Using Publications for Clarity's Projects

Publications provide a robust and flexible way to govern changes to your Liferay solution, especially for complex projects involving multiple teams and diverse content types. Clarity requires all website updates to be thoroughly reviewed and approved before being published to their production environment. For example, each of their marketing campaigns involves multiple teams that contribute different components (e.g., articles, pages, images). In this article, you’ll leverage Publications and workflows to govern the rollout of Clarity’s summer marketing campaign.

Exercise: Enabling Publications

Publications is enabled globally for an the entire Liferay instance. Here you’ll enable publications as the Clarity Admin user.

1. Sign in as the Clarity Admin user.

   • Username: admin@clarityvisionsolutions.com
   • Password: learn

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

3. Toggle Enable Publications.
   

   This immediately enables publications for your instance.

4. Verify the Publications Menu appears at the top of the page.

   

With Publications enabled, you can create a publication of your own. But you’ll need to grant other users access to Publications before they can participate as well.

Exercise: Granting Access to Publications

By default, only administrators can access Publications. Here, you’ll grant Clarity’s marketing team access to Publications as the Clarity Admin user.

1. Open the Global Menu (), go to the Control Panel tab, and click Roles.

2. Go to Regular Roles tab and click Publications User.

3. Go to the Define Permissions tab and review the role's permissions.
   

4. Go to the Assignees tab and click User Groups.

5. Click New.

6. Select Marketing and click Add.
   

Now all marketing users can access Publications and begin creating publications for tracking changes.

Exercise: Creating a Publication for Clarity’s Marketing Campaign

As you’ve learned, Liferay Publications enables the creation of isolated working environments that group changes for specific projects or initiatives. Here you’ll create a publication for Clarity’s marketing campaign and invite a contributor as Clara Murphy.

1. Log out and sign in as Clara Murphy, the marketing manager.

   • Username: clara.murphy@clarityvisionsolutions.com
   • Password: learn

2. Expand the Publications Menu and click Create New Publication.

3. Enter these values:

   Field	Value
   Template	No Template Selected
   Name	Summer Campaign 20XX
   Description	This campaign highlights our dazzling new sunglasses collection and incredible summer sales.

4. Click Create.
   This automatically redirects your site’s hope page and switches you to the new publication. Any changes you make in supported applications are tracked by the publication.

   Now you can add other team members to the publication as collaborators.

5. Expand the Publications Menu and click Review Changes.

6. Click Invite Users ().

7. Click the role drop-down menu and select Editor.

8. For People, search for and select Christian Carter.

9. Click Send.

Great! Now Christian Carter can access and contribute to Clara Murphy’s publication. However, before you start working on Clarity’s content updates, the Marketing team needs a custom workflow.

Exercise: Setting Up the Marketing Team’s Workflow

You can use workflows with Publications to ensure content is approved before you publish changes to production. Here you’ll create a workflow for the marketing team as the Clarity Admin user.

1. Log out and sign in as the Clarity Admin user.

   • Username: admin@clarityvisionsolutions.com
   • Password: learn

2. Open the Global Menu (), go to the Applications tab, and click Process Builder.

3. Click Actions () for Single Approver and select Duplicate.

4. For title, enter Single Approver for Marketing and click Duplicate.

5. Select the review task node and restrict its assignment to the Marketing Manager role.

6. Click Update. With the workflow created, you can now apply it to the Marketing team’s articles.

7. Open the Global Menu () and go to Clarity Public Enterprise Website.

8. Open the Site Menu (), expand Content & Data, and click Web Content.

9. Click Actions () for the Articles folder and select Edit.

10. Expand Structure Restrictions and Workflow and select the third option.

11. In the drop-down menu, select Single Approver for Marketing.

12. Click Save.

With the workflow applied, the marketing team can begin their work.

Exercise: Creating a Summer Campaign Article

To boost awareness of their subglasses, Clarity wants to draft a new summer campaign article. Here you’ll create this article as Christian Carter.

1. Log out and sign in as Christian Carter, a marketing content contributor.

   • Username: christian.carter@clarityvisionsolutions.com
   • Password: learn

2. Return to Web Content application in Clarity’s site.

3. Expand the Publications Menu, click Select a Publication, and select Summer Campaign 20XX.

   Now all changes you make will be tracked by the publication.

4. Go to the Articles folder.

5. Click New and select Article.
   If this structure does not appear, click More.

6. Enter these values:

   Field	Value
   Title	Elevate Your Summer Look with Our New Collection
   Description	Transform your summer style with our brand-new sunglasses collection. Designed to enhance your look and protect your eyes, these shades are the perfect accessory for any occasion.
   Image	Path: liferay-course-publishing-tool-and-content-lifecycle/exercises/summer-campaign-01.png
   Headline	Elevate Your Summer Look with Our New Collection
   Content	This summer, redefine your style with our stunning new sunglasses collection! "Elevate Your Summer Look" isn't just a tagline; it's a promise. Discover a curated selection of frames, from timeless classics reimagined with modern twists to bold, trend-setting designs. Crafted with premium materials and offering superior UV protection, these sunglasses are more than just an accessory – they're an essential upgrade for your sun-drenched days. Whether you're lounging by the pool, exploring a new city, or enjoying a seaside escape, our new collection will ensure you do it in unparalleled style and comfort. Find your perfect shade and make this summer your most fashionable yet.

7. Click Submit for Workflow and select Submit for Workflow with Permissions.

8. Click Submit for Workflow to confirm.

Great! This initiates the workflow and notifies Clara Murphy of the review task. However, before reviewing it, Christian Carter needs to make a few more updates.

Exercise: Creating a Summer Campaign Page

1. Open the Site Menu (), expand Site Builder, and click Pages.

2. Click New, select Primary Master Page, enter Summer Campaign 20XX for name, and click Add.

   This redirects you to the new page where you can begin implementing your design.

3. Open the Fragments and Widgets tab () in the left side panel.

4. Drag and drop the Home Page fragment composition into the page's central content area.

5. Open the Browser tab () in the left side panel and select the Home Page container.

6. In the configuration side panel, to Container Width to Fixed Width.

7. Double click the main banner’s Heading fragment and change its text to Summer Campaign.

8. Double click the first Image fragment and select the recently uploaded summer-campaign-01.png file.

9. Double click the second Image fragment and upload this file: liferay-course-publishing-tool-and-content-lifecycle/exercises/summer-campaign-02.png.

10. Click Publish.

Great! With the new page complete, Clara Murphy can review and publish Christian Carter’s changes.

Exercise: Approving the Summer Campaign Changes

Based on Clarity’s Publications configuration, all pending workflow tasks must be reviewed and approved before publishing. Here you’ll finish approve Christian Carter’s new article as Clara Murphy.

1. Log out and sign in as Clara Murphy.

   • Username: clara.murphy@clarityvisionsolutions.com
   • Password: learn

2. Click the user profile icon, go to Notifications, and click the workflow message.

   NOTE
   If you’re unable to click the notification message, ensure you’re in the Summer Campaign 20XX publication.

3. Click Actions  () for the workflow task and select Assign to Me.

4. Enter a comment and click Done.

5. Review the changes, then click Actions  () for the workflow task and select Approve.

6. Enter a comment and click Done.

With the article approved, you can now publish your changes!

Exercise: Publishing the Summer Campaign

Publications enable precise control over who can release changes to the live site. Only users with the appropriate permissions can initiate the publishing process for a publication. Here you’ll publish the Summer Campaign 20XX publication manually as Clara Murphy.

1. Expand the Publications Menu and click Review Changes.

   The default view displays a complete list of all changes tracked by the publication, though you can filter results to focus on key changes.
   

2. Click Filter and select Types.

3. Toggle Exclude, check Fragment Entry Link, and click Add Filter.

   This excludes fragment entry links from the list of changes.

4. Click the Summer Campaign 20XX page to view details.

   This provides a complete preview of the page. Since the page is new, there is no previous version for comparison. However, if you had updated an existing page, you could view both versions side by side.

5. Click Publish.

6. Verify there are no conflicts and click Publish to confirm.
   This redirects you to the History tab where you can view the process of your publishing process.

   Once finished, your changes are applied to Production! The publication is now inactive, though you can view it in your publishing history and revert it if necessary.

Congratulations! You’ve enabled and used Publications for Clarity’s summer campaign.

Conclusion

Liferay Publications provides a flexible and powerful solution for managing complex content projects and their release to live environments. With it, your team members can track changes in separate working environments and publish those changes on their own timeline.

Next, you’ll explore how to manage content changes across separate servers using Remote Live Staging.