Submitting content items

Once your content item is complete, you can promote the item from your user sandbox (My Sandbox) to the Staging Sandbox using the Submit action.
When no workflow is defined, the content is immediately promoted to the Staging Sandbox.

When workflow is defined for a content item, promoting the content first routes it through the workflow. In this case, the content must be approved by the appropriate reviewer(s) before being promoted to the Staging Sandbox.

Note: Once a content item enters the editorial review process, it is no longer editable in the Modified Items list, even though you may own the lock on that item. The content item is now available only for preview.

As part of submission, you have the option to set a launch date and time for the content set. Upon approval, the content set will be promoted to a separate staging area: the Content Awaiting Launch list in the Staging Sandbox. The content is held here until the launch date. See Content Launch and Expiration for further information.

The end result of the Submit action is a snapshot in the Staging Sandbox: an archive of the current version of the site.

  1. Navigate to the Sandbox view of the web project you want to work with.
  2. In the My Sandbox pane, click Expand to expand the Modified Items list, which displays content items that can be submitted to the Staging Sandbox. You can submit a single content item, a group of selected content items, or all content items.
  3. In the Modified Items list, select the content item(s) to submit, as follows:
    1. To submit a single content item, click Submit (Submit) for that content item.
    2. To submit multiple content items, enable the check box for each item you want to submit and click Submit Selected at the top of the Modified Items list. Click the topmost check box to select all items in the list. Click an enabled check box to deselect it.
    3. To submit all content items, select Submit All in the top right corner of your user sandbox.
  4. On the Submit Items page, enter a Label and Description for the submission. This information is displayed as the snapshot name and description in the Staging Sandbox.
  5. Select the Auto Deploy feature if you want to automatically deploy the content to the configured live server(s) once it has been approved within its workflow. The content will be deployed only to those servers that have the Include In Auto Deploy option enabled.
  6. In the Workflow section, click Configure Workflow to display the workflow that will be applied to the content item(s). The workflow defined at this point overrides the workflow set at both the web form and web project level. If necessary, edit the workflow as follows.
    1. In the Type of Review list, select Serial or Parallel. Select Serial to allow only one reviewer to review the file at a time. Once the first review is complete, the file is passed to the next reviewer in the chain. Select Parallel to allow several reviewers to review the file simultaneously. In a parallel review, the content is read-only for the reviewers. You must select Serial to allow the reviewers to edit the content themselves.
    2. In the search box, type the full or partial name of the user you want to add and click Search. Leave the search box empty and click Search to return a list of all users. Selecting to display all users may take some time if there are many users in the system.
    3. In the results list, click to select the user to add and click Add to List. If the review is to be serial, you must add the users in the order in which you wish them to perform the review. If the review is to be parallel, the order does not matter. In this case, use SHIFT to select multiple, consecutive users from the list and use CTRL to select multiple, non-consecutive users.
    4. Repeat this process to add all desired users to the list. Click Remove (Remove) to remove a user from the list.
    5. Click OK to save the configuration and return to the Submit Items page.
  7. Optionally, when the Content Launch section is displayed, use the date and time controls to set the date (day, month, year) and time (hours, minutes) at which all content listed in the Modified Items list will be launched to the Staging Sandbox. Until that time, the content will reside in the Content Awaiting Launch section.
    • Click None to display the date and time controls, if they are not already displayed.
    • Click Today to display the current date and time.
    • Click None to clear any set launch date.
  8. In the Content Expiration section, use the date and time controls to set the date (day, month, year) and time (hours, minutes) at which all content listed in the Modified Items list will expire.
    • Click Set expiration date for all modified items to display the controls, if they are not already displayed.
    • Click Today and then Apply To All to set the expiration date for all content listed to the current day and time.
    • Click None and then Apply To All to clear any set expiration dates in the Modified Items list.
  9. In the Modified Items section, confirm the content items you are promoting to staging. Although part of a content set, you can preview and change expiration dates for individual items.
    • Click Preview File (Preview File) to display the selected file in a separate browser window.
    • Click Change Expiration Date (Change Expiration Date) to display the Change Expiration Date page. Click None to display the date and time controls, if they are not already displayed. If an expiration date is already set, edit it as desired. Click Today to display the current day and time; click None to clear the expiration date. Click OK to save the changes.
  10. On the Submit Items page, click OK to promote the content as specified. As the submit action runs in the background, the submitted items remain in the Modified Items list until the submission process is complete.