Preview How a Release Affects Your Enablement Site

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Describe the different ways that users can preview new or changed content in a content collection.
  
• Describe what you can and can’t do in the release preview.
  

Content Preview versus Full Release Preview

Content creators, release managers, and their stakeholders can preview content in a couple of ways:

In this unit, we look at the full release preview in Trailmaker Release. To learn more about the local content preview in Trailmaker Content, check out the Preview Modules in Your Workspace unit of the Trailmaker Content Basics module.

Let’s look at how Pure Aloe uses release preview as part of its publishing workflow. In the previous unit, Pure Aloe updated the Sell Well at Pure Aloe trail to include a new module, Pure Aloe Sales Goals. Now, Marisol, the release manager, wants to preview the updated trail and the new module and invite other content stakeholders, such as subject matter experts (SMEs).

First, Marisol checks the published version of the Sell Well at Pure Aloe trail. This version provides a helpful baseline for her stakeholders. In a new browser window, she navigates to the published version of the Sell Well at Pure Aloe trail. As expected, the current trail includes only 2 modules.

Access the Release Preview

Marisol can share the release preview in a few ways.

Get the Release Preview URL from Trailmaker Content

When Marisol (or other user with the Manage Releases permission) adds a trail or module to a release from Trailmaker Content, the confirmation window includes a URL to view that content in the release preview.

Marisol can also manually construct the URL to the release preview. She just needs the subdomain name, content collection API name, and release API name, using this format:

https://subdomain.my.trailhead.com/content-collection-API-name/enter-preview?release=release-API-name

To learn more, check out the Salesforce help topic, Preview a Release in Trailmaker Release.

Because it can take some time for added content to appear in the release preview, Marisol copies the URL. When she confirms that the preview is available, she shares the link with stakeholders over email or Slack.

To access the release preview, a user must have:

• The Preview Release system permission
  
• The preview URL
  

In the Enablement Site Configuration module, we saw that the Salesforce admin at Pure Aloe, Joseph, made permission sets for different enablement site roles. To make sure that a particular user can access a release preview, add them to a permission set where the Preview Release system permission is enabled. 

Launch the Preview from Trailmaker Release

In Trailmaker Release, Marisol can also click Preview on the release page of an unpublished release.

Or, Marisol can select Preview from the release’s Actions dropdown on the content collection page.

Navigate the Release Preview

For a release manager like Marisol, the release preview provides a handy way to make sure that the release contains the expected changes in the structure of trails and modules. For example, Marisol can navigate to the Trails index page, and find the Sell Well at Pure Aloe trail, which provides these indicators on the page.

• A banner at the top of the page (1), which identifies the content collection and release being previewed
  
• A link in the banner (2) for exiting the preview
  
• An eye icon (3), which identifies new or modified content included in the release
  

Marisol expects to see an eye icon on the Sell Well at Pure Aloe trail… and it does! When she clicks the trail, the trail’s page also shows the page banner and the eye icon. Likewise, Marisol can navigate to the Modules index page, and find the Pure Aloe Sales Goals module, and verify that the new module includes the eye icon.

Meanwhile, SMEs can also navigate to the Pure Aloe Sales Goals module and verify that finished content is still correct and matches the draft they previously reviewed. A content creator like Cindy can browse the entire content collection to make sure that the new content makes sense in the overall enablement experience. She previously used the content preview in Trailmaker Content for each module to verify that the content is formatted correctly, check image sizes, proofread, and verify quiz answers—but she can complete those activities in the full release preview, too.

If any stakeholders find issues that should be corrected before the content is published, Cindy can make the appropriate updates in Trailmaker Content. Then, she can download the updated backpacks and deliver them to Marisol, who can add the updated content to the release, and do another round of preview.

The release preview isn’t synchronized with any content that you have in your local Trailmaker Content workspace. If a content creator makes changes locally based on feedback from the release preview, the updated content must be added to the release again before the updates can be previewed with the release.

Release Preview Limitations

The release preview is a useful tool for quality assurance activities, but there are a couple of caveats worth noting. First, release preview supports only one release and one content collection at a time, and you can only preview an unpublished release. Once a release has been published, its preview is no longer available.

In the content preview from Trailmaker Content, users can see quiz answers, but can't test them. In the full release preview from Trailmaker Release, users can test quizzes as if they were published, and even test them more than once. But users don't earn badges or points by completing quizzes in release preview. Users can only earn points and badges by completing quizzes in your live production environment. 

Content creators and release managers can continue to iterate with the preview and collaborate on appropriate updates until they’re satisfied that the content is ready for production. Then, it’s finally time to publish! In the next unit, we take a look at how a release manager verifies all items in a release and makes all the latest and greatest content available to learners.

Resources 

• Salesforce Help: Preview a Release in Trailmaker Release
  
• Salesforce Help: Considerations for Managing Releases