Publish, update or unpublish a widget
Publish a widget so your website can show it, edit it while it's live, try changes on a copy first, or unpublish it to take it off your site.
Your website shows a widget only while it's published. To publish one, open it in the widget builder and click Publish in the top bar. After that, the builder saves every edit to the live widget, so there's nothing to publish again. To take a widget off your site without deleting it, open the menu next to Get code and choose Unpublish Widget. To redesign a live widget without your visitors seeing the work in progress, don't unpublish it: choose Duplicate in its menu on the Widgets page and change the copy, which starts as a draft with its own embed code. When it's ready, publish it and replace the code on your site with the copy's. See Try changes on a copy first.
The workspace owner and the project's Admins can publish, edit and unpublish widgets. Other teammates see You don't have access to manage widgets on the Widgets page.
Open the widget
On the Widgets page, under Share in your project's sidebar, click the widget's name, or Edit. The builder opens.
A new widget starts as a Draft, shown in the badge beside its name. Once it's live, the badge reads Published.
Publish it
Click Publish in the top bar, or in the Preview window. A widget in Curate needs at least one testimonial before you can publish it.
An Auto-sync or Proof Match widget fills itself, so it can be published before any testimonial matches its rules. You're asked first: Publish with nothing to show? Click Publish anyway to put it live empty, or Not yet to change the rules on the Content tab first.
The badge changes to Published, and a menu button takes the place of Publish, next to Get code.
You can also publish without opening the builder: on the Widgets page, click Publish on a draft, or choose Publish from its menu. If you came for the embed code, Get code has Publish and copy code, which does both.
Add it to your website
A published widget appears wherever its embed code is. If the code isn't on a page yet, add it to your website.
If you can't publish
- "Add at least one testimonial before publishing". The widget is in Curate and has no testimonials yet. On the Widgets page it reads Needs testimonials and has no Publish button. Add one on the Content tab: see Choose which testimonials a widget shows.
- The builder shows a banner and no Publish button. Your plan doesn't include the widget's type. On the Widgets page, Publish answers with a message that the layout needs a higher plan. Upgrade, or move the widget to a type your plan includes: see Plans and limits.
- A message that starts "Your last change wasn't saved". The builder couldn't save your latest change, so it didn't publish. The message ends with the reason. Fix that, then click Publish again.
- A message that starts "This project is read-only" or "This workspace is read-only". Nothing in the project can be changed until its owner fixes that. See Project is read-only.
- "This widget is archived. Restore it first, then publish it." The builder shows Archived beside the widget's name and no Publish button. On the Widgets page, open the Archived tab and click Restore, then publish it.
Editing a published widget
A published widget has no separate draft. The builder saves your edits to the live widget, and your site picks them up shortly, without new embed code. If your site still doesn't match the preview, see Widget looks different on your website.
An edit is live once the top bar shows that it saved, such as Saved just now: see Undo, redo and saving. The one edit that changes the embed code is a switch to a style that floats over the page: see Do I need new embed code after I edit a widget?
Try changes on a copy first
To try bigger changes without your visitors seeing them, open the widget's menu on the Widgets page and choose Duplicate. The copy starts as a draft with its own embed code.
The copy has the original's name with "(Copy)" added, and the same type, design, settings, testimonials and rules. It counts toward your plan's widgets, so Duplicate is unavailable while the project is at its limit: see How many widgets can I create?
Because the copy has its own code, putting it live means publishing it and replacing the code on your site with the copy's.
Take a widget off your site
To hide a widget from your site without deleting it, open the menu next to Get code and choose Unpublish Widget, then confirm with Unpublish. The widget goes back to Draft and stops appearing on your site until you publish it again.
On the Widgets page, the same action is Unpublish in the widget's menu, and it asks first too. Unpublishing changes nothing else: the widget keeps its design, its testimonials and its code, so publishing it again brings it back on your site with no new code.
To archive or delete it instead, see What is the difference between unpublishing, archiving and deleting a widget?.
How soon your site shows a change
Publishing, an edit and unpublishing all reach your site within a few minutes, not at once: a browser that loaded the widget a moment ago keeps that version for a short while. To check a change, wait a few minutes, then reload the page.
If your site still hasn't followed, see Widget not showing on your website or Widget looks different on your website.
What happens next
On the Widgets page, a published widget is listed under Published, and its button changes from Publish to Copy embed. One you unpublish goes back under Drafts.
On Pro, Premium and Business, a published widget's status reads Live or No recent views in place of Published: see The Widgets page says "No recent views".
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Set up Proof Match rules
Show different testimonials by page, campaign or referring site with Proof Match rules, test them in the simulator and fix a rule that never matches.
Keep the widget you built before signing up
Sign up from the free widget builder, find your widget in your dashboard and publish it, and get past the screens that can stop you on the way.