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Staging is a private copy of a theme. You publish your changes to staging, check them on your real storefront through a preview link, and then promote staging to your live theme when it’s right. Shoppers don’t see anything on staging until you promote it. Each theme has one staging copy, and everyone on your team who works on that theme shares it.

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Before you start

  • Mist 1.10.0 or later. Mist updates itself; restart it to get the latest version. See Download Mist.
  • Theme branches turned on for your company. Fluid turns them on per company. If you don’t see staging in the preview header of a theme project, ask Fluid support.
  • Permission to update themes, to publish to staging, promote, and undo.
  • A draft or live theme. Other themes can’t have staging.
  • The theme downloaded to your computer. See Run and publish.

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Create staging

Open the theme project. In the preview header, click Request staging. Mist copies the theme, which usually takes under a minute, and the header shows Staging when it’s ready. You only do this once per theme. Staging stays until the theme is deleted.

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Publish to staging

1

Make your changes

Change the theme in the chat or in your files, and check the Local preview.
2

Publish to staging

Click Publish to staging, next to Publish. Your live theme isn’t touched. When it’s done, the header shows Published to staging · revision N, and the revision goes up by one with each publish.
3

Check staging

Click the Staging tab to see staging on your real storefront.
Next to the staging pill, Mist shows whether your files are Up to date with local or have Local changes not on staging. Click Copy link on the staging pill, and send the link to anyone who should review the change. They don’t need a Fluid login. The link lasts 7 days; copy a new one when you need it.
The cart and checkout in a staging preview use your real store. Adding to the cart or checking out can create real orders. Share staging links for review, not for test purchases.

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When a teammate published first

Publishing to staging sends your theme files, apart from a few kinds it skips and lists. If a teammate published to staging after you last did, and your copies of their files are different, publishing would put your copies back over their work. Mist asks before that happens:
Staging has changes you don’t have Someone published files to staging (revision 12) that this project has differently. Publishing replaces them with your copies. Get their changes first, or replace them if you mean to.
The dialog lists their files under Their changes.
  • Cancel publishes nothing. Get your teammate’s changes into your project first, then publish again.
  • Replace anyway publishes your copies over theirs. It replaces only what you were shown: if someone publishes again before yours lands, Mist asks you again.
Files your teammate published that you don’t have at all are never removed.

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Promote staging to your live theme

1

Click Promote to live

Mist lists every file that would change on your live theme.
2

Confirm

Click Promote to live. The dialog shows the promotion running, then Promoted to live with the files that changed. Shoppers see them straight away.
Promoting copies exactly what staging shows, including what your teammates published to it, so read the list before you confirm. If someone publishes to staging while the dialog is open, nothing is promoted. The dialog says Staging changed while you were reviewing; click Review again to see the new changes. When Promote to live is greyed out, hover over it to see why:

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Undo a promotion

Click Undo promote, then Undo promotion. Your live theme goes back to how it was before the promotion, and the dialog shows Promotion undone. Staging keeps its changes, so you can promote them again later. You can undo only the latest promotion, once. If someone edited a promoted file on the live theme since, undo is refused so their edit isn’t lost; the dialog says why.

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Publish or promote?

There are two ways to change your live theme:
  • Promote to live puts exactly what staging shows onto your live theme. Use it when the change was reviewed on staging, especially when several people work on the theme.
  • Publish sends the files on your computer straight to your live theme. Before it does, Mist warns you if your files differ from staging.
Once the live theme is changed with Publish or the theme editor, promoting that staging is refused from then on, because it would overwrite that change. If your team reviews on staging, promote every change instead of mixing Publish and promote.

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Frequently asked questions

Theme branches aren’t turned on for your company, or the theme isn’t a draft or live theme. Ask Fluid support to turn theme branches on.
No. Staging goes away when its theme is deleted.
Yes. Mist runs the same Fluid CLI commands. See Theme branches.
Email Fluid support at help@fluid.app. The Getting help page lists what to include in your request.