Future Time Machine

The Universal Visual Editor's Future Time Machine allows previewing and scheduled publishing of different content and page versions.

Future Time Machine Date Picker.

Setting Up#


To begin using the Future Time Machine, first ensure your content type has a Publish Date field configured in the system. That is, the content type must have a Date and Time field, with the System Indexed box checked. Then, within the content type editor, click Edit in the top right corner and ensure the Date and Time field is selected in the Publish Date dropdown.

Publish Date selector in the Content Editor properties dialog.

For more information, see the Setting Publish and Expire Dates page.

Usage#


Once a content type is appropriately set up, as described above, using the Future Time Machine is as simple as setting a date.

Select the contentlet to be added or updated, and ensure a future date is indicated in the field selected as the Publish Date.

As an example, let's change the banner on the homepage of the dotCMS Demo Site. After configuring a publish date, let's set it to the recent past, and republish:

FTM Past-date edit.

Now, let's bump the date into the near future, and make a small change to the banner's headline text.

FTM Future-date edit with text change.

Once you hit Publish, the first thing you'll notice is a toast message indicating that your content has been saved, but not published — it recognizes that this version of the content is not meant to go live, yet.

Toast message.

With that, we return to the UVE.

In Draft and Preview viewing modes, our new content version should be visible immediately; those two viewing modes are on both keyed to display working/draft versions.

However, the Future Time Machine lives in the Live mode. Switching over to that, you'll find your changes nowhere to be seen:

FTM Past-date live mode.

That is, until you select a date after the specified publish date:

FTM future-date live mode.

Beyond that point, the changes become visible, and the future is yours to command.

Troubleshooting#


  • The first and most important step is contained in Setting Up: If the target content type's Publish Date field is not configured, the Future Time Machine will not be able to function.
    • Ensure you use a Date and Time field, rather than merely a Date field.
    • Ensure you've selected the field in the content type editor's dialog.
  • If you are not seeing the correct behavior immediately after adding a Date and Time field to a content type that previously lacked one, you may need to perform a reindex.