This article covers the new Publishing feature. If you haven't activated it yet, learn more about it here!
The Zingtree Publishing feature gives you flexibility and control to author trees and change them over time. For example, Agents will utilize a script in its last published state, while Authors can continue to make edits. Once the tree's Author is satisfied with the edits, those changes can be published and shown to Agents.
Status Definitions
On the My Trees page the Status column indicates the current state of your trees. The definition of each status is as follows:
Draft status: When a new tree is created, it is in Draft status. It can be viewed via a preview test link by you, your team, or anyone else who needs to preview it. | |
Live status: When a tree has been published and it has no outstanding changes, it is in Live status. The tree can be deployed to your production environment with a Production Link. | |
Unpublished Changes status: This status is shown when you’ve made changes to a Live tree, but haven’t published the changes yet. The latest changes can be viewed at the Test Link and can be published to the Production link using the Publish button. | |
No status: Trees with no status icon are trees that were created under the legacy Push Live feature. These trees stay unlabeled until edits are made, at which time "Publish" is required to push the changes to the production URL. | |
Scheduled to Publish: A publish event has been scheduled for a future time/date. |
From within the editor, the tree's toolbar will display the current status:
Publishing Process
- Create a new tree or edit an existing tree and continue to make edits until you are ready to publish your changes. When previewing a tree that has unpublished changes, a yellow banner will appear at the top.
To provide a Preview link to a colleague or stakeholder, click the Publish button from the tree's toolbar. Copy the Preview link. The preview link is the currently unpublished version of your tree and contains all of the tree's contents including your recent unpublished changes. If this tree has not been published previously, you'll see this:
If the tree has been published previously, you'll see both the Preview link with unpublished changes and the Production link: - When you are satisfied with your changes and are ready to make your edits live, click the Publish Tree button (for new trees) or the Publish Changes to Production button (for existing trees).
- Next you can add some Release Notes. These help you keep track of releases. Any notes you enter here will appear in the tree's Version History/Snapshots tool.
- Agent Alert Message: When this option is enabled, your alert message will be shown to your agents the next time they use this tree. Read more about Agent Alerts here.
- Click the Publish Tree button.
Scheduled Publish
There may be occasions when you want your unpublished changes to be published on a specific date and time in the future. Here's how you can make that happen:
- When publishing, choose the option to Publish at a later date/time:
- Input the date and time that you would like the unpublished changes to go live.
- This date cannot be more than 6 months in the future.
- The timezone reflected is the timezone that you have selected in your Zingtree Account Profile. To change your profile's timezone, go to My Account > My Profile.
- Enter any Release Notes or optional Agent Alert Message.
- Click the Publish Tree at Scheduled date/time button to confirm.
You will receive an email confirmation that you've scheduled the future publishing of the tree. You'll also receive an email reminder 24 hours before the changes are published.
Canceling a scheduled publish
Once a publish event has been scheduled, you'll notice a banner in the Tree Editor:
- Click the Cancel this release link in the banner, or click the Publish button.
- Click the Cancel button:
Editing the date/time of a scheduled publish
- Click the Publish button.
- Click the Change date/time button to edit the time and date of your scheduled publishing.
If you used to use "Push Live"
This documented Publishing process replaces the legacy Push Live process. However, the new URL paths like /preview and /live will not impact any currently published trees that were using the legacy URL patterns with 000 appended to the Tree ID. We will continue to support the old patterns and redirect when needed.
Additional Publishing Information
- Trees in a status of DRAFT will automatically be hidden from the Agent Portal until they are first Published. From that point forward, the last published version of the tree will be shown in Agent Portal unless hidden from Settings > Security.
- Trees in a status of DRAFT will automatically be hidden from Search All and Search Form results until they are first Published. From that point forward, the last published version of the tree will be shown in Search All and Search Form results unless hidden from Settings > Security.
- Tree Nodes: When connecting trees via Tree Nodes that are currently in Draft status or have unpublished changes you will see this warning:
Be sure to publish linked trees for their edits to be seen via Tree Nodes.
Deployment
To access the Deployment Setup window, click the Deployment Setup link from the Publish menu:
The Deployment Setup window includes everything you need to deploy your tree to your CRM, web page, Zingtree Agent Portal, and more.
Choose the type of setup you'd like to deploy from the left pane. Each option is explained below.
Integrate in CRM
To utilize the benefits of the Zingtree Publishing feature, ensure the Tree ID in your CRM production environment contains three zeros at the end. This embeds the production version, which is updated when the Tree is published.
For CRM-specific instructions, find the following Zingtree Installation Guides:
You'll also find these resources in the Deployment Setup window:
Embed in Web Page
Here you'll find everything you need to embed your tree on an existing web page via an iFrame or launch via a button on your site. Read more about Embedding Trees.
Zingtree Agent Portal
For contact centers or internal use, your trees can be accessed via the Agent Portal. Each agent gets their own account login and password and accesses trees from the Agent Portal hosted on zingtree.com. Trees in a status of DRAFT will automatically be hidden from the Agent Portal.
Read more about Agent Portal and Agent Portal Setup Options.
Standalone Page
A standalone page is a tree viewed from a production link directly in the browser. Important note: Do not use this link for your Agents daily access to a tree unless you have set up the link with the proper URL parameters and Agents have been trained to not re-use the same page for each session. Instead, Agent Portal or a CRM integration is recommended.