Preview and publish site changes
Hub separates your working draft from the live site. Visitors always see the last published version; your edits stay private until you publish. This page explains the full cycle. ## How drafts and live releases work Every site has two layers: - **Draft** — your current working copy. Only workspace members with site access can see it. - **Live** — the published release that visitors and public routes see. New sites start unpublished. The first time you edit an existing site, Hub captures its current live content as the draft baseline, so you always have a starting point. Publishing commits the draft atomically — the live pointer and the new version snapshot update together. If another team member publishes between the time you opened the editor and the time you click Publish, Hub rejects stale state and asks you to reload before trying again. ## Status indicators The site list and the site editor show one of three status badges: | Status | Meaning | |---|---| | **Live** | The site is published and visible to visitors. | | **Draft** | The site has been edited but not yet published for the first time, or has unpublished changes. | | **Unpublished** | The site was previously live but has been taken offline. | ## Compact publication dropdown A **Site: [status]** dropdown is available in the site overview, the editor toolbar and the canvas edit banner. It shows the current publication state and provides quick access to **Publish site** and **Version history** without navigating to a separate settings page. The same control appears in all three places so you can publish from wherever you are working. ## Analytics and tracking settings are live Analytics settings (whether tracking is enabled and the measurement key) are not frozen into a published version snapshot. Enabling or rotating a tracking key takes effect on the public site immediately — you do not need to republish draft content to change tracking configuration. ## Review your content before publishing Open the site in edit mode and check every page you changed. Look for: - Missing or outdated information - Spelling and formatting mistakes - Empty sections or placeholder content - Headings that are unclear or out of order - Images that are cropped or missing - Markdown lists, links and headings that do not render as expected For dynamic pages, preview at least one real object item rather than checking only the page template. ## Check the site structure Confirm that visitors can move naturally through the site. 1. Start on the homepage. 2. Open the main navigation. 3. Visit an object list page, such as **Articles**. 4. Select an item and open its detail page. 5. Use the breadcrumbs or navigation to return. 6. Check that support and contact links are easy to find. ## Preview desktop and mobile layouts Check both views before publishing. On desktop, confirm that: - Navigation links fit beside the brand. - Text does not stretch too widely. - Cards and lists are aligned consistently. - Footer links are easy to scan. On mobile, confirm that: - The navigation menu opens and closes correctly. - Text fits without horizontal scrolling. - Buttons and links are easy to tap. - Lists, cards and footer links stack cleanly. - Long titles and URLs do not overflow the screen. ## Test links and interactive features Select every new or changed link, including header links, navigation links, social profiles, footer links, calls to action, object list items, breadcrumbs, and contact and support links. External links should open the intended website. Internal links should keep visitors within the correct Hub site. If your site includes search, test a common term, a partial title and a term with no results. ## Publish your changes When the preview is correct: 1. Save any outstanding edits. 2. Use the **Site: [status]** dropdown in the toolbar or open **Settings → Publishing & versions**. 3. Select **Publish site**. 4. Wait for the publishing confirmation. 5. Open the public site in a new browser tab. 6. Check one desktop page and one mobile page. Publishing commits a new version snapshot. Your latest published version is immediately available to visitors. > **Stale-state rejection:** If the live site was published by someone else after you opened the editor, Hub will reject the publish attempt and ask you to reload. This prevents one editor from overwriting another's changes. ## Save a named version You can save a named checkpoint without publishing it to visitors: 1. Open **Settings → Publishing & versions**. 2. Enter a version name in the **Version name** field. 3. Select **Save version**. This is useful before making significant changes, so you have a restore point without affecting the live site. ## Unpublish a site To take a site offline: 1. Open the site in Hub. 2. Go to **Settings → Publishing & versions**. 3. Open the overflow menu next to **Publish site** and select **Unpublish site**. 4. Confirm the action. Unpublishing removes the site from its public URL immediately. Your draft and all version history are preserved. You can republish at any time. Unpublishing a large or legacy site may take a moment; Hub processes the change without a snapshot-size dependency. ## View and restore version history Every successful publish creates an immutable version snapshot. To browse history: 1. Open the site in Hub. 2. Go to **Settings → Publishing & versions** or select **Version history** from the publication dropdown. 3. Hub shows a loading state while history is fetching. If the request fails, a **Retry** action is available — your working version name is preserved during the retry. 4. Browse the list — Hub loads 50 entries at a time; select **Load older versions** for earlier snapshots. 5. Confirmed empty history is shown clearly when no versions exist yet. 6. Select a version to preview its settings, navigation and page layouts. To restore a version: 1. Select the version you want. 2. Choose **Restore to draft**. 3. Hub checkpoints your current draft (so you do not lose recent edits) and loads the selected version into the draft layer. 4. Review the restored content, then publish when ready. > Restoring a version updates the draft only. The live release is unchanged until you publish. > Restores are rejected if the page operations in the selected version exceed the size limit (450 page operations). Very large historical versions cannot be restored. > Version snapshots capture site settings, navigation and page layouts. Linked collections, shared headers, footers and reusable blocks keep their own independent content — they are not frozen inside a version. ## Agent-applied changes and the draft baseline When an Operations agent applies a page or navigation change to a site, Hub uses the live baseline to capture the edit correctly — even when no manual draft existed before the agent ran. This means agent edits are reflected in the draft and appear in version history after the next publish. Page and navigation changes prepared by an agent update the working draft. You must publish the site separately to make those changes live. ## If a change is missing First refresh the public page. If the change still does not appear, return to the editor and confirm that it was saved and published — not only previewed or left as a draft.