Publishing flow

NOTE
Adobe Experience Platform Launch has been rebranded as a suite of data collection technologies in Adobe Experience Platform. Several terminology changes have rolled out across the product documentation as a result. Please refer to the following document for a consolidated reference of the terminology changes.

The tags publishing flow in Adobe Experience Platform refers to the process of creating libraries, testing builds, and approving them for production.

The available actions that you can make on a library depend on the library’s state and the level of permission you have. In addition, a library’s state also affects the resources it contains (rules, data elements, and extensions) depending on what is upstream in the publishing flow.

The sections below cover the details about permissions, library state, and the upstream as they pertain to the publishing flow.

Permissions permissions

There are different levels of user permissions that are important for the publishing flow; specifically, the Develop, Approve, and Publish property rights:

  • Develop: Includes the ability to create libraries, build for development, and submit for approval.
  • Approve: Includes the ability to build for staging and approve staged builds.
  • Publish: Includes the ability to publish an approved library.

These rights are not inclusive. For a single person to perform the workflow from start to finish, that person must be granted all three rights within a given property.

See the user permissions guide for more information on managing permissions for tags.

Library state state

When it comes to the publishing flow, there are four basic states that a library can be in:

These four states are represented as columns within the Publishing Flow tab.

Specific actions must be taken to move a library between these states. The following diagram outlines each action that moves a library between states:

Development development

When new libraries are created, they start in the Development state. Any changes to a library must be made while the library is in Development. When development and testing are completed, the library can be submitted for approval.

The following table outlines the available actions for a library in the Development state:

Action
Description
Edit
Use the Edit Library screen to add or remove components from the library.
Build to Development
Create a build for the library. The build is compiled and deployed to the environment that the library is assigned to. This step fails if the library has not been assigned to an environment, or contains a change that is already defined in the upstream.
Submit for Approval
Unassign the library from the development environment, and move the library to the Submitted column for a user with approval permissions to work on. The most recent build for the library must be successful in order for this option to be enabled.
Submit & Build to Staging
This can only be performed by a user with both the Develop and Approve rights. This action unassigns the library from the development environment, moves the library to the Submitted state, and builds the library to the staging environment. The most recent build for the library must be successful in order for this option to be enabled.
Approve for Publishing
This can only be performed by a user with both the Develop and Approve rights. This action unassigns the library from the development environment and moves it to the Approved state - skipping the staging environment and the Submitted state entirely. The most recent build for the library must be successful in order for this option to be enabled.
Approve & Publish to Production
This can only be performed by a user with the Develop, Approve, and Publish rights. This action unassigns the library from the development environment, moves it to the Approved state, and publishes to production. Upon completion of the production build, the library will move to the Published state. The most recent build for the library must be successful in order for this option to be enabled.
Delete
Remove the library from the system. This does not remove the build from the environment.

Submitted submitted

When a library is in the Submitted state, a user with approval permissions can test the library in the staging environment. When testing is completed, the library can be approved or rejected. Rejected builds go back to Development so additional changes can be made before restarting the publishing flow.

The following table outlines the available actions for a library in the Submitted state:

Action
Description
Open
View the contents of the library. Changes are not allowed for libraries outside of the Development column. If changes are needed, the library should be rejected so changes can be made in Development.
Build for Staging
Build the library in the staging environment for deployment.
Approve for Publishing
Move the library to the Approved column for a user with publishing permissions to work on.
Approve & Publish to Production
This can only be performed by a user with both Approve and Publish rights. This action unassigns the library from the staging environment, moves it to the Approved state, and publishes to production. Upon completion of the production build, the library will move to the Published state. This can be performed with our without a successful build in the staging environment.
Reject
Unassign the library from the staging environment and move the library back to the Development column for further changes.

Approved approved

Once a library has been approved, a user with publishing permissions can publish or reject the library. Rejected builds go back to Development so that further changes can be made before the publishing flow begins again.

The following table outlines the available actions for a library in the Approved state:

Action
Description
Open
View the contents of the library. Changes are not allowed for libraries outside of the Development column. If changes are needed, the library should be rejected so changes can be made in Development.
Build and Publish to Production
Unassign the library from the staging environment, assign the library to the production environment, and deploy it.

Important: When this option is selected, your library becomes live in your production environment. Ensure that the library contains the changes you want before you select this option.
Reject
Unassign the library from the staging environment and move the library to the Development column for further changes.

Published published

The Published column shows which libraries have been published and their publish dates. The currently published library will show with a green dot next to it. Unless you have performed a republish on a previous library, this will always be the library at the top of the column.

Action
Description
Open
View the contents of the library. Changes are not allowed for libraries outside of the Development column. If you want to change what is in your production environment, you must create a new library and move it through the complete publishing process.
Republish
This action is only available on the five most recently published libraries, and only if the production environment is (A) configured with the Archive option off and (b) uses a Managed by Adobe host at the time of the build.
Download
This action is only available on the five most recently published libraries, and only if the production environment is (A) configured with the Archive option on and (b) uses a Managed by Adobe host at the time of the build.

Upstream upstream

After you have published your first library, it becomes important to understand the role of the upstream as you move newer libraries through the publishing flow.

If a library is currently in the Development, Submitted, or Approved stage, that library will inherit the rules, data elements, and extensions of any libraries that are upstream. These inherited resources constitute a “baseline” for each library as they move through the publishing flow. Essentially, you can think of each new library simply as a series of changes to the baseline that is established by the upstream. This ensures that nothing gets unexpectedly overwritten from a previous library when a new iteration is published.

What is included in the upstream depends on the current stage of the library. For example, libraries in the Approved column only inherit resources from the Published library, whereas libraries under Development inherit resources from all other columns.

When editing a library in the UI, all resources that are inherited from the upstream are represented in the Resources Upstream section. To view these resources, select the expand tab below the section heading.

The section expands to show the individual resources that are inherited from the upstream. You can use the left rail to filter between Rules, Data Elements, and Extensions, or use the search bar to look up a specific resource by name.

Next steps

This guide provided a high-level overview of the publishing flow for libraries in Adobe Experience Platform. To learn more about how to publish your libraries, refer to the publishing overview.

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