This article explains how to show your site in progress to a client or a reviewer who has no account. You will learn to create a preview link, choose how long it lasts, find your reviewer’s requests and cut the link.
Before you start
- Your Staging is private. Only site members get in, with their account.
- A preview link opens your Staging to a person without an account for a limited time. They browse it and try it like a visitor.
- You must be a site administrator: the link is created in the Settings of the Staging, which only administrators open.
Preview access has nothing to do with previewing a content item in the editor. The latter is only for signed-in members.
Create a preview link
- In the admin menu of your Staging, open Settings.
- Scroll down to the Preview access section, below the Save Changes button.
- Next to Generate a link valid for:, click a duration: 1 day, 7 days or 30 days. The section shows the Active preview link.
- Copy the link from its field.
- Send it to your reviewer.
Below the link, the Valid until line gives its end date and time. After that moment, the link no longer works.
| Button | Validity |
|---|---|
| 1 day | 24 hours from the click. |
| 7 days | Seven days from the click. |
| 30 days | Thirty days from the click. This is the longest duration. |
Understand what the reviewer can do
The reviewer opens the link and uses your Staging like a visitor to your live site. They do not have to paste the link again on each page: their browser keeps the access until the validity ends.
- They see the content published in your Staging. Your drafts and your new versions stay hidden.
- They can submit your forms, answer the consent banner, choose light or dark mode, open your modals, and search and change pages in your lists.
- They cannot enter the admin, log in, or change anything.
Your Staging shows what the next publication will put online. The reviewer sees your site as it will be after that publication.
Find the reviewer’s requests
A request sent from your Staging stays on the Staging. To read it, open Forms then Staging in the admin menu. It is filed with your own tests and never appears in the requests of your live site.
It follows the path of your tests. The form’s notifications go to the addresses it lists. Sending to your tool goes to the form’s Staging address, never to its Production address. An empty staging address sends nothing.
Cut a link before it ends
To cut the access as soon as the review is done, open Settings and click Revoke in the Preview access section. The button only appears when a link is active.
The link stops working right away, even for a reviewer who is browsing the site.
Your site’s history keeps each link with the administrator’s name. Its lines read, for example, Created a preview link valid for 7 days and Revoked the preview link.