I created a simple Doc Type and and XSLT file to list all child subpages of the current page, along with a template and Macro to display them. If I publish the parent page and its children, the list displays fine, but in preview, the list is empty. Why could this be?
There are some problems with XSLT and the preview-function. In example, it's not possible to preview a content-field wich is rendered through XSLT. And that's a shame. I really hope that it will work in the future.
Without starting a huge argument regarding preview I've always believed that it comes down to a split problem of who should be responsible for it. Is it the responsibility of the developer to have their code work with the different states, or should it be the responsibility of the API you're accessing to have the smarts to know the context of the data required.
I'm of the belief that it should come down to the developer, but with the API providing enough 'hooks' so that you can achieve this. Why do I say this? Well it's because it's very hard to determine all the ways a developer may want to use the API, so it's generally easier to have them handle it the way they need, not the way the API designer believes they'll need it.
But that's just my opinion. As for what's happening with preview in Umbraco, that's something I can't get into, it's out of my hands :)
You might try considering Courier (Umbraco PRO) for this. Basically you would have a completely separate environment in which you could create/publish your stuff and then transfer to your real environment when ready.
We're currently doing it, but I wouldn't say it's an optimal solution, there are many constraints and drawbacks. (anyway, I don't think it's the intended use of Courier) Just a work around if you really really need the preview functionality. It will surely add some maintenance and support time and headache...
I know from the core team that they are looking into it. Don't have any details on timing though.
Let me know if you need more details on my experience with courier. Hope this helps.
But I'll second Slace and Andrea, and say that if your clients is requesting the possibility of previewing not published content, you're probably better of considering some kind of staging environment. After all Umbraco licenses are free right, so you don't have to pay for multiple instances.
This is an issue for us (which we control by not having preview available for our clients).
Its very very rare which we don't load content using XSLT. The reason for this is it means if we need to make changes site wide we can edit say one XSLT file rather rather than 25+ templates!
As I said its not a huge issue at the moment, but it would be nice to see this being fix at some point.
It really comes into play when you are populating forms, so the preview/template needs to have logic on each field, eg. don't display a whole section of a form if there's no data present.
Why doesn't preview always work?
Hi,
I created a simple Doc Type and and XSLT file to list all child subpages of the current page, along with a template and Macro to display them. If I publish the parent page and its children, the list displays fine, but in preview, the list is empty. Why could this be?
Thanks,
Garrett
There are some problems with XSLT and the preview-function. In example, it's not possible to preview a content-field wich is rendered through XSLT. And that's a shame. I really hope that it will work in the future.
Well that's kind of a huge bug, isn't it? Clients are not happy about having to publish something to See it!
//Garrett
Not sure if it is a bug or a feature in this case. If you would like to see this functionality or if it is truely a bug, please log in on codeplex.
http://www.codeplex.com/umbraco
Cheers,
Nik
It's already logged on codeplex.
Without starting a huge argument regarding preview I've always believed that it comes down to a split problem of who should be responsible for it. Is it the responsibility of the developer to have their code work with the different states, or should it be the responsibility of the API you're accessing to have the smarts to know the context of the data required.
I'm of the belief that it should come down to the developer, but with the API providing enough 'hooks' so that you can achieve this. Why do I say this? Well it's because it's very hard to determine all the ways a developer may want to use the API, so it's generally easier to have them handle it the way they need, not the way the API designer believes they'll need it.
But that's just my opinion. As for what's happening with preview in Umbraco, that's something I can't get into, it's out of my hands :)
You might try considering Courier (Umbraco PRO) for this. Basically you would have a completely separate environment in which you could create/publish your stuff and then transfer to your real environment when ready.
We're currently doing it, but I wouldn't say it's an optimal solution, there are many constraints and drawbacks. (anyway, I don't think it's the intended use of Courier) Just a work around if you really really need the preview functionality. It will surely add some maintenance and support time and headache...
I know from the core team that they are looking into it. Don't have any details on timing though.
Let me know if you need more details on my experience with courier. Hope this helps.
Andrea
Bump!
Seems like last post is from August. Is there any update in regards of this issue? Can anyone point out issue number in codeplex on this?
You're probably looking for: http://umbraco.codeplex.com/WorkItem/View.aspx?WorkItemId=16705
But I'll second Slace and Andrea, and say that if your clients is requesting the possibility of previewing not published content, you're probably better of considering some kind of staging environment. After all Umbraco licenses are free right, so you don't have to pay for multiple instances.
Regards
Jesper Hauge
This is an issue for us (which we control by not having preview available for our clients).
Its very very rare which we don't load content using XSLT. The reason for this is it means if we need to make changes site wide we can edit say one XSLT file rather rather than 25+ templates!
As I said its not a huge issue at the moment, but it would be nice to see this being fix at some point.
It really comes into play when you are populating forms, so the preview/template needs to have logic on each field, eg. don't display a whole section of a form if there's no data present.
/Lau
Good point LaurenceG, perhaps this can be "fixed" by hiding preview on non-published nodes.
Awesome looks like this is fixed in 4.1 beta 2!
http://umbraco.codeplex.com/WorkItem/View.aspx?WorkItemId=16705
Have yet to try it
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