When using the Learnosity Author Site or Author API, you can duplicate an Activity.
Duplicating an Activity allows you to easily clone an existing Activity, optionally also cloning the Items within it (and thus Questions - optionally cloning Shared Passages, too). As with duplicating an Item, this process also duplicates the content, settings, and Tags within.
Duplicating an Activity
To duplicate an Activity, open an existing one in the list interface and click "Duplicate Activity". The duplicate button is located on the top right of the screen, beside the save button.
Screenshot 1: duplicating an Activity
Upon clicking, a takeover window will be displayed. By default, it looks as in screenshot 2 below. However, depending on your initialization options, you will see different options (see section below for more information).
Screenshot 2: duplicating an Activity takeover screen
Once you click Duplicate, a new Activity will be saved with a new Activity reference which you can change if you wish.
Controlling the options shown in the Duplicate Activity window
The options that appear in the Duplicate Activity window will change depending on the initialization options that have been set. Screenshot 3 below shows an example of this, where only the option to "Create new copies of all items" is shown while the "Duplicate shared passages" option is hidden.
Screenshot 3: duplicating an Activity with additional user options shown
If you have different initialization options turned on, then you would see a different window where you are presented with the additional options. For more information, see the relevant Author API initialization options.
Options for duplicating Activities
By default, there are several options when duplicating Activities, which can be selected in the window that appears. The various options are set via the checkboxes in the window.
1. No additional options chosen ("Shallow Copy")
When you duplicate an Activity, by default it will be a shallow copy, which means that the Activity structure is duplicated, and all the Items within are re-used within the new Activity, so it shares Items with the original Activity. This means that any changes to the Items in the original Activity will then also cause those changes to be seen in the new duplicated Activity's Items, and vice versa.
2. Create new copies of all Items ("Deep Copy")
When you duplicate an Activity and select the checkbox option "Create new copies of all Items" at the bottom of the screen, a deep copy will be created. This means that the structure of the Activity is duplicated, but also that the Items within (and thus their Questions/Features, with the exception of Shared Passages, which are not duplicated) are also duplicated as independent copies of the original Items, which are added to the new Activity. These copied Items can be independently edited without affecting the original Items in the source Activity.
Note: Deep Copy happens asynchronously and can take longer. Whilst it's being duplicated, you will see a takeover screen showing time elapsed. Once complete, you will have the option to go back to the original Activity, or navigate to the new Activity. See screenshot 4 below.
Screenshot 4: "Deep Copy" screens during and after duplication
3. Duplicate Shared Passages
When you duplicate an Activity and select the "make copies of passages" checkbox option at the bottom of the window, a deep copy with passages will be created. This means that the structure of the Activity is duplicated, the Items within and any Shared Passages are also duplicated as new copies of the originals, which are now stored under the new Item (and so Activity). These copied elements all can be independently edited without changing the parent elements in the source Activity.