Publishing and status
Statuses, the actions that move between them, the typed publish check, how fast changes appear, and version history.
Statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved, not showing. Every new injectable starts here. |
| Active | Published. It shows when its route, schedule and rules allow. |
| Paused | Was active; switched off but kept as is. |
| Archived | Put away. Can be restored to a draft. |
| Preview only | Can be previewed and shared, never serves to customers. |
| Scheduled | Active, but its schedule window has not opened. |
| Expired | Active, but its schedule window has closed. |
The last two are derived from the schedule; you do not set them directly.
Actions
The actions available depend on the status. They appear in the list's Actions column and on the injectable's page.
| From | Actions |
|---|---|
| Draft | Activate, Move to preview |
| Preview only | Publish, Back to draft |
| Active | Pause |
| Paused | Resume |
| Archived | Restore to draft |
| Any other | Archive |
| All | Duplicate |
The publish check
Activating, publishing or resuming an injectable that needs a second look opens a dialog titled Publish an injectable that needs a second look. That is any injectable with script in it, in its content, in a variant, in a block it uses, or in a custom-script rule, or one with a delivery warning.
Type PUBLISH to confirm. When a custom script rides a sitewide theme region, which also runs on checkout and order pages, the word is PUBLISH SITEWIDE instead. Some problems are blockers that no typed word gets past; the dialog lists them and publishing stays disabled until they are fixed.
Is it showing?
The Edit tab of an injectable opens with a summary line: Serving when it is live and rendering, or the reason it is not: draft, paused, archived, preview only, Scheduled, Expired, or Not serving because its targeting rules fail validation, with the note to fix the rules and save.
Widget, server-rendered and static-page delivery also depend on two switches under Store › Settings › Writing to BigCommerce: Storefront content, which installs and updates the parts that show your menus, banners and kits on the storefront, and the master All writing to BigCommerce. While either is stopped, StoreSpan does not install or update those injectables on your store.
Two panels give more detail for the widget and static-page routes:
- BigCommerce widget status: one row per template file with the region, its tier (sitewide or a single template), status, synced version and last check. It reads Sync pending… until the first sync and warns when a widget is synced but has been silent.
- BigCommerce Static Page delivery status: Publishing, Published, Publish failed, Missing permission, Sync error, Removing or Removed, with the store page ID, its URL and the synced version.
How fast changes appear
| Route | Time to the storefront |
|---|---|
| Loader | Up to about a minute and a half, because of caching on the server, on the delivery network and in the visitor's tab. |
| Widget and server-rendered | Within about five minutes of a publish. |
| Static page | Shortly after the injectable is saved. |
Version history
Every save adds a version. The Version history panel on the injectable's page lists them with the name, status and date. View opens a read-only snapshot; Restore creates a new version from it. Restoring says what it will do, for example that restoring version 4 creates version 7 with a given status. If the snapshot would go live with script in it, the typed publish check applies. If the theme no longer has a widget region the snapshot needs, a second confirmation asks whether to go ahead.