Thursday, March 4, 2010

Publishing Etiquette

Much like a shared printer, the publish queue is shared by everyone who uses the CMS and the publisher processes one job at a time, in the order received. Whether you are publishing your site to be viewed live or on the staging server, there are over 500 people who all have access to the same queue.

Submit your Job Once, Then Check Your Place in Line

Once you submit a job to be published, it is wise to find your place in the line of jobs waiting to be published. Depending on traffic, it may take longer than you expect to see the published changes you make to your website. To check the publish queue, go to Tools >> Publisher >> Active Jobs. You will be able to watch the progress of all the jobs that are spooling through the publish queue.

Publish large collections [100+ pages] after hours!

Large collections of files should be published after hours (after 5:30 p.m. or before 6 a.m.). Large publish jobs may delay another user's time-sensitive publish job and can also put a load on the server and affect overall system performance. When possible, publish single pages or a smaller group of files.