Making and Publishing Changes

Liferay 7.3+

Publications provides a convenient way to manage changes to your Liferay instance. With it, you and your team can create and collaborate on blocks of changes called ‘publications’. You can then publish those changes to production when ready.

Note

By default, users can only contribute to publications they’ve created. However, they can invite other users to collaborate on their publications. See Collaborating on Publications for more information.

If you haven’t already created a publication to track changes, see Creating a Publication for more information.

Once created, a publication is updated automatically with changes made to production, provided they don’t conflict with changes made in the publication. This ensures you and your team are working on the latest version of production.

Important

After upgrading your Liferay version, existing publications cannot be changed, published, or reverted. All active publications are marked as out of date and can only be viewed or deleted. Liferay DXP 2024.Q2+/Portal GA120+ But you can move compatible changes to a publication. See Managing Out-of-date Publications to learn more. Also, the Revert option is removed for publications published before your upgrade.

Making Changes in a Publication

Before making changes to your instance, ensure you’re working on the correct publication. You can confirm this via the Publications bar. If you’re not currently in a publication, you can create one or select an existing one.

When you add, edit, or remove assets in a publication, your changes are only visible in the publication where they’re made. When you delete an asset in a publication, DXP marks it for deletion and hides it when viewing the publication. The asset remains viewable to production and other publications, since its removal is only a logical deletion.

While working on a publication, changes made to supported Liferay components are tracked in the publication. This includes changes across multiple sites.

Important

When editing different sites in the same publication, keep in mind that all tracked changes are applied to production when the publication is published.

Liferay DXP 2024.Q4+/Portal GA129+ Release Feature Flag (LPD-20131)

When you change the site context while using a publication, a warning appears to prevent unintentional changes. This safeguard enhances user safety when navigating and interacting within the site with Publications enabled.

Upon context change, you can choose to Stay in Current Publication, Select a Publication, or Work on Production. Additionally, you can check the Do not show this message again option and select a duration from the list: 1 hour, 4 hours, 24 hours, or Forever.

To reactivate the warning,

1. Open the Global Menu (), go to the Applications tab, and click Publications.

2. Click Options () at the top right corner, uncheck the Hide warning when changing contexts options, and click Save.

Navigating to Unsupported Applications

Liferay DXP 2023.Q3+/Portal GA92+

If you navigate to an application that does not support Publications, Liferay indicates that changes in the application cannot be saved to a publication.

For some applications, you can directly edit production while in a publication.

For other applications, you must switch to production before you can make changes.

Making Changes in Parallel Publications

Users can have multiple active publications at the same time. Changes made in these parallel publications create alternative edit histories for your instance’s entities. These changes can be compatible or conflicting, depending on whether they modify the same or related content.

Compatible Changes

If parallel publications include compatible changes, they can be published without issue. In this case, the tracked changes of both publications are applied to production.

Conflicting Changes

If parallel publications include incompatible changes and one of the publications is applied to production first, then the other publication displays publishing conflicts. These conflicts can also be caused when production is updated directly. See Resolving Conflicts for more information on this process.

Reviewing Publication Changes

Before publishing, you can review a publication’s tracked changes to ensure it only includes the desired edits. To do this, open the Publications drop-down menu and select Review Changes.

Alternatively, you can review any publication’s tracked changes via the Publications application. Navigate to the Ongoing tab, click on the Actions button () for the desired Publication, and select Review Changes.

When reviewing changes, all tracked changes appear in a list that you can order by User, Site, Title, Type, Status, Change Type, or Last Modified.

By default, Publications only displays some changes, but you can view all system changes as well. Click Actions () for the publication and select Show System Changes. This displays all changes included in the publication.

During review, you can select a change to view more details and access additional actions (e.g., edit, discard). Available actions depend on the entity’s type.

Liferay DXP 2024.Q4+/Portal GA129+ Release Feature Flag (LPD-20131)

The Publication Overview provides a summary of changes at the top of the page, organized by system or site instances. Each component shows the number of modified entities for easy tracking across instances and components.

Click on any entity to filter the changes specific to that entity and instance.

Previewing Changes to Pages

Liferay DXP 2023.Q3+/Portal GA92+

If a publication includes edits to a page, you can preview those changes alongside the original version of the page.

When reviewing changes to a page with alternate user experiences, you can use the Experiences drop-down menu to switch between them.

Once selected, you can view each page version individually or select Split View to review them side by side.

Liferay DXP 2025.Q2+/Portal GA135+

Important

Currently, this feature is behind a release feature flag (LPD-20556 and LPD-20131). Read Release Feature Flags for more information.

A badge with the publication size appears next to the publication overview. It displays one of three sizes: small, medium, or large.

The size is based on a score that takes into account the number and type of changes, unresolved conflicts, the size of affected database tables, and the environment. Specifically, changes to articles or large tables contribute partial points, while unresolved conflicts contribute more. The score also increases if the installed system uses databases that require additional processing time (such as Oracle or SQL Server) or if more than five users are involved in the publication.

Larger publications take longer to publish and are more likely to have conflicts. Keep these factors in mind when preparing a large publication. For additional tips, see Best Practices for Managing Publications.

Accessing and Analyzing Change Data

Liferay DXP 2024.Q4+/Portal GA129+ Release Feature Flag (LPD-20131)

Publication administrators can access detailed information about changes in the publication through the Data tab, which includes the following fields:

Field	Description
Entity Type	Type of content modified (e.g., blog entry, web content).
Title	Title of the modified entity for reference.
Author	Name of the user who made the changes.
Modification Date	Date of the last changes made.
Status	Current status of the entity (e.g., approved, pending).
Views	Number of views the entity has received.
Status Date	Date and time of the last status update.
Small Image ID	ID for any small image associated with the entity.
Small Image	Indicates if a small image is associated (true/false).
Trackbacks	Any trackbacks linked to the entry.
Cover Image URL	URL for the cover image (if available).
Group ID	ID of the group associated with the content.
Description	Brief description of the content.
UUID	Unique identifier for the entry.
External Reference Code	Code for external reference to the entry.
Entry ID	Unique identifier for the content entry.
Last Publish Date	Date when the content was last published.
CT Collection ID	Collection ID linked to the content type.
Create Date	Date and time when the content was created.
Status by User ID	ID of the user who set the current status.
Allow Trackbacks	Indicates if trackbacks are allowed (true/false).
Allow Pingbacks	Indicates if pingbacks are allowed (true/false).
Small Image URL	URL for any small image (if available).
URL Title	User-friendly URL title for the content.
Small Image File Entry ID	File entry ID for the small image (if applicable).
User Name	Name of the user who created or modified the content.
User ID	Unique ID for the user linked to the content.
Cover Image File Entry ID	File entry ID for the cover image (if applicable).
Company ID	ID of the company associated with the content.
Cover Image Caption	Caption for the cover image (if applicable).
Subtitle	Subtitle for the content (if applicable).
Display Date	Date and time when the content is set to display.
Modified Date	Date and time of the last content modification.
Status by User Name	Name of the user who set the current status.
MVCC Version	Version number for the content entry.

Important

Without the administrator role, users can only see the change’s title, author, create date, display date, status, and views.

Moving Changes Between Publications

Liferay DXP 2023.Q3+/Portal GA92+

While reviewing changes, you can move them to different publications. This provides greater flexibility when managing content:

1. Click the Actions button () for the desired change and select Move Changes.

   

2. Select the desired publication.

3. Click Move.

This moves the change into the selected publication along with its children. It also removes the change and its children from the current publication.

Moving and Discarding Changes in Bulk

Liferay DXP 2025.Q2+/Portal GA135+

Important

Currently, this feature is behind a release feature flag (LPD-20183 and LPD-20556). Read Release Feature Flags for more information.

You can move or discard multiple changes at once.

1. Select one or more changes.

2. Click Actions () and choose either

   Move Changes () to move the selected changes to another publication.

   Discard Changes () to delete the selected changes.

3. (Optional) Use the top bar to manage your selection. It displays the total selected items, provides a Select All checkbox, and includes a Clear button to reset the selection.

Publishing Your Changes

When you’ve finished making your changes, you can publish them immediately or schedule them to be published at a later time. Once published, a publication appears in the History tab of the Publications application. This maintains a clear audit trail that you can use review and revert site changes when needed. See Reverting Changes for more information.

When you begin the publishing process, Liferay performs a compatibility check to determine if there are any conflicts between the publication and production. If there are conflicts, DXP notifies you. While some conflicts are resolved automatically, others require manual resolution. Resolving all conflicts is necessary for publishing changes. See Resolving Conflicts for more information.

Publishing Now

Follow these steps to publish changes immediately:

1. Open the Publications drop-down menu, and select Review Changes.

   Alternatively, open the Publications application, and click on the desired publication.

2. Click Publish.

3. If necessary, manually resolve any detected conflicts. Once all conflicts are resolved, you can proceed.

   

4. Click Publish.

The publication’s changes are immediately applied to production, and you are redirected to the History tab. From here, you can view publishing details (e.g., date, publisher, status) and revert a publication’s changes if desired.

Scheduling for Later

Follow these steps to schedule publishing for a later time.

1. Open the Publications drop-down menu, and select Review Changes.

   Alternatively, open the Publications application, and click on the desired publication.

2. Click Schedule.

3. If necessary, manually resolve any detected conflicts. Once all conflicts are resolved, you can proceed.

   Important

   At the time of the publication, DXP performs a second conflict detection to ensure there are no new conflicting changes. The publish fails if DXP detects new conflicts that cannot be automatically resolved. If the conflicts can be resolved automatically, DXP proceeds with publishing.

4. Enter a date and time to determine when the changes are published to production.

5. Click Schedule to complete the process.

This redirects you to the Scheduled tab where you can view and manage scheduled publications.

Removing Unnecessary Publication Data

When reviewing publication changes, file and page previews can accumulate in the document library. If desired, you can remove this data.

1. Open the Global Menu (), go to Control Panel, and click System Settings.

2. Click Upgrades under Platform.

3. Go to the Data Removal tab.

4. Select Remove DL Preview Change Tracking Store Content Data.

   

5. Click Save.

Liferay immediately removes the unnecessary data.

Feature Availability by Version

Feature	Liferay DXP Version	Portal Version	Notes
Moving Changes Between Publications	2023.Q3+	GA92+	Changes can be moved between publications.
Navigating Unsupported Applications	2023.Q3+	GA92+	Liferay notifies when an application doesn’t support Publications. Users may need to switch to production to make changes or edit production directly within a publication.
Parallel Publications	2023.Q3+	GA92+	Multiple publications can be managed in parallel.
Previewing Page Changes	2023.Q3+	GA92+	Preview mode is available for users to review changes before publishing.
Accessing and Analyzing Change Data	2024.Q4+	GA129+	Provides access to change data for review and analysis.
Moving and Discarding Changes in Bulk	2025.Q2+	GA135+	Users can move or discard multiple changes at once from the review screen.
Publication Size	2025.Q2+	GA135+	A size badge appears in the toolbar, indicating whether the publication is small, medium, or large based on the number and type of changes.

Related Topics

• Publications Overview
• Enabling Publications
• Creating and Managing Publications