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Content (CMS)
CMS pages on the live site
Explains what visitors see on pages that show collections, and why the canvas can look different from your live site.
Pages that show a collection, such as a blog listing or a product page, work a little differently from your other pages.
The canvas shows drafts; the live site shows published items
- On the canvas, pages show the current draft of every item, published or not. This lets you see changes before they go live.
- On your live site, pages show only published items, as they were when you last published them.
So a listing can look full in the editor and empty on your live site. That's expected until you publish the items.
What visitors see
- Listings are empty until you publish items. A new blog shows no posts until you publish some. See Publish and unpublish items.
- An item that isn't published has no page. Visiting its address shows your 404 page. The same happens for an unpublished or deleted item. See Your 404 page.
- Linked items you didn't publish show as missing. For example, a post whose author isn't live shows without the author.
- The sitemap lists published items, so search engines can find them.
What updates when
| Change | When it reaches your live site |
|---|---|
| Publishing, unpublishing or deleting an item | Within a few seconds. No site publish needed. |
| A new or changed listing page or item page | On your next site publish. |
| Adding, renaming or removing fields in a collection | On your next site publish. |
| A slug change on a live item | When you publish the item. The old address redirects. |
Pages that show a collection are built when a visitor asks for them, rather than ahead of time. That's what lets a published item appear without a site publish.
Previewing an item page in the editor
When you open an item page from Pages, the editor shows it with the collection's first item. If the collection has no items, you see "Add an item to the collection to preview this page."