Publishing copies your saved draft to the live portal served on your custom domain. Until you publish, no participant can reach any content — you are free to design, iterate, and preview for as long as you need. This guide covers the publish flow, what participants experience at launch, pushing updates, and rollback.

Prerequisites

• At least one page with a valid slug exists in the portal
• A verified panel domain is assigned in the Branding tab (only verified domains appear in the selector — see Setting Up a Custom Domain if needed)
• You have reviewed the portal in the Preview tab and are happy with the experience

Publishing

1. From the Design editor, click the Publish tab.
2. Review the summary — domain, page count, and current version.
3. Click Publish.

The portal status changes from Draft to Published in a few seconds. Your domain (e.g. https://panel.acme.com) is immediately live and serving participants.

What Participants See at Launch

A participant who visits your portal domain sees the branded login screen — your logo in the header, your login title as the bold headline, and your login description as the explanatory text below it. After signing in they land on the portal’s default page and navigate freely using the sidebar menu you designed.

Authentication is tenant-scoped: a visitor whose account belongs to a different organization is redirected away even if they know your domain. Participants can never see another organization’s data.

Sharing the Portal URL

Your portal URL is simply your panel domain: https://panel.acme.com. Share it via:

• Survey invitation emails and SMS messages — participants who complete a survey can be directed back to their portal dashboard
• Welcome emails sent to new panel or program members
• Your organization’s website, intranet, or support documentation
• QR codes for print materials, packaging inserts, or physical signage
• Automation flows — trigger a welcome email with the portal URL whenever a new participant is added to a contact list

Updating a Live Portal

You can edit a published portal without taking it offline. The live version keeps serving participants while your changes accumulate in the draft. When you are ready to push updates:

1. Make your edits in the Design editor as usual (auto-saved continuously).
2. Preview the changes in the Preview tab.
3. Go to the Publish tab and click Publish again.

The live portal switches to the new version atomically on the next page load — no downtime, no disruption for participants already using the portal.

Version History and Rollback

Every saved state is preserved. To roll back to a previous version:

1. Open the Design editor and click the Version History icon (clock) in the toolbar.
2. Find the version you want and click Restore.
3. The restored state becomes the new draft.
4. Preview it, then click Publish to push it live.

Unpublishing

To take a portal offline without deleting it:

1. Go to the portal’s Publish tab.
2. Click Unpublish.

Participants who visit the domain see an unavailable page. The design, version history, and domain assignment are all preserved — republish at any time to bring it back.

Managing Multiple Portals

Settings → Portal Designs lists every portal with its name, status (Draft / Published), assigned domain, version number, and last-modified time. You can run as many portals as you need — a retailer panel on portal.acme.com, an employee hub on staff.acme.com, and a partner portal on partners.acme.com — each designed, branded, and published independently.

Troubleshooting

• Publish button is greyed out — no verified panel domain is assigned. Open the Branding tab and select a domain from the Panel domain dropdown, or add one first via Settings → Domains → Participant Panel.
• Domain shows “not configured” after publishing — the domain may still be in Pending verification. Complete the DNS steps in Settings → Domains first.
• Participants see stale content after republishing — the browser cached the previous version. Ask them to hard-refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows/Linux, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac).
• After sign-in participants land on the wrong page — check the default page setting in the Pages tab. The default slug determines where participants are routed after authentication.
• A data list or detail component shows an error — the entity type or column configuration is likely incorrect. Return to the Design tab, select the component, and verify its settings.

Related Guides

• Participant Portal — Overview & Use Cases
• Setting Up a Custom Domain
• Building Your Portal
• Previewing and Testing Your Portal