2

Publishing Documents

Why GLOBAL-SITE Controller?

The GLOBAL-SITE Controller is used to manage the process of accumulating a logically consistent set of content, and copying it to a set of content servers in a controlled way.

The basic process involves:

• Capturing files from one or more sources
• Storing them on the GLOBAL-SITE Controller for archived publications
• Distributing those files to a set of content servers

In order to define related sets of files, including where and how they are distributed to different servers, you establish relatively static relationships among a set of objects.

Those relationships are the key to achieving your goal in updating your file sets on the set of systems. The GLOBAL-SITE Controller helps you manage the various steps in the process of moving the files through the pre-defined states of publishing, whether it is updating or delivering the files.

Understanding GLOBAL-SITE objects

In order to follow the basic GLOBAL-SITE Controller processes, it is important to understand the fundamental GLOBAL-SITE elements. You should also be aware of issues you need to consider when planning the organization of your publishing systems, deciding what you want to do in configuring the GLOBAL-SITE Controller, and managing and delivering your content.

• A section contains information that tells the GLOBAL-SITE Controller how to get a set of files that it collects from a source. In archived publications, editions contain versions of sections, which reference the changed files.
• A publication is one or more sections to be published together to one or more subscribers. An edition of a publication is a set of section/version pairs used in archived publications.
• An archived publication stores a copy of each file for each edition on the GLOBAL-SITE Controller. In non-archived publications, the GLOBAL-SITE Controller stores no content, but keeps a version list of dated files.
• A distributor is a remote GLOBAL-SITE Controller that provides access to additional remote content servers. A publisher can deliver publications directly to content servers, known as subscribers, or deliver to a distributor which then delivers the publication to the subscribers.

It may help you to consider the GLOBAL-SITE elements as relating to a publication like a newspaper.

A publication is a set of content like a newspaper or online magazine. Publications are made up of sections.

A section is a set of files that stores related content. For example, a section could be an online news article that consists of two files: an HTML file that contains the article text, and a GIF file that contains a related picture. Together these files make up the section that the end user views as a single article.

In archived publications, sections have versions (identified with numbers) associated with each file included in the section. For example, you publish a news story section, and then an hour later you review more information about the story. You can revise the HTML file, and publish it as a new version of the section. (In non-archived publications, there are no version numbers, but a date and time show the last time the section was retrieved, and you simply republish the section.)

Archived publications also have editions, similar to newspaper editions. In the context of the GLOBAL-SITE Controller, an edition of a publication is a set of sections with specific version numbers.

A subscriber is the person or business to which the publication is delivered. To publish or distribute to subscribers, you must know their location, and how to get there.

Planning to configure the GLOBAL-SITE Controller

Before you begin configuring the GLOBAL-SITE Controller, it is a good idea to consider what you need, and to plan what you are going to do, and how you want to do it. This helps save time since you can initially set things up in the way that will be most efficient for you in the long run.

You need to define:

• Where you are going to look for new content
• Where you are going to put it
• Whether you want to create archived or non-archived publications

You can use any file as content as long as you can specify a path to the server and directory that stores the file, and a method of access for the file. The GLOBAL-SITE Controller collects the content from this location, and (for archived publications), stores it as a version of a section. For each archived section, the GLOBAL-SITE Controller stores two things: it stores the content of each file included in the section, and it stores the access information for the section.

Once you have defined the content (that the GLOBAL-SITE Controller stores as a version of a section), you can later distribute the content to one or more content servers, referred to as subscribers. However, before you can publish the content, you need to know which servers subscribe to the content, and provide a path for delivering the content to them. This process of taking content from one place that you define, and putting it somewhere else that you define, using a prescribed set of steps, is referred to as the publishing cycle.

For your planning purposes, you need to understand the basic difference between archived and non-archived publications.

• Archived publications allow you to revert to a previous edition or section version by storing copies of the content on the GLOBAL-SITE Controller.
• Non-archived publications provide a faster content replication and delivery, but do not provide versioning abilities.

Remember that archived publications and non-archived publications are mutually exclusive. Archived publications have only archived sections. You can create non-archived sections only within a non-archived publication. You cannot change an archived publication to a non-archived publication, or vice versa, except by first recreating the publication with a new name, and then deleting the old one. For more details about non-archived publications, refer to Creating non-archived publications in Chapter 3.

Defining publications

The key to configuring a GLOBAL-SITE Controller is:

• Determine what the logical publications are.
• Determine which sections each publication includes.

For example, one of your publications may be a quarterly report. This publication may include sections such as: Word from the CEO, Company Mission Statement and Goals, Investors, Customer Listing, Investments this year, Profits, Projections, and Summary. Another publication might be an monthly marketing update or a weekly recruiting listing. You may find that some sections, such as Company Mission and Goals, are useful in more than one publication.

Although you decide about the publication first, when using the GLOBAL-SITE Controller, it makes sense to define the sections first, and then define the publication. Before proceeding further, you need to plan the overall organization of the publications, and the sections per publication.

Each publication defines two major relationships:

1. The sections that are published together
2. The set of subscribers receiving the content from a given section

The publication organizes the sections you have defined. It is this publication that is delivered, to the subscribers. For example, a publication can be defined as your web site (www.yoursite.com) which is composed of many separate sections (www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin, www.yoursite.com/marketing, and so on).

A publication also has a significant attribute that you determine when you create the publication: it can be archived or non-archived. This affects how the publication is delivered, and whether or not versions are stored. Note that, the screens you work with while managing your publication have subtle differences based on the type of publication you are working with.

This chapter of the Administrator Guide deals primarily with archived publications, but you can find more details about non-archived publications in Creating non-archived publications in Chapter 3, and in the online help.

Creating the publication

You need to assign a unique name to each publication. This name is a label, and identifies the publication in the various work screens through the browser interface.

For our example, assume you are creating a publication called WebPub1. You use the New Publication screen. (From the navigation pane on the left side of the GLOBAL-SITE browser interface, click Add a Publication.)

Note: In the GLOBAL-SITE Controller, the screen name appears in the application title bar, across the top of the browser interface, and is not included on most screens shown as figures in this chapter. The screen names are shown in the figure caption for each screen.

Figure 2.1 The New Publication screen

There is a field for the name of the publication, and an optional description. To define how the publication delivery process works, you can set or change the publishing, scheduling, and error handling options now, or later.

To add a publication

Open the New Publication screen.

1. For archived publications, such as the example, use the default setting, where the Archive publication editions and section versions check box is checked. For a non-archived publication, clear the check box.
   
   
   • In an archived publication, the GLOBAL-SITE Controller maintains copies, or editions, of your publications. You can roll back your subscriber content to a previous version, and retrieve old files if necessary.
     
     
   • A non-archived publication takes content directly from the source and moves it directly to the subscriber. It does not keep copies of the content on the GLOBAL-SITE Controller; it does not create editions.
2. In the Name box, type the name of the publication you are adding.
   
   
3. In the Description box, type a description. This is optional, for your own use.

This is the minimum that you have to do to create a new publication. You could click the Add button now, and have a new publication. However, if you want to add scheduling and error handling options to the publication, continue with the remainder of the steps here.

Note that you do not have to decide on the publication options now. You can set them at a later time with the Publication Options screen. For more information about publishing delays, scheduling, and error handling options, refer to the online help for the New Publication or Publication Options screen.

• In the Initiate Publishing Process area, indicate whether you want publishing to be initiated manually, or on a schedule. Accept the default Manually only or click the Scheduled button.
  
  
  • If you want to manually initiate scheduling, either accept No default delay, or click the Wait till ___ by default button, and set a time.
    
    
  • If you want your document publishing to be scheduled, select the days and time you want for publishing.
• In the Activating New Content area, either:
  
  
  • Accept the default for Controlled Activation, and select options for delayed publication and the proportion of subscribers activated at one time.
    
    
  • Click the button for Independent Activation.
• If you are using BIG-IP Controller's virtual servers, select the options you want under BIG-IP Virtual Server Control.
• In the Error Handling area, select how you want the GLOBAL-SITE Controller to deal with non self-correcting errors, and specify an email address for error alerts.
• Click the Add button to complete the addition. The GLOBAL-SITE Publication Sections screen displays.

Once you have added the publication, your newly created publication appears in the list on the Publications List screen.

Figure 2.2 The Publication List screen.

Click the publication name (WebPub1 in this example) in this list to view the Publication Editions screen for details about your publication.



Figure 2.3 The Publication Editions screen

Using the Publication screens

The Publication screens are the center of operations for nearly all configuration activities and content delivery for a publication. In our example, and for all archived publications, the Publication Editions screen is the first you will see. It has four major tabs that correspond to the four main areas of information: Editions, Sections, Subscribers, and Pub. Options. For non-archived publications, you first see the Publication Sections screen, and will never see the Editions tab.

Click any tab to display a detail screen of the same name for dealing with that aspect of your publication. Each detail screen shows the same tabs. You can click any tab to view a different area of your publication.

• The Publication Editions screen shows details of your editions and is used to deliver content from sections to subscribers.
  Note that if you are working with a non-archived publication, you will not see the Editions tab.
• The Publication Sections screen shows section details for a specific publication, and is used to manage sections.
• The Publication Subscribers screen lists the subscribers for the publication, and is used to define where the section content will be delivered.
• The Publication Options screen is where you set options for the delivery process, including scheduling, error handling, and virtual server controls.
  
  Before delivering content, you need to inform the GLOBAL-SITE Controller where to get it. You do that by clicking the Sections tab, and using the Publication Sections screen.

Figure 2.4 The Publication Sections screen

Defining sections

A GLOBAL-SITE Controller section includes both content files and a path to the content files.

Before you begin to set up the GLOBAL-SITE Controller, you should answer some basic questions. Start by working backwards:

• You have a server (subscriber); what content needs to be managed?
• How many sections do you need?
  Remember that different roots (/path1/part1, /path2/part2) must have different sections.
  A section contains all the files and directories in a given path. A section can stop at any specified subdirectories, known as exceptions. Exceptions are directories that are in the path, but are not included in the section.
• What will you name each section?
  Remember that in order to create a section, you must have a unique name for it. This name is unique among all sections, within all publications.
• What is the path to each section?
  You must be able to identify the specific directory path on the server that is the source of the section's content.
• Do you have authority to access the information?
  You need to provide authorization access by specifying the user ID and password for access to the server where the content is stored.

Defining a simple section

The first step, once you have a publication, is creating sections. Updating the content for a section is one of the most frequent tasks that you will perform. To create a section, you:

• Give the section a name.
• Specify the server where it can be found.
• Provide access settings; the user ID and password needed to access the server.
• Define the location of the content with a path.

The section you create will be archived, or non-archived, depending on the publication it is part of. You do not have to specify this, but you should remember that a section carries the attribute of the publication it is created for, and cannot be shared between archived and non-archived publications.

Once you have created the section, you have several options, including testing the connection, creating exceptions to the section, or creating an initial version of the section on the GLOBAL-SITE Controller. The following text in this section of the guide introduces all of these tasks.

Example

This example shows how to create a new section called WebContent1, which gets its content from the directory /home/webcontent on the system python using the FTP account website.

1. Start by selecting the Sections tab for your new publication.
   The Publication Sections screen, Figure 2.4, displays.
2. Since there are no sections yet, you need to create one: click the Create New Section button.
   The Create a New Section screen displays.
   
   

Figure 2.5 The Create a New Section screen

To create a section

1. In the Section Name box, type a unique name for the section that you want to add. The name cannot contain quotation marks (double quotes), apostrophes (single quotes), slashes, or angle brackets. You cannot change the name of a section later. For our example, type WebContent1.
2. In the Server box, type the name of the server (node name or IP address) that is the source of the content for this section that you want to add. This is also referred to as the source or content server.
3. In the Description box, type a description for the section (optional).
4. To include this section in editions of the publication, leave the Enabled check box checked (the default). If you want to create the section now, but not include it in the edition, clear the check box. You can change this later.
5. Leave the Transfer Method set at FTP.
6. In the User ID box, type the User ID (FTP user name) you use to access the server you specified in step 2.
7. In the Password box, type the user password (FTP password) that matches the User ID you specified in step 6, and allows access to the server.
8. In the Path box, type the specific directory path for this section on this staging server. The section includes all the files and directories at the given path. If you want to exclude a subdirectory, you must specify it as an exception, using the Section Details screen.
9. To complete the addition of this section, and add it to the publication, click Create.
   
   If there are no errors, the Section Detail screen displays, showing the source detail for this section.

Testing your section

Once the section is created, you may want to try a test connection on the newly defined section to confirm that the GLOBAL-SITE Controller can access, via FTP, the server that stores the content. Test Connection verifies that the user ID, password, and path information are valid, by connecting to the specified system.

To test your section connection

On the Section Detail screen, click the Test Connection button.
The Connection Test screen displays.

The Connection Test screen displays the test results generated by clicking the Test Connection button. The Test Results table lists the name for the source server and the path for the section, and the success or failure of the test connection. The left side shows what is being tested, the right side shows the result.

Figure 2.6 The Connection Test screen

Creating a section version

Now that you have created a section, you may also want to try creating an initial version of the section on the GLOBAL-SITE Controller.

To create a version

On the Section Detail screen, click the Get New Version button.

The GLOBAL-SITE Controller goes through the process of gathering content from the specified location and storing an initial version of it.

For more information, refer to the later section in this chapter, Getting new content.

Modifying your section configuration later

Once you have created a section, you can return to the Section Detail screen at any later time to change parameters if necessary.

To change your section parameters

1. From any Publication detail screen, click the Sections tab.
   The Publication Sections screen displays (see Figure 2.4).
   
   The Publication Sections screen lists all sections for a publication.
2. Click the name of the section you want to work on.
   
   This displays the Section Detail screen where you can make changes.
   
   
   
   Figure 2.7 The Section Details screen, Source tab
3. Press the Save button to save any changes you have made to the settings on this screen.
   Use the Revert button to undo any changes you have made since the screen was brought up.

Loading initial content into sections

At this point in our example, or if you are working with an archived publication, you can update the content for a section from its source, or you can create an edition. In non-archived publications, the publishing process updates the sections.

To update the content of a section

1. Start at the Publication Sections screen, where you see your sections listed.
   
   
   
   Figure 2.8 Publication Sections screen, showing two sections
2. Click the Get New Version of Selected Sections button to begin the process of gathering new files from those sections.
   The Publish Progress Display screen displays, where you can monitor the progress of that process.
   
   This is discussed in more detail in the section Displaying status, later in this chapter.
   
   Remember, it is still necessary to specify the destination for a section in order to actually publish any content.
   
   

   Figure 2.9 The Publish Progress Display screen

Specifying the subscribers for section content

A subscriber is a server that receives your publication. To the GLOBAL-SITE Controller, a subscriber describes a single system that is the target for delivering the contents of one or more of the sections belonging to a publication.

In the example so far, you have defined your web site as a group of sections, and created a single publication to manage them as a group. Now you have to specify which servers will receive the publication.

You also have one or more web servers that need to receive that content. You need to specify the exact relationship between each section and each web server. Again, the publication provides that connection.

Specifying a subscriber

1. From any of the Publication detail screens, click the Subscribers tab.
   The Publication Subscribers screen displays.
2. Click the Add a Subscriber button.
   The Add Subscriber screen displays.
   
   
   
   Figure 2.10 The Add Subscriber screen

To add a subscriber

Using the Add Subscriber screen:

1. In the Subscriber Name box, type the name of the subscriber that you want to add. This information is optional; the data you enter is displayed in various screens that list subscribers for the publication. If it is not filled in, the server name/user ID pair is used instead.
2. In the Server box, type the name of the server for the subscriber. This is the node name (or IP address) for the server.
3. If you will publish to this subscriber directly, leave the GLOBAL-SITE Distributor box set at None, which is the default. If you intend to publish content to this subscriber through a secondary GLOBAL-SITE Controller, or distributor, select that distributor from the GLOBAL-SITE Distributor box. Note that you can only select currently defined distributors. For more information on setting up a GLOBAL-SITE distributor, see the following section in this chapter, Defining a distributor.
4. Leave the Transfer Method set at FTP.
5. In the User ID box, type the user ID that you use to access the server specified in step 2.
6. In the Password box, type the user password that matches the User ID specified in step 5, and that allows access to the server in step 2.

Below the password is a list of sections associated with this publication. A path must be specified for those included. In our example, we have created two sections, and they are both listed.

Under Include Section

• Leave the check box checked (the default), for each section that you want included in the edition published to this subscriber.
  
  
• In the Destination Path box, type in a specific destination path for each section on the subscriber.
  
  
• For any sections that you do not want to go to this subscriber, clear the check box.
  
  
• When you have specified whether each section will be included for this subscriber, click Add. This completes the addition of this subscriber, and adds it to the publication.

Once the subscriber is created, you can use the Test Connection button to verify that the GLOBAL-SITE Controller can successfully log into the specified server using the user account, and locate the specified path(s). This is a good thing to do at this point, and at any time that you make changes to the subscriber definition.

Defining a distributor

If you want to use a secondary GLOBAL-SITE Controller to distribute to remote subscribers, you need to set up a distributor. Use the Add a Distributor screen to set up and add a new GLOBAL-SITE distributor. (In the navigation pane, click Add a Distributor.)

To add a distributor

1. In the Host Name box, type the unique identifier host name or IP address of the GLOBAL-SITE Controller that you want to function as a distributor.
2. In the Description box, type in an optional description. This is makes it easy for you to identify the distributor.
3. In the GLOBAL-SITE Identifier box, type the unique, pre-assigned identifier for the GLOBAL-SITE Controller that you are adding as a distributor.
4. In the Key Phrase box, type in the key phrase that is shared by the publisher and distributor pair. Both the publisher and the distributor must have the same Key Phrase.
5. Click Add to complete the addition.
   The GLOBAL-SITE Distribution List screen displays, with the new distributor added at the bottom of the list.
   
   Once you have your distributors set up, you can easily specify a distributor for any subscriber that you add. Use the Add Subscriber screen. (To get to the Add Subscriber screen: from the Publication List screen select the publication you are working with, on the next Publication screen click the Subscribers tab, on the Publication Subscribers screen, click the Add a Subscriber button.)

To add a distributor with a subscriber

1. Add the subscriber as you did earlier in To add a subscriber.
2. In the GLOBAL-SITE Distributor box, select the distributor that you want to use for this subscriber.
3. Complete the rest of the screen, and click Add. This completes the addition of this subscriber, with a distributor specified.
   
   Once you have added the subscriber and distributor, you may want to try a test connection to verify that the GLOBAL-SITE Controller can successfully log into the remote server. Test Connection verifies that FTP access can be established with the distributor using the user ID, password, and path information that you have provided.

To test your remote connection

On the Subscriber Detail screen, click the Test Connection button.
The Connection Test screen displays.

Figure 2.11 The Connection Test screen for the distributor

The Connection Test screen displays the test results generated by clicking the Test Connection button. The Test Results area lists the paths for the subscriber's website and the source server and the success or failure of the test connection. The left side shows what is being tested, the right side shows the result.

Using the publishing cycle

So far, we have discussed how content is organized into sections, how sections are organized into publications, and where those publications go. Now we need to look at the process of capturing a consistent set of content to be published to one or more subscribers (servers).

Within the publication cycle, there are two independent activities:

1. Updating the contents of sections from their staging sources
2. Delivering the contents of some or all the sections for a publication These two activities are typically executed sequentially, but they do not have to be.

Getting new content

To gather new content, the GLOBAL-SITE Controller makes a copy of the content on the specified source server. The copy is stored as a version of the section. For ease in tracking, versions are numbered, starting with 1 the first time a new section is updated.

For archived publications, there are four ways to update a section's content at any time; all open the Publish Progress Display screen.

• The first is from the Publication Sections screen, by clicking the Get New Version of Selected Sections button.
• The second is from the Section Detail screen, where you can click the Get New Version button.
• The third is to click Create Edition from the Publication Editions screen. On the Create a New Editions screen, select the Get a new version option from the version list box, and click the Create Edition button.
• The fourth is to click the Deliver Edition button from the Publication Editions screen. On the Deliver screen, and select Create new Edition from the Edition box, and click the Deliver Edition button. (This also publishes the newly retrieved files.)
  
  In all of these cases for an archived publication, the GLOBAL-SITE Controller examines the directory tree specified by the combination of its staging server name, FTP user ID, and path. The GLOBAL-SITE process ignores any exception directories on the path, and compares the content to the most recent version currently in the GLOBAL-SITE Controller's versioned section. This process gathers any new files, or any files with different (not necessarily newer, just different) modified times, or a different size, and stores them in the GLOBAL-SITE Controller. The number of new or changed files is what is displayed on the Update Progress screen.
  
  If the GLOBAL-SITE Controller determines that the set of files is identical to the latest version in the GLOBAL-SITE Controller's versioned section, it does not create a new version.
  
  The Section History tab on the Section Detail screen lists all versions currently stored in the section. (This tab does not appear on the Section Detail screen for non-archived publications.)
  

Figure 2.12 The Section Detail screen, Section History tab

In the example, we have already stored two versions. You can view the contents of each version by clicking the number under the Version heading.

Keep in mind that multiple publications can share a single section. For instance, an image could be used by numerous publications.

Creating the very first version of a section may take some time, as all of the content from the source must be copied to the GLOBAL-SITE Controller and converted into its stored form in the section. However, subsequent updates should be faster, as they first compare the date and time of all the files on the staging source with those stored in the latest version in the section. Only new files, and those that have different timestamps or sizes, are copied into the section.

A final way to update section content is as the first part of the edition delivery process.

The next section reviews the publication process step-by-step so that you can better understand how the GLOBAL-SITE Controller works.

Tip: An important reason not to update section content automatically, as part of the content delivery process, is so that the content being delivered is not inadvertently different from what is expected. When you update sections prior to delivery, the exact contents of that version are frozen, and remain independent of any possible changes made to the files on the staging server for that section.

Publishing new content

The publication process includes a number of distinct phases. The overall flow of the content distribution phase of the publishing cycle for archived publications can be seen like this:

• Create the edition
  Define an edition and establish the publication settings that control this specific distribution process.
• Deliver the edition
  This runs the GLOBAL-SITE Controller through a series of phases that result in the specified edition being published to all subscribers.
  
  There are two methods of creating a new edition. You can create a new edition automatically as part of a publication delivery, after you first check all section staging servers for new content. Alternately, you can perform the section update and edition creation process separately. This allows you to have more precise control over exactly what content is delivered.
  
  For details of the non-archived publication process, and of the enhanced scheduling options, refer to the online help, or to Scheduling the publishing process, and Creating non-archived publications in Chapter 3.

Creating the edition

The preparation phase involves defining exactly which version of each section in the publication will be published. This set of section versions defines an edition.

Once an edition has been established, the GLOBAL-SITE Controller creates a snapshot of all the parameters necessary to complete the rest of the process.

To manually create a new edition

1. From the Publication Editions screen, click the Create Edition button.
   The Create a New Edition screen displays.
   
   
   
   Figure 2.13 The Create New Editions screen
   
   You can use the Remove version option from the Version box to have the publication delivery process remove from the subscribers all the files from the last published edition.
   
   The Create a New Edition screen displays all the sections in the publication, with a box listing the existing version. You can click the arrow at the right of the box to view additional versions, or to create new versions, or remove existing versions. The displayed version is always the latest existing version (with the highest version number). You can accept the default version of all sections by clicking the Create Edition button.
2. Select the version you want for each section, and click the Create Edition button.
   
   The Publication Editions screen displays, where you see the newly created edition added to the list. The new edition in turn lists each section it contains, and which version of that section will be delivered.
   
   The GLOBAL-SITE Controller automatically assigns both version and edition number, and simply increments each to the next higher value whenever a new one is created. Most listings also display the date and time they were created.
   
   From the Publication Editions screen, you can click the section name in the edition listing to view the Section Detail screen for that section. Or click the version number and date for a section to view the Section File Listing screen for that version of that section.

Displaying status

Some of the publishing phases can be lengthy, and are therefore designed as asynchronous processes. So that you can follow the process, the overall publication status is always displayed wherever the publication is listed. On the Publication detail screens (Editions, Sections, Subscribers, Options), for example, you can see that it is currently Idle. You can also see that in the Publication List screen. Click the publication status in either of those screens to display the delivery details screen.

Figure 2.14 The Publication Editions screen showing Idle status

During the Idle state, the screen refreshes itself infrequently. Once the delivery process has started, however, the screen automatically updates more frequently, and provides more detailed delivery status.

Of course, you can use the Refresh or Reload button on your browser at any time to update the status on demand.

1. Click the Deliver Edition button, for archived publications, or the Deliver button for non-archived publications.
   The Deliver screen displays.
   
   
   
   Figure 2.15 The Deliver screen
   
   The Deliver screen in our example shows that neither path has anything published to it yet. The Current Edition field defaults to the latest edition, in this case, edition 1.
2. Click Deliver Edition. This starts the delivery process. For non-archived publications, the Deliver screen shows Deliver buttons, which have a similar function.
   The Publish Progress Display screen displays.
   
   
   
   Figure 2.16 Publication Progress Display, status: WANSync
   
   On the Publish Progress Display screen you can observe the overall publication status change through multiple states, reflecting the individual subscriber path states in the detail list.
   
   Note that Figure 2.16 shows details from an early phase in the process, and the details are about the sections. Figure 2.17 shows details from a later phase of the process, and those details are about the subscriber path.
   
   
   
   Figure 2.17 Publication Progress Display; Status: CommitPhaseDone

Using the Cancel button

Sometimes either the section update process (getting new content) or publication delivery process need to be stopped before they complete. Perhaps a section source or subscriber becomes unavailable during the process, and there is no point in proceeding further until the problem is corrected.

Whenever the publication state does not show as Idle, various control buttons are displayed on the detail status screens. The cancel button function is crucial.

The Cancel button stops all processing activity, and places the publication into a Cancelled state. If the publication has not yet reached the CopyPhase, this resets the publication to Idle.

If you click the Cancel delivery control button during the CopyPhase, you can then complete the publication cycle, for any subscribers that have already had all section files copied to them, by clicking the Continue button .

You can also try again for the subscriber sections that failed by clicking the Retry button . You can stop the publishing with the Reset button , which stops the process and returns the publication status to Idle.

During transitions of the publishing cycle, you may need to know what is going on, what the status of the publication is, or how to tell if something has stalled or if it is still progressing. Table 3.1, The GLOBAL-SITE Controller Phases of Publication, lists the various activity or transition states, gives information on what should be happening, and includes suggestions on how to proceed if it is stalled, and when to start over.