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A member site has a draft and a published copy. You build the draft and members see the published copy. This page covers how to publish, how to go back to an earlier version, how to copy a site or try a change on a branch, and what happens when a company takes a site down or you delete it.

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Know draft and published

A site is in one of three states: Within a published site, most files have two copies. Members see only the published copy, and a file that was never published is missing to them. These have a draft: the content of layouts, sections, snippets and pages, config/settings.json and, on a member’s site, config/access.json. A publish replaces the published copies with the drafts. Some changes have no draft and are live as soon as you write them: assets, config/menus.json, page rows and the site’s default layout. Pages and menus lists them. A site’s name, handle and visibility also take effect as soon as you save them. A site’s address is built from its handle, so changing the handle changes the address.

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Preview the draft

You can see a site’s draft before anyone else can, whether the site is a draft or already published. A preview answers with the page’s HTML or the asset’s text, not the JSON envelope. It shows every page, published or not, and never falls back to the published page. It renders for no signed-in viewer, so it holds nothing of the member’s. Only the site’s owner sees a member’s preview, and only a signed-in admin sees a company site’s. Anyone else gets the same empty not-found answer as for a site that doesn’t exist. Assets have no draft, so a preview serves an asset as written.

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Publish a site

Publishing makes the drafts live. It is one request with no body. Publishing a site that is already published publishes its current content again.
  • With the CLI, run fluid member-site publish to publish what is already saved, or fluid member-site push --publish to push the folder and then publish once. See publish.
  • With the API, write the files and pages first, then publish. Use Publish a site for a member’s site and Publish a company site for a company’s site.
A publish happens in one step, so a failure leaves the site as it was. It replaces the site’s content_version and saves a version in the site’s history.
  • A member publishes their own sites. A company admin publishes the company’s sites. An admin can’t publish a member’s site.
  • A member’s publish includes config/access.json. A site with no draft declaration publishes none, which removes the declaration it had published. See Declare what a member site uses.
  • A taken-down site can’t be published. The request is refused.
  • A conflict means the site changed while it was being published. Nothing was published. Run the publish again.
  • Page rows, assets and menus aren’t part of a publish. They have no draft. A page row’s published flag decides whether a page is served, and a publish doesn’t change it.

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Go back to an earlier version

Each publish, and each restore, is saved as a version of the site. You can list the versions and put the site back to one. A restore replaces the site’s files, pages, menus and settings with the version’s, and publishes them. On a member’s site it replaces the access declaration too, and a version with no declaration clears it. Your unpublished drafts are replaced.
  • A restore keeps the site’s name, handle, visibility and status, and its shares. A site that was taken down stays taken down.
  • It’s all or nothing. Either the whole version is restored or nothing changes.
  • You can undo a restore. The restore is itself saved as a version, so restore the version before it.
  • A site that was never published has no history. Listing its versions is refused.
  • An admin can list and restore the versions of any site in the company, a member’s included, even though an admin can’t change a member’s files.
  • The oldest entry in the list is not a site version. It holds no site, and restoring it is refused.
  • A restore can ask you to retry. The site’s latest change has to reach its history first. Until it does, the restore answers a conflict. Wait a moment and send it again.
  • A branch has no history of its own.
The CLI has no command for versions. Use the API.

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Copy a site

A copy is a new draft site with the original’s published content. It holds the original’s published layouts, sections, snippets, pages, settings, text assets and menus. It never holds a draft, a file that was never published or a page that isn’t published, and a menu item that links to a page that wasn’t copied is left out with the items below it.
  • A copy is independent. Changing or deleting either site never changes the other. The copy’s copied_from_id names the original, and it becomes null if the original is deleted.
  • A member copies a site they own, or a published site a share with copy permission opens to them. A member can’t copy a site an admin took down, even their own. The copy belongs to the member, is private, isn’t published and counts toward the member’s 25-site limit. A member’s copy starts with the original’s published declaration as its own draft. See Copy a site.
  • A company admin copies any site in any status, a member’s included. The copy is a new draft company site. It has no declaration, because a company site takes none, and a company has no site limit. See Copy a member site.
  • You can name the copy. Without a name it is called “Copy of” and the original’s name. Without a handle one is proposed from the name.

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Try a change on a branch

A branch is a private copy of a published site that you edit and publish without touching the site members use. The API has branches. The CLI has no branch command.
  • Make one with Branch a site for a member’s site, or Branch a company site. The branch is cloned from the site’s published content and is published at once. Nothing the site holds in draft is copied, and the site never changes.
  • A site has one branch at a time. The branch’s slug defaults to staging. Delete the branch to make another.
  • A branch is a site of its own. Edit it with the files and pages operations and publish it with the publish operation, using the branch’s site_id as the site id.
  • A branch is private. It can’t be shared or made public. Only its owner and company admins can open it. It is left out of the site list and the account menu, and it counts toward a member’s 25-site limit.
  • Read the branch to see if it is stale. Read a site’s branch says whether the site’s published content has changed since the branch was made.
  • Only a published site can be branched. A draft site, a taken-down site, a branch, and a site that holds a binary asset can’t.
  • Nothing merges a branch back. To keep a change, read the branch’s files and write them to the site yourself, then publish the site.
  • Deleting the site deletes its branch. Delete a site’s branch deletes the branch and its own site, and the original doesn’t change.
Admins branch company sites only. A member branches their own sites. An admin can list, read and delete the branch of any site in the company, and deleting a member’s branch is moderation. See List a site’s branches and Delete a site’s branch.

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Take a site down

A company admin takes a site down when it shouldn’t be open: a member’s site or the company’s. See Take a member site down.
  • No one can open a taken-down site. Its status becomes taken_down, members get not found, and the owner can’t publish it again. A branch is taken down with its site.
  • The owner can still change and delete it. A member can edit the site’s files and pages, or delete it. They can’t publish or copy it.
  • It leaves menus. A taken-down site isn’t in its owner’s account menu, and it can’t be featured. A site that was already featured stays on the featured list so an admin can stop featuring it.
  • Nothing puts it back up. There is no operation that reverses a take-down. An admin can copy the site into a new company site, or delete it.
  • Taking down twice changes nothing.
An admin can take down any site in the company but can’t change a member’s site: the owner builds it.

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Delete a site

Deleting a site deletes its pages and its branch. A site that was copied from it stays: the copy’s copied_from_id becomes null.
  • A member deletes their own site, in any status. See Delete a site.
  • A company admin deletes any site in the company. See Delete a member site.
  • A conflict means another request is changing the site. Send the delete again.
No operation undoes a delete. To keep a site’s content, copy it first.