receive that same field relationship value based on North America Blog Post publish. It seems as though there is no way to exclude certain fields from doing this, and is there a solution to this?

Is it intended for the Section settings Save entries to all sites enabled for this section to override this field setting with first publish?

Answer 1

This is intended behavior – when you first create a new entry, any content you enter will be copied to other sites, up until the point where you either save the entry, or start editing one of the other sites.

If you’re worried about unintended content getting published in other locales, then I’d suggest you set the other sites’ default statuses to disabled, from your section’s settings. Once Craft 3.5 comes out you’ll have another option as well: sections have a new propagation method option which gives entries control over which sites they should be saved to, so the entry won’t exist at all in other sites up until someone explicitly enables the site for the entry.