Kibo eCommerce understands changes to either site content or product content as drafts, and distinguishes between the two types of drafts. You can publish content drafts or product drafts from the Drafts page located at Main > Publishing > Drafts. Updates to storefront content and product catalogs will be drafts when the appropriate Publishing Settings option is set to Staged.
This page has separate tabs for Content and Product drafts. As noted when configuring the settings, content changes can be applied on a site-by-site basis while product changes must apply across every single site that uses that master catalog. You cannot stage or publish catalog changes on one site while staging it for another site; catalog updates are all or nothing.
Content Drafts
Content publishing enables you to make draft changes to content, such as web pages or blog posts, before publishing them to a site. For each site associated with a tenant, you can set the content publishing mode to either live or pending mode in Admin.
Pending Mode
When a site is in pending mode, Kibo eCommerce creates a draft version of all new and changed content. The draft version increments the content changes until they are published or discarded. You can then publish or discard the drafts for all pending changes or for individual documents. If you switch the content publishing mode to live, Kibo eCommerce automatically publishes all pending drafts.
Live Mode
When a site is in live mode, Kibo eCommerce immediately performs all operations for changed content. The live version of the content appears on the website, except when previewing the website in pending mode.
Content Publishing Tasks
From the Content tab on the Drafts page, you can perform the following tasks:
- Publish Individual Content Draft
- Publish Multiple Content Drafts
- Preview Individual Content Draft
- Discard Individual Content Draft
- Content Publishing Best Practices
Publish Individual Content Draft
To publish an individual content draft:
- Go to Main > Publishing > Drafts.
- Select the relevant site from the site list at the top of the page.
You need to know which site you made changes to in order to view the pending content drafts for that site only. - From the Drafts grid, select the Content tab.
- Select a draft and then click Publish Now from the selection list.
Publish Multiple Content Drafts
If you wish to publish multiple content drafts at once, Kibo eCommerce recommends moving the content drafts into a Publish Set and then either publishing the Publish Set immediately or specifying a future date to publish the Publish Set.
You can also select multiple content drafts in the Drafts grid, and then select Publish Now from the selection list.
Refer to Publish Sets for more information about using Publish Sets.
Preview Individual Content Draft
You can preview individual content drafts to see how the draft appears on your site. You can use this to quickly decide whether to publish or discard the draft.
To preview an individual content draft:
- Go to Main > Publishing > Drafts.
- Select the relevant site from the context switcher at the top of the page.
You need to know which site you made changes to in order to view the pending content drafts for that site only. - From the Drafts grid, select the Content tab.
- Select a draft and then click Preview from the selection list.
Discard Individual Content Draft
Before discarding an individual content draft, Kibo eCommerce recommends previewing the draft first in order to know what you're discarding.
To discard a specific content draft:
- Go to Main > Publishing > Drafts.
- Select the relevant site from the context switcher at the top of the page.
You need to know which site you made changes to in order to view the pending content drafts for that site only. - From the Drafts grid, select the Content tab.
- Select a draft and then click Discard Drafts from the selection list.
Content Publishing Best Practices
Establish a standard operating procedure or hierarchy for publishing since multiple users and roles have Publish permissions.
Without a well-defined workflow, it's possible for multiple users to make different content changes to the same page.
Product Drafts
The product publishing service enables you to make draft changes to products in the master catalog before publishing them in live mode. For each master catalog associated with a tenant, you can set the product publishing mode to either live or pending.
Pending Mode
When a master catalog is in pending mode, Kibo eCommerce creates a draft version of all new and changed products. The draft version increments the product changes until they are published or discarded. If products have pending changes, you must publish or discard the drafts before you can switch the master catalog product publishing mode to live.
Publishing Product Overrides
When you make updates that override product content for a specific catalog, Kibo eCommerce creates a draft version of the product in all catalogs associated with the master catalog. When publishing the pending changes, the product changes only apply to the overridden catalog. By default, the storefront does not display pending product changes; however, you can modify the request using the Kibo eCommerce API to view the pending product draft.
Live Mode
When the master catalog product publishing mode is live, Kibo eCommerce immediately publishes all changes to products in the catalog. The live version of the product appears on the website, except when previewing the website in pending mode.
Product Publishing Tasks
From the Product tab on the Drafts page, you can perform the following tasks:
- Publish Individual Product Draft
- Publish Multiple Product Drafts
- Discard Individual Product Draft
- Product Publishing Best Practices
Publish Individual Product Draft
To publish an individual product draft in a specific catalog:
- Go to Main > Publishing > Drafts.
- Select the relevant catalog from the context switcher at the top of the page.
You need to know which catalog(s) the product was assigned to during creation. - From the Drafts grid, select the Product tab.
- Select a draft and then click Publish Now from the selection list.
Publish Multiple Product Drafts
If you wish to publish multiple product drafts at once, Kibo eCommerce recommends moving the product drafts into a Publish Set and then either publishing the Publish Set immediately or specifying a future date to publish the Publish Set.
You can also select multiple product drafts in the Drafts grid, and then select Publish Now from the selection list.
Refer to Publish Sets for more information about using Publish Sets.
Discard Individual Product Draft
To discard a specific product draft:
- Go to Main > Publishing > Drafts.
- Select the relevant catalog from the context switcher at the top of the page.
You need to know which catalog(s) the product was assigned to during creation. - From the Drafts grid, select the Product tab.
- Select a draft and then click Discard Drafts from the selection list.
Product Publishing Best Practices
If your product publishing settings are set to Staged rather than Live, establish a standard operating procedure or hierarchy for publishing.
If one user saves a new product to staging while another user is actively discarding the current product updates for that site, some products may inadvertently be deleted. If a new product was never published, it will disappear completely from Admin and cannot be recovered.
The following workflow helps prevent you from permanently deleting a product before it can be published:
- When creating a new product, complete all required fields and set the product's Status to Disabled.
- Immediately publish the product.
- Make any necessary, additional changes to the product.
- Set the product to Active, and resubmit it for publishing.
Setting a product to Disabled and publishing it ensures that the product is created before it can be deleted. Then once the product's details are complete, you can set the product to Active so that it appears on your site.
Scheduled products will work the same way as Active products even if they are not yet displayed on the storefront per the scheduled start date - they will follow the Publishing Settings and be placed into a draft if set to Staged. However, Kibo recommends that you publish these products before or on their scheduled start date in order to take maximum advantage of their available duration.
Refer to Products for more information about managing products, including scheduling behavior.