Publishing
Publishing is the act of "pushing" content to a web server to make it available as a browseable website. All modifications to a website remain in the CMS until a publish is performed.
Publish Destinations
There are two web servers in which you may publish your site to, staging and live; both are enabled by default (if the site has not launched yet, only staging will be an option). During the publish process, you may disable publishing to either destination as needed. A typical workflow involves publishing an asset to staging only for a preview, and then to both servers when ready to go live (this keeps both servers in sync).

Staging Server
The staging server is a test environment for the purpose of previewing a site prior to publishing it live. The staging server is provided during site development, and remains available for testing and previewing purposes after a site has been launched. You may view your site on the staging server at:
https://cms-staging.andrew.cmu.edu/site-name/
Change site-name to your site's folder name in the CMS. You may share this URL with others for review.
Live Server
The live server is where your completed site will be launched to and available to website visitors through your site's official URL (e.g., www.cmu.edu/site-name). The CMS team will perform the initial publish to the live server during site launch; after launch you will be able to publish to the live server at any time.
How to Publish
A publish can be performed on any asset (page, folder, file). When publishing a folder, all contents within the folder will be published; this includes publishing a base folder (i.e., the top-most folder in the asset tree containing the entire site) for a full site publish; base folder publishes are not recommended for larger sites (see tips).
Publish an Asset
- Select the asset in the asset tree
- Click Publish in the Action Toolbar, OR
Right-click on asset > Publish - The publish destinations will be listed; if you want to change this, click View Publish Settings to expand the options
- Leave Generate a publish report enabled as this will record the publish job and provide useful information in your Notifications
- Do not modify Output (leave enabled for HTML)
- Check/uncheck the appropriate Destination as needed
- Click Publish at the upper right
A message will display with a link to view the publish queue:
You may also view the publish queue in the Hamburger Menu in the Main Toolbar.
MORE ways to publish
- Publishing multiple assets at the same time is possible through Batch Actions
- Scheduling a page's or file's "go live" date/time is possible using the Start Date option
Check the Publish Queue
The publish queue shows the status of all active publish jobs for a site and can be accessed in the Hamburger Menu in the Main Toolbar. Two publish jobs can be processed at the same time while others wait in the queue.
You may modify the publish jobs waiting in the queue; select the radio button to the left of a publish job, then use the controls at the right to perform an action.
From left to right:
- Cancel publish job
- Move to the top of the queue
- Move up one position in the queue
- Move down one position in the queue
- Move to the bottom of the queue
Unpublish an Asset
After being published, an asset can then be unpublished (i.e., removed from a web server). Once unpublished, website visitors will no longer be able to access an asset.
- Select the asset in the asset tree
- Click ••• More > Unpublish in the Action Toolbar, OR
Right-click on asset > Unpublish - Leave Generate a publish report enabled as this will record the unpublish job and provide useful information in your Notifications
- Do not modify Output (leave enabled for HTML)
- Check/uncheck the appropriate Destination as needed
- Click Submit at the upper right
As a safety measure, visit the former URL of the asset to ensure it is no longer online; refreshing your browser multiple times may be necessary to confirm removal.
Disable Publishing
By default, all assets are set to be publishable during creation, however publishing can be disabled. Reasons to disable publishing include:
- An asset that is a work in progress and not ready to be part of the live site
- An asset that has been retired from the live site but should be kept in the CMS for archival purposes
Follow these steps to disable publishing for an asset.
- Select the asset in the asset tree
- Click Edit in the Action Toolbar, OR
Right-click on asset > Edit - Click on the appropriate tab in the edit window:
- For pages and files, click the Configure tab
- For folders, click the Properties tab
- Disable BOTH settings, Include when indexing and Include when publishing
- Submit to save
Note: When the Include when publishing setting is disabled on an asset, it is overridden if you delete the asset; upon deletion, the CMS will unpublish the asset to prevent the creation of an orphan.