Hold back edits until you publish them (Draft Workflows)

The short answer

Draft Workflows keeps visitors on the version of a tour you last published while you keep editing. Turn it on in the Settings tab (in the Advanced view): from then on your edits show only in the editor until you click Publish Changes. With it off, most saves reach visitors at once.

Who can use it

• The owner, and a collaborator who can open the Settings tab (the Admin role, by default). There is no plan requirement.
• A free-trial (guest) account cannot use it: the Publishing Strategy card is greyed out with Publishing is not available on the trial. Create a free account to use it.
• The Publish Changes button shows on every tab to everyone who can open the tour, and the server accepts it from any of them, a Viewer included.
• An account that has not confirmed its email address may be sent to the Check your inbox page instead: see Why can't I publish my tour?.

Turn it on

1. Open the tour's Settings tab (click Advanced at the right end of the tab row first if the tab is not there).
2. In the Publishing Strategy card, tick Enable Draft Workflows.
3. Click Save Properties at the top right. The checkbox does nothing until you save.

When it is saved, the tab row shows Draft Mode Active and a Publish Changes button, and the Publish tab's Overview pane gets a card called Draft Workflow Active with a Deploy Draft to Live button.

Publish your edits

1. Edit as usual. The Preview tab and the Design page always show what is in the editor, never what visitors have.
2. Click Publish Changes on any tab, or Deploy Draft to Live on the Publish tab. Both do the same thing. The message Draft changes successfully published to the live URL. shows at the top of the page for about three seconds. On a narrow screen it reads only Success!.
3. Open the tour once before you edit further: open its player address, or open its Explore page and click the play button on the picture. The two buttons clear the stored copy that visitors get. The next time anyone opens the tour, Panoramr builds a new copy from what is in the editor at that moment and keeps it as the published version. Edits you make between the click and that first visit are published with it.

The buttons work even when nothing has changed, and on a tour that is not published.

If you tick Publish to Global Showcase while Draft Workflows is on, click Publish Changes afterwards. Saving that box does not refresh the stored copy.

What visitors keep until you publish

The held-back copy holds what the player shows: the scenes and their order, hotspots, floor plans, design, settings and languages. The Explore page's own text, which is the name, description, category and thumbnail, is read from the tour's record. It follows your saves, while the player inside the page keeps the published version.

Picture files are not part of the held-back copy. After Replace Original File (replace or swap a panorama), click Publish Changes, because the held-back copy still describes the old picture's size and tile levels.

What does not wait for you

• Putting a tour in a Vault, or changing its end date. It clears the stored copy even with Draft Workflows on, so the next visit publishes what is in the editor.
• Turning Draft Workflows off. Untick the box and save: the stored copy is cleared and the editor's version goes live with the next visit.
• Unpublishing. Unticking Publish to Global Showcase takes effect as soon as you save, because who may open a tour is checked on every visit. See Who can see a tour.

Troubleshooting

I ticked Enable Draft Workflows and nothing changed. Click Save Properties. The tab row changes only after the save.

Visitors see edits I did not publish. Check these in order:

1. You put the tour in a Vault, or extended or renewed its Vault, since you last published.
2. The tour, or one of its languages, had not been opened since you clicked Publish Changes or turned Draft Workflows on, so its copy was built from your later edits: see step 3 above.
3. Draft Workflows is off for this tour: look for Draft Mode Active in the tab row.

Visitors do not see what I published. Open the tour once in a new tab to check; a website that holds an embed is outside Panoramr: see My changes do not show for visitors.

Publish Changes shows the Check your inbox page. The account's email address is not confirmed. Confirm it, then click the button again.