Publishing restrictions revisited (with Checklist)

I decided to revisit publishing restrictions again as a lot of my content editors where running into problems and didn't seem to understand the concepts. My last approach was to explain publishing restrictions from an NFL player suspension terminology, but I think it worked for me and no one else. So this time I'm removing the comedy/social tie in and going with  a straight explanation.

Publishing Restrictions prevent/restrict Sitecore items from being published. It is very useful in scenarios that the Sitecore item is being reviewed but is not approved to go into production. In this document I’ll explain:

• Proper uses for Publishing Restrictions
• Why ‘x’ is not publishing to the live site?

Proper use for Publishing Restrictions
As mentioned above, publishing restrictions will prevent/restrict Sitecore items from being published. While the concept is fairly straightforward, I find that it is still very easy for content editors to misuse or even get lost in their own restrictions.

There are three types of publishing restrictions:

• Versions: when you need to allow for version 1 to stay live in production while working on a newer version. Example: Version 1 of the company’s benefits is great, but HR asks you to make modifications for this year’s benefit plans. Version 2 needs to be approved by HR before going live (and most likely has a launch date too). So you restrict version 2 until HR has sent its approval on the content changes.  

• Publishable checkbox – if checked enabled the version of the item to be published. If unchecked, the version is restricted (no matter the dates)
• Publishable From – this indicates the date that this version of the item can be published from. Example: The launch date for the new section of the website is June 21, 2015. You would want to ensure that the content is publishable only after that date is reached. 
• Publishable To – this indicates the date that the version of the item is allowed to be published until. Example: Retiring a section of the website on July 4th, 2015. You want to make sure that this content is not allowed to the publishing target after that date. It is very useful for things like events that may not be relevant after a certain date – therefore they get removed from the website. 
• Item: when you need to not allow ANY versions to be published to production. This will prevent the item (all versions) from being published. Example: Your website is launching a new section, but the content needs to be approved before going live (and most likely has a launch date to go live on). You want to ensure that nothing gets published before its ready (across ALL versions)! 

 

• Publishable Checkbox - if checked enabled the item to be published. If unchecked, then all versions of the item are restricted (no matter the dates)
• Publishable From – this indicates the date that the item (ALL versions) can be published from. Example: The launch date for the new section of the website is June 21, 2015. You would want to ensure that the content is publishable only after that date is reached. 
• Publishable To – this indicates the date that the item (ALL versions) is allowed to be published until. Example: Retiring a section of the website on July 4th, 2015. You want to make sure that this content is not allowed to the publishing target after that date. It is very useful for things like events that may not be relevant after a certain date – therefore they get removed from the website. 
• Targets: When using multiple publishing targets, you can restrict which targets the content is allowed to be published to. Example: Intranet content CAN NOT be published to the Internet publishing target as the content is intended for an internal audience only. 

 

• Publishing Target checkboxes – if checked, then the item is ONLY allowed to be published to the checked targets. If none are checked, then ALL targets are allowed. These restrictions are typically implemented by an Administrator – think template and various content folders restrictions. 

Why ‘x’ is not publishing?
This is by far the #1 question I get. Usually an item is approved and ready to go live, but for some unknown reason the darn item won’t publish! As a nice addition to explaining the restrictions, I’m also going to include a checklist to solve why content is not publishing. 

• Workflow Approval – Is the item approved? If the item hasn’t reached a final workflow step (typically ‘approved’), Sitecore will prevent the item from publishing.  
• Are there any restrictions?
• Version Restrictions 
•  Is the version of the item’s publishable checkbox checked?
•  Is there a date range that hasn’t been met?
•  Be sure to check the item restriction – as both need to be checked before being allowed to publish. Item overrides all versions regardless of whether they are checked.
• Item Restrictions
•  Is the item’s publishable checkbox checked?
•  Is there a date range that hasn’t been met?
•  If the item is live but is not the correct version, be sure to check version restrictions.
•  If the item isn’t live at all, be sure to check that at least 1 version of the item is checked as publishable within the version restrictions
• Target Restrictions
• Are there any targets checked? If so, be sure that the expected target is selected. If none are checked, then all targets are allowed to be published to.
• Other things to check:
• Be sure that the parent item doesn’t have restrictions! Remember if the parent won’t publish then none of its children will either.

One last thing that I always find useful if the above fails, go to the publishing database within Sitecore. Select the publishing database from the bottom right corner, and get an exact view of which items are published. This is usually the easiest way to tell if the problem is a parent or not.