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  • Site Preview
  • Previewing draft state
  • Previewing a scheduled publish
  • Previewing a previous publish
  • Exiting previews
  • Share Links
  • Sharing draft state
  • Sharing a scheduled publish
  • Sharing a previous publish
  • Preview button (deprecated)
Guides

Previewing and sharing

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Publishing

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Makeswift allows you to share previews of different versions of your site for enhanced collaboration and feedback.

Sharing requires a custom host running at least v0.25.0 of the runtime. To upgrade, see our runtime upgrade guide. If you are using a version prior to v0.25.0, please reference the preview button documentation.

Makeswift allows you to preview and share different versions of your site for enhanced collaboration and feedback using Site Previews and Share Links.

You can preview different versions of your site for any of the following:

  • The current draft state of your site in the Visual Builder
  • A particular scheduled publish
  • A specific previous publish of your site

Site Preview

Site Previews allow you to preview different versions of your site directly on your domain without generating a shareable link. This is useful when you want to review changes privately on your own device before deciding whether to share them with others via Share Links.

Previewing draft state

There are two ways to preview the draft state (the current state of your site in the Visual Builder):

  • Via the View page icon in the Visual Builder header
  • Via the Action Menu in the Visual Builder header

To preview via the View page icon, click the open icon to the right of the address bar in the Visual Builder header. This opens your site in a new tab and shows the current draft state.

View page icon

To preview via the Action Menu, click the three dots in the top right corner of the Visual Builder header. From the menu, select View page.

View page menu selection

Previewing a scheduled publish

To preview a particular scheduled publish, open the publish dialog and navigate to the Scheduled tab. Hover over the scheduled publish you’d like to preview and open the Action Menu by clicking the three dots, then select Preview. This opens your site in a new tab showing the scheduled publish preview.

Previewing a previous publish

To preview a specific previous publish, open the publish dialog and navigate to the History tab. Hover over the publish you’d like to preview and open the Action Menu by clicking the three dots, then select Preview. This opens your site in a new tab showing the previous publish preview.

Exiting previews

When you open a preview, you’ll see that version of the site directly on your domain, even after refreshing or navigating between pages.

To return to the live site:

  • Click Exit preview in the bottom-right corner of the page.
  • Or clear your cookies for the site to remove the preview state.

Exiting the preview returns you to the currently published live site. It does not modify your drafts, scheduled publishes, or publish history.

Exit preview button

Share Links

All share links expire after 5 days. After expiration, visiting the share link will result in an error, and users will no longer be able to see the shared version of the site.

Share Links are powered by Site Previews. They allow you to create shareable links that give others access to specific versions of your site. This means that a recipient of a share link will be able to view the entire site as it was in the shared version.

By default, Share Links can only be accessed by other members of your Makeswift workspace, but you can create a public Share Link by toggling the Public preview option when generating the link, allowing anyone with the link to view the shared version without needing workspace access.

Public preview toggle

Sharing draft state

To share the draft state (the current state of your site in the Visual Builder), click on the Share button in the top right corner of the Visual Builder header. This will open a dialog that has a new shareable link generated for you. You can copy this link and share it with others.

Sharing a scheduled publish

To share a particular scheduled publish, open the publish dialog and navigate to the Scheduled tab. Hover over the scheduled publish you’d like to share and click the Share icon, which will open a dialog with a shareable link for that specific publish.

Sharing a previous publish

To share a specific previous publish, open the publish dialog and navigate to the History tab. Hover over the publish you’d like to share and click the Share icon, which will open a dialog with a shareable link for that specific publish.

Preview button (deprecated)

The Preview button is now deprecated and is no longer available as of v0.25.0. However, if you are using a version of the Makeswift runtime prior to v0.25.0, you can still use the preview feature as described below.

Preview links are only accessible to logged-in Makeswift users of the workspace. For read-only access, you can add users with the role of Guest which don’t count against the number of users in your plan. For more information, see the Users page.

Makeswift allows you to share a preview link of your site with others. The preview link will always show the latest changes made in the Visual Builder, even if they have not been published. You can find the Preview button at the top right of the Visual Builder’s browser bar.

Preview button

We encourage you to use the preview feature to get feedback and review changes before doing a final publish.