MSU IT and University Communications and Marketing are actively working with MSU’s development agency partner and with Sitecore’s technical teams to improve the speed of publishing within the system. This will be an iterative process.
There are a few best practices that content authors can follow to facilitate faster publishing times:
MSU IT and University Communications and Marketing are actively working with MSU’s development agency partner and with Sitecore’s technical teams to improve the speed of publishing within the system. This will be an iterative process.
Sitecore uses Smart Publish. Only new or changed items are written to the server during publishing. Publishing in Sitecore is a two-step process. When a user publishes a content item, the item is published to the Sitecore system and then is published to the servers where website visitors can view the content. Changes will not display on a website until this second stage is complete. For most content changes this process should take no more than five minutes. For listing-based pages (e.g., news, events, people or program cards), the listing page may take 20 minutes to update.
Below are some best practices for content authors working in the system that will contribute to faster publishing times.
If one component is changed, publish only that component item from Content Editor.
If one page is changed, publish that page from either Content Editor or Page Builder. Publish subitems but do not publish related items in Content Editor. Do not publish subpages in Page Builder.
The general publish process should accomplish what is needed in most cases. From Page Builder, click the Publish button. Alternatively, from Content Editor, click Publish, then Publish Item and confirm Smart Publish is selected and “Publish related items” is not checked in the Publishing options menu before clicking the Publish button.
Allow the system time to work. Users can view the publishing queue to determine when their publishing job has completed. Changes should appear on the live website after five minutes (or less) of the job completion. Refresh the browser (potentially a few times or use a hard refresh) to view the changes. If changes don’t display after several minutes after the job has shown as completed, you may escalate and try republishing using Content Editor. Never select “publish related items”; this will take an extended period of time.
For more information on viewing the publishing queue, how to report issues, and how to cancel your publishing job, see “Viewing the Publishing Queue” in the User Guide.
Checking the Subpages option from the publish menu in Page Builder will force the system to do a full republish of the page and all pages nested under it within the Content Tree. It also automatically selects “Related items,” which adds to publishing time. This is an extensive process and is typically more than is needed.
If publishing multiple pages is needed, publish them separately in Page Builder or use Content Editor and be sure to check Smart Publish and uncheck “Publish related items.”
Publishing with the “Publish related items” option checked in Content Editor will publish anything connected (via link, shared file, etc.) with the content item being published. This becomes an extensive, slow process. It may clog the publishing queues and force a restart, canceling publishing for others. The “Publish related items” option should only be checked if a user is given explicit instructions to do this by MSU IT or UCAM.
Users can terminate their own publishing requests, which can be useful if a publish request is submitted with related items selected by accident. For more information on viewing the publishing queue and how to cancel your publishing job, see “Viewing the Publishing Queue” in the User Guide.
When publishing a news story, an event, a new person item or program card, or changes to any of the above, publish the details page for the item. The listing page will update automatically after the details page is published. Note that the listing page may take additional time to display updates, as the database must first complete a reindexing cycle. Users have found this can take as long as twenty minutes. UCAM and our development partners are engaged with Sitecore to improve the efficiency of this process.
If a publishing job is taking an extended period of time, users may view the publishing queue to determine if there may be an issue. For more information on viewing the publishing queue, how to report issues, and how to cancel your publishing job, see “Viewing the Publishing Queue” in the User Guide.