In this guide

↓ What is a content release?

↓ Content release schedule

↓ Most recent content release

↓ After hours publishing

↓ Reasons a content release may fail

↓ Incorrectly published pages

What is a content release?

During the content release process, any content that has been added, edited, or otherwise modified on Drupal CMS is automatically updated on the live VA.gov website. After the content release process finishes, Veterans are able to see the new and updated content on the live website.

Note: All published and archived content will be included in the content release. If you are not ready for your content to be live on the website yet, save it as Draft.

Content release schedule

As of December 2022, content releases run continuously on a rolling basis from 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, except for some federal holidays.

In general, the content release process will take about 30 to 45 minutes to complete if there are no technical or content issues. This is because all published content, not just new content, is sent to VA.gov each time.

Note: 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time is the daily update that will include the content release. It will always take longer than scheduled content-only releases.

Most recent content release

To check when the latest content release occurred:

1. Login to Drupal CMS 
2. Look for the content release (screen) icon on the top, main toolbar.
3. Hover your cursor over the icon to see the start time of the most recent content release. Remember that the content release may take about 30 to 45 minutes after that start time to finish.

After hours publishing

If you publish content after 8 p.m. Eastern Time it won't go live until the next business day unless it's a banner alert or a facility operating status. The system handles this content differently to account for emergency situations.

After you make an after hours save to a VAMC System Banner Alert, home page Full Width Banner Alert, or Facility Operating Status, the system will automatically start a content release and you can expect it to go live within about 30 minutes.

Reasons a content release may fail

Sometimes scheduled content releases may fail for the following reasons:

1. Broken links
2. Technical issues

Broken links

Broken links can cause problems for Veterans because they can't get to the content you're trying to share with them, as well as being an accessibility issue.

Because of these problems, multiple broken links in any published content in all of Drupal CMS will cause content releases to fail. When that happens, the Drupal CMS Help desk may contact editors to fix those issues so content releases can resume as usual.

⚠️ Please make sure that you check any alerts displayed at the top of your node and fix all issues that are indicated. Instructions for fixing broken links can be found in this knowledge base article.

Technical issues

Content releases may be affected by technical issues in Drupal CMS or VA.gov. Dedicated engineers are available from 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, to address technical issues.

Incorrectly published pages

If you accidentally publish a page that should not be released to VA.gov, you should change the moderation state within the Save as dropdown to Archived to unpublish it. This will remove the page from VA.gov after the next content release finishes.