Previewing Changes

Preview lets you see your staged changes on the live frontend of your Magento store, without affecting any other users. It's the final check before deploying — you can browse the site, verify layouts, and make sure everything looks right.

How preview works

When you activate a preview:

MageDrop generates a special preview URL containing a unique token.
When you visit that URL, the Magento module detects the preview token and stores it in your PHP session.
For the duration of your session, the module intercepts page rendering and overlays your staged changes on top of the live content.
Other visitors to the store see the normal, unchanged content. Your preview is completely isolated.

Generating a preview link from the dashboard

In the MageDrop dashboard, navigate to your release.
Click the Generate Preview Link button.
A preview URL is generated and displayed. Click the link or copy it to your clipboard.
The link opens your Magento store's frontend with a preview token appended as a query parameter.

Quick Preview from Magento admin

You can also trigger a preview directly from the Magento admin. See the Quick Preview documentation for details on this workflow.

The preview bar

When preview mode is active, a preview bar appears fixed at the top of every page on the frontend. The bar shows:

The release name being previewed.
A badge confirming you're in preview mode.
An Exit Preview button to deactivate the preview and return to the normal view.

The preview bar is only visible to you (the user with the preview session). It does not appear for regular site visitors.

Exiting preview

To exit preview mode, you have two options:

Click the Exit Preview button on the preview bar.
Close your browser tab — since the preview is session-based, it will expire when the session ends.

Exiting preview clears the preview token from your session. You can generate a new preview link at any time to re-enter preview mode.

How Full Page Cache (FPC) is handled

Magento's Full Page Cache (FPC) can normally interfere with dynamic content, but MageDrop handles this gracefully:

When a preview session is active, the module adds a cache context identifier based on the preview token.
This ensures that preview responses are not served to non-preview visitors, and vice versa.
Preview pages are not cached in the main FPC pool — they use a separate cache context so they don't pollute the live cache.
When you exit preview, the FPC returns to normal behaviour.

If you're using Varnish, the module handles this via cache variation headers. No additional Varnish configuration is needed.

Session-based isolation

Previews are session-based, meaning:

Each user's preview is completely independent — two team members can preview different releases at the same time.
Your preview does not affect any other visitor's experience on the store.
If you open the store in an incognito window (without the preview token), you'll see the normal live content.

Shareable preview links

Preview links can be shared with team members, stakeholders, or clients who need to review changes before deployment:

Copy the preview link from the dashboard and send it to anyone who needs to review.
Each person who clicks the link gets their own independent preview session.
The link remains valid for the lifetime of the release (until it's deployed, deleted, or the link is regenerated).
No MageDrop account or Magento admin access is required — anyone with the link can preview the changes on the frontend.

Note: Shareable preview links include a secure, random token. While they don't require authentication, treat them with the same care as any pre-launch content — only share them with people who should see unreleased changes.

What gets previewed

Preview overlays all staged changes in the selected release:

CMS page content and titles
CMS block content (including blocks embedded in pages or widgets)

If a staged change makes a disabled entity active (e.g. enabling a CMS page), you'll see it in the preview even though it's currently hidden on the live site.