How can I undo changes in Plone?

Plone has a feature that lets you undo changes you make to Plone-managed pages and other items. To access it, log in, and in your personal toolbar (usually at the bottom of the screen) there will be an “undo” link. If your site’s templated has been customized so that the undo link is no longer there, you can access it via http://your.plone.site/undo_form.

The undo screen is easy to use. Simply check the box next to any change you want to undo, and press the “undo” button at the bottom. You can undo nearly any Plone action, even logins! (Not terribly useful, but maybe you can think of a use for it.)

The Plone undo feature is meant to nullify recent changes. It is not a long-term archiving tool. Depending on your version of Plone, the undo history may be wiped whenever the Zope server is restarted, or when its database is compacted. For keeping important revisions permanently, Plone 3.0 will have a versioning feature. Until that time, you should make regular backups of your site, relying on the undo feature only for short-term revisions.

Zope has its own more sophisticated undo feature inside the ZMI. To get to it, navigate to any object, and then click the “Undo” tab at the top of the screen. You can undo changes in just the same way as the Plone undo page. You can also view particular revisions in the object’s history by clicking the “History” tab. Keep in mind that you cannot undo changes made to Plone objects in the ZMI – you must use Plone to undo Plone changes.