ATG Content Administration and Asset Manager provide a preview feature that lets you test project assets on a preview server before deploying them to your live sites. You can evaluate the assets from the perspective of different user profiles.

This chapter provides an overview of preview capabilities and describes how to set it up in your environment. For information about previewing assets, see the ATG Business Control Center User's Guide or the documentation for your application.

This chapter applies to both Flex-based applications, such as Merchandising and Site Administration, and JSP-based applications, such as ATG Content Administration.

You can preview the following asset types:

Preview is best suited for environments where content developers and reviewers need to evaluate their work regularly on a production-like site before deployment. If your environment includes Merchandising, the Visual Merchandising features allow business users to edit categories, products, and SKUs directly from a preview session. For more information, see the ATG Merchandising Administration Guide.

Configured through Nucleus components, preview is easy to set up and can support a rich matrix of user profiles and preview sites that are readily accessible to users. You can deploy the preview application on ATG servers that do not run the Oracle ATG Web Commerce Business Control Center, and thereby safely provide preview access to users who lack Business Control Center login privileges.

Preview is project-based; that is, it shows asset changes in the project where the preview session is launched. Assets outside the project show the state they were in when last checked in. Review of cross-project dependencies requires deployment to a staging site, where multiple projects can be deployed and reviewed.

You cannot preview the following items: