When To Publish Saved Changes

When you make changes in Digital Commons, it is necessary to publish saved changes to update the site and display the changes publicly.

Publish saved changes whenever items are posted to the repository, published records are revised, or changes are made to the text of your repository.

If you upload material or make a change to the repository and you do not see the change on the live site, you may need to publish the changes.

How To Publish Saved Changes

When you post a new item to the repository, you are automatically prompted to publish the submitted work, either from the quick publication queue or from the submission management area. Administrators can also publish changes at any time by selecting the Publish saved changes link located in the sidebar of the Configuration tab or Manage submissions tab.

Clicking Publish saved changes queues an update for the site or structure you're in. A message will display on the screen and you will also receive an email notification when the update is complete.

Note: The Publish saved changes link was previously labeled Update site. The function is the same.

Where To Publish Saved Changes

After making changes, you may need to publish changes in only one location. In other cases, you’ll need to do so in more than one of the following locations to display the changes at all levels where they appear.

Publication level

When you publish a new submission or make changes to a published submission, clicking the Publish saved changes link in the admin sidebar of the publication structure will ensure the changes are visible to the public. Any text, such as article titles or other metadata, will be updated within the publication. If you only make changes that affect the publication level, publish changes at that publication level only.

Certain changes in a series or other publication may also require publishing changes in the parent community, if any, and the repository level. These include changes to a publication title or breadcrumb label, since these can appear as browse links at various levels of the repository.

Community level

If you add text or make changes to a community, such as modifying the community title or introductory text, you’ll want to click Publish saved changes in the sidebar of the community’s Configuration tab to make those changes public. You would also publish changes at the community level if you add, remove, or make changes to the title of one of the publications grouped to that community.

When changing a community breadcrumb label, publish changes in the community plus any publications grouped to that community which show the community in their breadcrumbs.

Repository level

There are several reasons to publish saved changes at the repository level. If you add, remove, or make changes to the title of a publication or community in the repository, you’ll want to publish changes. This will ensure that those changes are reflected on site-level pages. Clicking Publish saved changes at the repository level updates the Submit Research page and the Collections page.

If you choose to exclude a publication from either of these pages using the respective configurations, you will want to publish saved changes at the publication level, as well as at the site level. This will ensure the publication does not display on the top-level pages.

If you add, remove, or change text or links on the homepage of the repository, you’ll also want to select Publish saved changes in the sidebar of the site Configuration overview.

How To Preview Changes Before Publishing

If you wish to see how changes will look before you publish them, select the Preview changes link in the sidebar of the Configuration tab or Manage submissions tab.

When you’re satisfied with the changes, select the Publish saved changes link to finalize all the changes you’ve made since the last publishing update. You may navigate the site while in preview mode if needed, though some functions such as links are disabled in preview.

Troubleshooting Publishing Delays

If it's been a while since you published saved changes and you're not seeing an email confirmation or an update to the site, the context you updated may be hidden. Hiding a series, community, or article prevents that context from being updated. As mentioned above, a hidden structure message at the top of the Configuration page will display if the structure is currently hidden.

• For a hidden context, you'll need to unhide it before publishing saved changes. Uncheck the Hide this series on the repository or equivalent setting on the Configuration page and click the Save Changes button. Then select Publish saved changes in the left sidebar. Once you receive the update confirmation email, you can return to the context and hide it again, if desired.
• For a context that is not currently hidden, an update delay might stem from the size of the context being updated. For instance, a series with thousands of submissions can take longer to update than a smaller series. Usually, you should receive an update confirmation in no more than a few hours. Please contact Consulting Services if you have any questions about a delay.

More information about hidden contexts can be found in Hiding, Excluding, and Withdrawing Content.