The Experience Builder

    Publishing, unpublishing, and what each state means

    An Experience is either a draft that only you can open or a published page that anyone with the link can. Everything else follows from which of the two it is.

    Updated 15 October 20264 min read

    Draft, published, and back again

    Draft

    Who can see it

    Only you, signed in

    Address

    /preview/{hash}

    Every change is saved as you make it. Nothing here is reachable by a visitor, and a Marker pointed at a draft has nothing to open.

    Published

    Who can see it

    Anyone with the link

    Address

    /view/{hash}

    The public page. Edits you make afterwards go live the next time someone opens it. There is no second publish step for changes.

    Unpublished again

    Who can see it

    Nobody

    Address

    None

    The content stays exactly as you left it. Visitors get a short 'not available' page, and any Marker pointing here lands on the same.

    Going live

    Publish in the builder's top bar opens a confirmation panel headed “Ready to go live?”, with a miniature of the page, the Experience name (still editable), the public address with a copy button, and three readiness checks.

    Heading
    Does the page start by telling a visitor what they are looking at.
    Content
    Is there anything below the heading.
    Brand
    Does your account have a logo uploaded.

    None of the three blocks you. A thin page also draws a gentle warning suggesting more blocks before you go live. Press Go Live and the Experience is public immediately: no review, no queue and no propagation delay.

    The hub you land in

    Publishing hands you a three-step hub, which is also what Manage opens on an Experience that is already live.

    The manage panel, open on step 1 of three: a green 1 Share pill with 2 Discovery and 3 Markers greyed beside it. Under a green Live badge and the Experience name sits a QR code, then the address getnearfield.com/view/429zufst6c with a Copy button. A Next button sits at the bottom right, and two plain text links, Unpublish and Delete Experience, run along the foot of the panel.
    Unpublish and Delete live at the foot of this panel, deliberately away from the buttons you press often.
    StepWhat it holds
    1. Live & shareA QR code, the public link, and a copy button.
    2. How guests find itWhether this should be tap only, scan only, or both. The default is both.
    3. Bring it into the real worldConnected Markers, linking a Marker by PIN, and ordering more.

    With no plan, step three connects up to three Markers, the same as an Intro 3-Pack, and up to 30 while you build and during the trial. Once they are all placed, a note about the limit replaces the connect tools. Linking a Marker to a live page starts your 14-day trial if it has not started yet. The Experience itself is fully live and reachable by its link either way.

    Editing after publishing

    There is no second publish step. Once an Experience is live, every edit you make is what the next visitor sees: change a price at 9am and the 9:01 tap has the new one. Nothing is cached against you, and no Marker needs re-linking.

    Unpublishing

    Unpublish is in the manage panel. It takes the page off the public web and keeps everything exactly as you left it: blocks, theme, answers, stats and Marker links all survive.

    Visitors then get a short “this Experience is not available” page. So does anyone who taps a Marker pointing at it, which is the part to think about before unpublishing something with Markers on walls: a Marker pointing at an unpublished Experience goes nowhere until you publish again or point it somewhere else.

    You want toDo this
    Take content down for a weekUnpublish. Everything comes back untouched when you publish again.
    Replace it with something elseBuild the replacement, then relink the Marker. No downtime at all.
    Close an exhibit temporarilyKeep it published and edit the top block to explain. A tap that lands on an explanation beats a tap that lands on an error.
    Get rid of it permanentlyDelete it from your dashboard. This disconnects every Marker pointing at it, and cannot be undone.

    Downgrading does not unpublish anything

    Moving to a smaller plan, or ending a trial without one, leaves published Experiences published, even if you now have more of them than the plan allows. Nothing is deleted. Blocks the plan doesn't include are hidden from visitors, with Hidden from visitors where they were on your own page, and publishing another page waits until you are back under the number.

    Example

    Ridgewood Museum of Natural History

    Ridgewood rotates its temporary gallery three times a year. Rather than unpublishing, they build the next exhibit's Experience while the current one is still live, preview it on a phone in the actual room, and relink the gallery's four Markers on the morning it opens. The old Experience stays published for a fortnight so that forwarded links still work, then gets deleted.

    Does the link change if I unpublish and publish again?

    No. The address belongs to the Experience for its lifetime, so printed links and Marker connections survive the round trip.

    Can I schedule a publish?

    Not currently. Publishing is a button, and the closest thing to a schedule is building it in advance and pressing it on the day.

    Who can see a published Experience?

    Anyone with the link. There is no index and nothing is listed publicly, but treat a published page as public. If it needs a gate, use a PIN lock.

    Do I lose my stats if I unpublish?

    No. Everything already recorded stays, and counting resumes when you publish again.

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