Modelling content
Publishing & scheduling
Content is invisible to the API until you publish it. That gives your team room to prepare a whole season in advance and release it to the minute.
The three states
Every entry is in exactly one state, and the state decides whether the delivery API returns it.
Not visible
Work in progress, and the default for anything new. Never returned by the API.
Live
Returned by the API and available to your storefront right now.
Live later
Publishes or unpublishes itself at a time you choose.
Publishing now
- Open the entry From the Content section of the admin panel.
- Change the status from Draft to Published Use the status control at the top of the editor.
- Save The next API call for that content returns it. Unpublishing is the same journey in reverse and takes effect just as quickly.
Mind your CDN cache. Publishing changes what the API returns immediately, but CloudFront may still be serving a cached response. If a change needs to appear the instant it is published, either shorten the TTL for that path or invalidate the cache as part of your release routine.
Scheduling
Set a future publish time, a future unpublish time, or both. Nobody needs to be at a keyboard when the moment arrives.
Three ways to use it
- Publish later. The entry moves from Draft to Published on its own at the time you set. Sale pages go live at midnight without a late shift.
- Unpublish later. The entry comes down automatically. Ideal for limited-time promotions and anything with an end date.
- Both together. A content window — live at the start time, gone at the end time. This is the pattern most seasonal retail campaigns want.
Scheduled times are processed in UTC. A promotion meant for 00:00 UK time on a summer date needs to be set for 23:00 UTC the previous day. Double-check anything that lands near a daylight-saving change, and get into the habit of scheduling a harmless test entry a few minutes out before you trust a big launch to it.
A worked example: Black Friday
How a scheduled campaign typically comes together.
| When | What happens | State |
|---|---|---|
| Three weeks out | Merchandisers build the campaign hub, offer tiles and banner copy | Draft |
| One week out | Everything is signed off, and publish and unpublish times are set | Scheduled |
| Midnight Friday | The hub and its tiles appear in the API automatically | Published |
| Midnight Tuesday | The campaign retires itself and the site returns to normal | Draft |
Rehearse it in staging. Import the campaign into your staging space, schedule it for five minutes' time, and watch it appear. It is a cheap way to catch a timezone mistake while it is still free to fix.