The problem of accurately previewing changes to site content, especially in the context of other content (whether new or existing) has been a daunting challenge for years. First addressed by the Site Preview System (SPS) as part of the Large Scale Drupal initiative, and more recently as the Content Preview System (CPS), the problem still exists. Using a new suite of both new and existing contributed modules, and leveraging the work being done as part of the core Workflow Initiative, the Workspace Preview System (WPS) is the third - and we hope definitive - solution to this space. In this webinar, learn about how the Workspace Preview System can solve your content preview problems, with topics including: -The history of Preview in Drupal -Implementation details, including what contrib modules are used and what Lightning adds -Different scenarios in which you’d use Workspace Preview System -Current Workspace Preview System status and roadmap

1. Workspace Preview System
Solve your content preview problems

2. ©2016 Acquia Inc. - Confidential and Proprietary
Who We Are
Joe Purcell
Tech Analyst and Senior Web Developer
Digital Bridge
/u/josephdpurcell
Adam Balsam
Tech Lead - Lightning
Acquia
/u/balsama
● Joe helped on the initial D8 port of WBM
● Adam helped coordinate efforts under
Module Acceleration Program
● Joe became a bridge between the
Lightning Team and what has become
the Workflow Initiative

3. ©2016 Acquia Inc. - Confidential and Proprietary
Introducing...
The Workspace Preview System (WPS) gives site builders, editors, authors, and
reviewers the ability to send collections of content through an editorial workflow
and preview that content within the context of the current live site. WPS is a
collection of contributed Drupal modules with additional configuration and UX
improvements that all just works out of the box.
● Think of workspaces as containers of content
● Containers which can be sent through a workflow
● ...and “merged” into one another

4. ©2016 Acquia Inc. - Confidential and Proprietary
Where to get
● WPS comes with the Lightning Distribution
(https://github.com/acquia/lightning-project)
● It is disabled by default - enable during installation or from
the modules page: Lightning Preview

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Inspiring predecessors
Site Preview System (SPS)
https://www.drupal.org/project/sps
Content Preview System (CPS)
https://www.drupal.org/project/cps
WPS difference
● Allows changes on the Live site
● Integrates directly with Workbench
Moderation (Core Content
Moderation in the future)
● Based on a large suite of contrib
modules

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Contrib Base
WPS Includes
● Multiversion
● Replication
● Workspace
● WBM
WPS Future
● Trash
● WBM -> Content Moderation
Should play nicely with
● Deploy
● RELAXEDws

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Workflow Initiative
Most of these modules are a direct result of the Core
Workflow Initiative.
Workflow Initiative:
https://www.drupal.org/node/2721129
Bring major improvements to Drupal’s content workflow,
preview and staging capabilities. It will be done by primarily
extending and improving aspects of the Entity API in core.

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Workflow States
● WPS uses Workbench Moderation to assign workflow
states to workspaces
● By default: Draft, Needs Review, Published
● When a workspace is set to Published, its content is it
merged with the upstream workspace

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Workspaces
Workspaces can be:
● Full “copies” of your live site
● Filtered versions of your live site (e.g. no comments, only
articles)
● Empty - only hold new content added directly to the
workspace

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Creating Workspaces
● Workspaces are content Entities
(/admin/structure/workspace)
● When creating a workspace, you can:
○ Set the Upstream (parent) workspace
○ Set the workflow state
○ Add filters
● WPS ships with two workspaces OOTB: Live and Stage

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Interacting with Workspaces
● From the toolbar, you can
○ Switch between workspaces
○ Create workspaces (link)
○ Update (pull changes from Live) the current workspace (update not
available on Live)

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Example Scenarios
● World Series Scenario
○ Two possible outcomes, two workspaces ready to go
● Product Launch
○ Many changes to site in single, possibly chained workspace
● Multimedia Stories
○ Isolated blog post with related media, taxonomy entities that can’t be
published before the blog post

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Demo
● Create unpublished content on Live (note media is
published even though content is not)
● Pull content to Stage
● Create new content on Stage with media (note media is
not visible on Live)
● Send Stage workspace through workflow
● Publish Stage (note content and associated media has
been pushed)

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Locking config entities
● Config Entities are not revisionable and, as a result, are not
unique to workspaces
● Editing a config entity on the non-Live workspace will result
in the Live site being changed
● To avoid confusion, WPS locks config entities from being
edited entirely unless the user is on the Live workspace

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Locking content entities (locked states)
● Introducing states and transitions (workflows) to
Workspaces made us define what a “Published”
workspace is exactly
● We decided that workspaces in certain states should be
locked
● Content Entities in workspaces that are in a locked states
cannot be modified

16. ©2016 Acquia Inc. - Confidential and Proprietary
Roadmap
● Currently experimental
(http://lightning.acquia.com/lightning-experimental-modules)
● Migrate to Content Moderation

17. Questions?
Comments?

18. More information:
http://lightning.acquia.com/blog/introducing-workspace-preview-system
Link to this presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17wb-qHhCZLTHzs4irsNXnUHBN7ps-iSpANuGVSuAhkQ/edit?usp=sharing
Thank you