Phases.Umbraco.Community.TemplateHistory 0.1.1

Phases.Umbraco.Community.TemplateHistory

"Version history for your Umbraco files — compare, restore, and never lose a change."

What is Template History?

Template History is an Umbraco 17 backoffice package that automatically snapshots templates, stylesheets, scripts, and partial views each time you save them in the backoffice. Open the History tab on any supported file to browse past versions, compare changes with a visual diff, and restore an earlier version in one click.

Key benefits

• Full file coverage — Templates, stylesheets, scripts, and partial views
• Visual diffs — Unified or side-by-side comparison between any two versions
• One-click restore — Roll back to a previous version from the backoffice
• Settings dashboard — See recent file changes across all asset types
• Non-intrusive — Code/Template tab stays the default; History is one click away
• SQLite-ready — Works with the default Umbraco database providers

Where to find History

After installing the package, open any supported file under Settings → Templating:

You can also open Settings → Template History dashboard to browse recent versions across all file types.

Default tab

The Code (or Template) editor tab opens by default. Switch to History to view saved versions.

How to use History

Browse versions

1. Open a template, stylesheet, script, or partial view in the backoffice.
2. Click the History tab.
3. Select a version from the list to inspect when it was saved and by whom.

Compare versions

1. On the History tab, pick an Older version and Newer version (or Current).
2. Click Compare selected.
3. Switch between Side by side and Unified diff views.

Restore a version

1. Find the version you want in the version list.
2. Click Restore.
3. Confirm — the file content is replaced and a new snapshot of the previous content is saved first.

Note: The first save of a brand-new file may not create a snapshot (nothing existed on disk yet). Save again after the initial save to start building history.

Installation

Via NuGet (recommended)

dotnet add package Phases.Umbraco.Community.TemplateHistory

Or in Visual Studio: Manage NuGet Packages → search for Phases.Umbraco.Community.TemplateHistory.

Local NuGet feed

dotnet add package Phases.Umbraco.Community.TemplateHistory --version 0.1.0 --source "path\to\nuget\folder"

Requirements

• Umbraco 17.x
• .NET 10.0

The package registers itself via IComposer — no manual Program.cs changes required. Restart the site after install and hard-refresh the backoffice (Ctrl+Shift+R).

Umbraco Marketplace

This package is listed on the Umbraco Marketplace. Listing metadata lives in umbraco-marketplace.json at the repository root.

To appear on the marketplace:

1. Publish the NuGet package with the umbraco-marketplace tag (included in the .csproj).
2. Ensure PackageProjectUrl points to this GitHub repository.
3. Commit umbraco-marketplace.json and icon.png to the repo root on the default branch.

See Listing your package for full details.

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/phases/Phases.Umbraco.Community.TemplateHistory.git
cd Phases.Umbraco.Community.TemplateHistory

# Build client + package
dotnet build src\Umbraco.Community.TemplateHistory\Umbraco.Community.TemplateHistory.csproj

# Create NuGet package
dotnet pack src\Umbraco.Community.TemplateHistory\Umbraco.Community.TemplateHistory.csproj -c Release -o artifacts\nuget

Run the test site:

dotnet run --project tests\Umbraco.Community.TemplateHistory.TestSite

Troubleshooting

History tab is empty after saving

1. Save twice — the first save of a new file often has no prior content to snapshot.
2. Hard-refresh the backoffice after installing or upgrading (Ctrl+Shift+R).
3. Restart the Umbraco site after package install.
4. Check the browser Network tab for requests to /umbraco/umbracocommunitytemplatehistory/api/v1/... when opening History.

History tab does not appear

1. Confirm the package is referenced in your .csproj and the site was restarted.
2. Check the browser console for JavaScript errors.
3. Verify static web assets loaded under /App_Plugins/UmbracoCommunityTemplateHistory/.

API returns 401 in a new browser tab

The History API requires backoffice authentication. Test via the History tab while logged in, not by pasting the API URL in a new tab.

Stylesheets in subfolders

History keys files by their management API path (e.g. /css/site.css, /tewst.css). Paths must match between save and lookup.

Screenshots

Add PNG screenshots to the Screenshots/ folder before publishing to GitHub (used by the marketplace listing):

License

MIT — see LICENSE if present in the repository.

Never lose a template change again. 🎉