Document states and lifecycle

This article covers the various document states of page elements in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce.

Document state descriptions

The Page elements article lists various documents types in the content management system (CMS). These document types can have several states in the authoring tool. The document states help prevent data conflicts and enforce version control. They determine who can change the documents, when the documents can be changed, and when changes can be viewed by other people.

The following table shows the possible document states of page elements in Commerce.

Document state	Site builder action	Description
Checked out	Select Edit.	The applicable document is checked out to you. While a document is in this state, it can't be changed by other authenticated system users, and any changes that you make to the document are visible only to you.
Saved	Select Save.	Changes that have been made to a checked-out document are saved to the database, but the document isn't yet checked in or published. The saved changes aren't visible to other authenticated system users until the author selects Finish editing. They aren't visible to external users until the item is published.
Discarded check out	Select Discard edits.	All changes to the checked-out document are discarded, and the item reverts to the last version that was checked in.
Checked in	Select Finish editing.	The edited document is checked in. All changes are visible to other authenticated system users, and those users can then edit the document. Each check-in creates a document version record in the item's history.
Published	Select Publish.	The document is published, and the changes are pushed to your live site and become discoverable by external users. Items can be published only if they have first been checked in by selecting Finish editing.

Additional resources

Ways to add content

Page model glossary

Work with publish groups

Enable and use cross-channel sharing

Work with modules

Work with fragments

Templates and layouts overview

Customize site navigation