We are attempting to establish a Sitecore 6.4 architecture whereby we clone several sites from a "repository" site.
We have addressed many issues regarding data structure, but are left with one key problem:
How do we handle internal links within a cloned site?
The idea of cloning was to allow local modification of small parts of data, but central editing of the main body of content. Editing directly in a cloned item breaks inheritance from its parent, at least in the field that is edited.
But: Sitecore internal links are stored as a GUID. When cloning an entire site, all links in it will refer back to the parent site. This is particularly problematic when the links are in a rich text field, storing the main body of content of an item. Replacing the link with a link pointing to the relevant item within the cloned structure will break the inheritance on this field.
Has anyone developed a workaround, until Sitecore provide a more sophisticated solution? It would seem that it would require significant extension of the LinkManager and possibly some regrettably solid rules for linking.
Ideas, solutions, thoughts welcome.
Edit: Cross posted to SDN Forum, not a great deal of help there.