Publishing

Content additions and changes must be saved and published before they will appear on the website.

The Save command saves content in the Sitecore Master database. Published items are copied from the Master database (where content is maintained and stored) to the publishing target, usually the website (i.e., the web server).

Content authors publish one item at a time, such as a page, a folder or an entire site. The user decides whether to publish subitems and related items at the same time. Usually, all subitems are published with an item, but there are exceptions, such as when creating an alert message for the MSU.edu website.

The Sitecore production environment has a Publishing Dashboard where users can view their publishing requests and verify successful completion. Active, Queued and Recent completed publishing requests are displayed. Any publishing errors are also displayed.

To publish a page, page component or asset from Content Editor:

1. Click the item in the Content Tree.
2. On the Publish ribbon, select Publish > Publish item.
3. Check the publishing setting boxes noted below. These will vary slightly, depending on the Sitecore environment.
4. Click Publish.
5. Optional, in Production only: To see the publishing details in production mode, select the publishing ribbon > Publishing Dashboard. Publishing Dashboard is not available in the quality assurance, or QA, environment.

For publishing in production or PROD, check the following:

• Publish subitems
• Publish related items — This refers to the item’s clones, media used by the item, published item links and the item’s aliases. Related items of a related item are not published.
• Languages — English is the default. Other options may be displayed if publishing pages in several languages.
• Targets — “Internet” is the standard destination for published content.

For publishing in QA, check the following:

• Smart Publish — Always default to selecting this option. Sitecore will only publish content that has changed. The alternative, Republish, will force a publish of all items, whether or not they have changed.
• Publish subitems
• Publish related items — This refers to the item’s clones, media used by the item, published item links and the item’s aliases. Related items of a related item are not published.
• Publish language — This cannot be changed.
• Publish targets — This cannot be changed. Internet means the website.

It is sometimes necessary to publish a page so that others can review it, while making sure it isn’t visible to the general public. After the page is published, it should be available via its URL but should not appear in the website’s navigation.

This is accomplished by “hiding” the page from public view. To do this:

1. Locate the page in the Content Tree. Click to select it.
2. In the Navigation section, uncheck all three boxes: Include in Navigation, Include in Sitemap and Include in Breadcrumb. This prevents the page from appearing in navigation, breadcrumbs and the site map so that visitors do not see a link to navigate to the page.
3. In the Metatags section, check No Index and No Follow. These settings tell search engines not to crawl the page so it will not appear in search results.
4. Click Save and republish the page.

If the page has already been indexed by Google, wait for the page to drop out of search results. If needed, a redirect could be created to force the visitor to another page.

Note: Renaming a page and publishing it will remove the old page name from the web server.

Unhide a Hidden Page

If, at a later time, you do want the page to be visible, reverse these steps to include the page in navigation, sitemap, breadcrumb and to allow search engines to index and follow the page. Save and publish.

Users can restrict the publication of items using publishing restrictions in either Content Editor or Experience Editor. Publishing restrictions let users specify that a specific item or a version of an item is publishable or unpublishable, either within a specific date range or indefinitely. In this way, users can control which items and pages are available for publishing at any given time.

For example, if a user has set up Sitecore to periodically publish the entire site to make sure it is always up to date, the user can create publishing restrictions on the items that they do not want to publish. This can be done for items that are still in progress or for finished items that should only be published when a certain campaign is rolled out. 

To Restrict Publishing of a Particular Page:

1. Click the page in the Content Tree to select it.
2. In the Publish Ribbon Navigation, click Change.
3. In the Publishing Settings dialog box, uncheck Publishable.
4. Click Save.

Users may want to publish an item on a specific future date and have the item appear in chronological order based on assigned date rather than created date. 

For example, an article may be set to publish in January 2025 but is added to the website in September 2024. The content author wants the article to display in the proper order. Placing the article in the 2025>January folder does not tell Sitecore the proper order to sort for the publishing date. The “Publishable from” date needs to be set. 

Prevent Publishing or Unpublish an Item:

1. In Content Editor, navigate to the item you want to prevent from publishing.
2. Click to select the item.
3. In the Navigation Ribbon, click the Publish tab.
4. Click Change.
5. In the Publishing Settings dialog box, click the Item tab. Set the “Publishable from” date range. Click OK.

Publishable Dates Do Not Equal Scheduled Publishing

If a user specifies a date range for when an item or item version is publishable, it does not mean that the item is published on the start date and removed again on the end date. Instead, it means that the item is available for publishing and included when the user publishes that item or the entire website. 

To make an item appear on the website on the start date and be removed again on the end date, the user must run the Publish Item wizard on both days.

Documentation updated: June 17, 2024