Publishing / Unpublishing Pages

Make your page visible on your live website (or remove it from view).

On this page:

Last reviewed: September 3, 2024

Overview

UBCMS pages must be 'published' to appear and 'unpublished' to be removed from your live website. Publisher permissions are required for the site you are working on. Publication (and unpublication) can be immediate, or scheduled to occur on a specific day.

These actions can be carried out while editing a page in the Edit Console, or separately from the Sites Console.

Best Practices

Before You Start

  • Check that all the links on your page are valid.
  • Make sure your page displays as expected in author, including slide shows. Also check it using the Mobile and Desktop Device Emulator to ensure small-screen devices will display as you expect.
  • If you are scheduling this action, verify your dates. They cannot be changed later.
  • Publishing/Unpublishing impacts related pages. Check for collateral impact:
    • The Page Report provides a comprehensive report of an entire site, including each page's publication status.
    • The Reference Page Report lists all references for your page including partial information about pages you do not have permissions to see.
    • Learn more about Reports
    • Reports console

After You're Done

  • Check the page's publication status. 
  • Check the page on your live website.
  • Consider possible collateral impact. (Read more below.)
Permissions issue?

If you do NOT have sufficient permissions, or you have concerns about publishing child pages or related Assets, do not publish the page. Speak with your Site Manager or contact the UBCMS Help Team for assistance.

Publishing a section of your site?

Do not activate over 500 things at a time between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM weekdays -- the replication queues will back up and your colleagues will complain!

Publishing from the Sites Console

In the Sites Console, select the page that you want to publish. The Command Menu toolbar will appear at the top of the window. Choose between Quick Publish and Manage Publication.

Quick Publish will immediately publish the selected page(s) in one step, including any unpublished related assets but not child pages. Click Publish and the action is complete. There is no Quick Unpublish.

  • Once the action is completed, an information banner will display confirming publishing was successful and the Published column will carry the new timestamp details.
  • Beware: This process will publish related assets (e.g. an image in Assets), but not related Shared Content pages or child pages.

Manage Publication provides more options, including child pages or 'References', and Scheduling. Pages can also be unpublished.

  • Options gives the choice to Publish or Unpublish, and to set Scheduling (set a future date for the process to occur).
    • Beware: Scheduling starts a workflow that cannot be modified, and can only be terminated with assistance. This workflow also publishes the page as it exists now, and will NOT include subsequent changes.  
  • Scope provides a chance to include child pages and exclude 'references' (related Assets).
    • Child Pages are NOT included by default.
      • To include them, select the page and more tools will appear. Click 'Include Children' and adjust the filters as desired.
      • The tool will then load a list of the child pages so you can select those of interest.
      • BE CAREFUL -- if your page has lots of children or nested sub-pages, first scroll to the very bottom to ensure all have loaded before using 'seclect all'.
    • 'References' (related Assets) are included by default.
      • If there are none, References will state 'No references to publish'.
      • If there are related Assets, References will state 'all' (i.e. include ALL related Assets).
      • To exclude references, select the page and more tools will appear. Click 'Published References' to display included Assets. Deselect any you wish to stay unpublished.
      • If you exclude any assets, References will now state 'Publishing XX of N reference(s).'
  • Once the process is completed, you will be returned to the Sites Console where the Published column will show the new timestamp details. If Scheduling was used, the Workflow column will note that information as well.

If you schedule Publish Later (or Unpublish Later), this Workflow is fixed and cannot be modified or removed by you. Contact the DCT Help Desk for assistance.

Verify Publication Status

In the Sites Console, the Publication column notes if a page has been published, and when that occurred.

Also look in the Modified column to see if the page has been modified since it was last published. In that case, there will be a small colored triangle icon and the timestamp will be more recent than the Published timestamp.

Publishing from the Edit Console

screenshot of 'equalizer' button.

Equalizer button

While editing a page, to publish your changes, click the Equalizer button in the upper left of the window, then click Publish Page (or Unpublish Page).

For publishing:

  • If there are no related Assets to be published, the page will be published immediately.
  • Unpublished related Assets are published by default. If the page has any, (e.g. an image or a downloadable file), these will be listed and you can either:
    • Deselect any you do NOT wish to be published with the page, then click Publish to complete the process.
    • Cancel to abort the process.
  • When the process is complete, you will be returned to the Edit Console and an information banner will be shown confirming the process was successful.
  • This process can publish related Assets but will not publish Shared Content or child pages.
For unpublishing:
  • If the page is not referenced by another page, it will be unpublished mimmediately
  • If other pages reference this page, a warning message will be displayed, with the opportunity to Cancel or Force Unpublish.
  • Choose Cancel to view the references then return to unpublish the page.
  • If you choose Force Unpublish, the page will be unpublished, but you must then check the referenced pages to fix any issues (e.g. for published pages that now have broken links).
  • When the process is complete, you will be returned to the Edit Console and an information banner will be shown confirming the process was successful.

Verify Publication Status

screenshot of 'equalizer' button.

Equalizer button

While editing a page, you can quickly check a page's publication or last modification status by clicking the Equalizer button in the upper left of the window.  

Publish Later / Schedule / Feature

Pages can be pre-scheduled to be published and unpublished at a future date and time. This can be set in several ways:

  • Publish/Unpublish Later
    • Controls visibility of your content on the live site in a simple on-step action that automatically publishes or unpublishes the page.
    • Pushes any changes to your live site at a future date and time. (Unpublish Later removes the page from your live site.)
    • This is set in the Sites Console Command Menu. Select the page then use the Manage Publication tool -- look for 'Scheduling.'
  • Schedule On/Off
    • Controls visibility of your content on the live site -- the system carries out one or more steps to publish and/or unpublish the page.
    • If the time is in the future, publication (or unpublication) is triggered automatically.
    • For example, if the page is set to be 'on' in the future, the UBCMS will turn it 'off' (unpublish) until that date! And then it will turn it 'on' (publish) at that date. 
    • This is enabled in the page's Properties, Scheduling Tab, as 'On/Off Time.' (Learn more about Schedule On/Off.)  

Note: if you schedule publication, then later move (or rename) the page, the process will not be completed-- you will need to schedule it again.

  • Feature Time
    • Does not affect the page’s visibility elsewhere on the site -- it is still visible in navigation or by direct link -- but for the host page, only content whose Feature Time is current will be displayed in a list that is set to Enable Scheduling.
      • Feature On/Off Time must be set in the page that is hosted (in the Properties' Scheduling Tab).
      • Enable Scheduling must be selected in the list settings on the host page (e.g. for a List Builder).
    • Scheduled lists can be previewed for a given date and time using Schedule Preview.

WARNING: Read first to avoid creating issues with other pages

Moving, deleting or unpublishing live pages will impact your public site, changing your navigation, updating (or breaking) links, and removing content from your pages.

1. Important Considerations

BEFORE you move or delete a UBCMS page, please consider these points then use the following tools and action tree to resolve any issues.

  • Permissions: The UBCMS will only allow you to reactivate the moved/deleted page and any referenced pages if you have the correct permissions.
  • Collateral Impact: Is the page you wish to move/delete 'referenced' (linked to, or used as Shared Content) by other pages on your site or other UBCMS sites?
    • Plan ahead for these impacts, especially with the Page Reference Report (see more below). The Move and Delete tools will also surface references, but only those you yourself can see.
  • Hidden References: The UBCMS will not warn you about every reference!
    • The move and delete tools will not warn you about references from pages or assets you yourself cannot view in the UBCMS.
    • The move and delete tools will not warn you about references for lists built through tags or advanced queries.
    • The Reference Page Report will warn you that these references exist -- see more below.
  • Server Redirects: Unlike Vanity URLs and redirect pages that are built in the UBCMS, server redirects are hard coded outside the UBCMS and will break if a page is moved. Be sure to contact us if you move a page that is the target of a server redirect.
  • Absolute URLs: Links built using the complete URL ("http://..." instead of a reference created using the Chooser tool) cannot be adjusted by the UBCMS and will need to be updated manually by an Author.

2. Check For Page References

Page references may be UBCMS internal links (built using the Finder tool) or pages that physically include your content either through a list component or a Shared Content reference.

Use the Reference Page Report (login required) to list UBCMS pages that reference your page. This shows you information about almost all references to your page and is the primary tool to use.

Build a new Reference Page Report then set:  

  • Root path - Provide one or more relative paths within the UBCMS to your content you believe to be referenced.

The results will display references to your specified page(s) including each reference's Source Page Title and Source Page Path.

References will include:

  • components where the page is in the link setting (e.g. Title, Call to Action)
  • links within the text of components (e.g. Body Text, Callout, Flex Module, Button, header/footer elements)
  • lists where the page is directly mentioned (curated links, lists by child pages or tags where the page is the parent path)

References will NOT include: 

  • lists where the page is included because of a tag or advanced query or because it is a child of the parent path

Note: To retain privacy for other sites, only partial information is shown for pages that are not visible to you based on your permissions.

  • Source Page Title will state "-- you do not have access to view this page -- ".
  • Source Page Path will show only the start of the path; e.g. "/content/www/...".

3. Know Your Site's Publication Status

The Page Report (login required) provides a comprehensive report of an entire site, including each page's publication status. Knowing which pages are live (and may be impacted by your changes) will lessen the possibility of any surprises after your actions.

4. Action Decision Tree

Based on your page reference research, use the following suggestions to ensure no sites are damaged by your changes.

  • If you manage the impacted pages:
    • Use the check box in the Move/Delete process to (re)activate them.
    • Be aware that some links will not automatically be updated by the UBCMS.
  • If others on your team manage the impacted pages:
    • Ask if their pages are in a state where you can (re)activate them. They may be working on content that is not ready to publish.
    • Make them aware that when you move your page  links that are not automatically updated by the UBCMS will break.
  • If the impacted pages are managed by another unit:

Watch a Training Video

Training opportunities are available

> Learn more about building UBCMS pages.

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