Scheduling releases
Instead of deploying by hand, you can schedule a release to go live at a set date and time, and optionally roll back at another. It's ideal for campaigns and any coordinated change that has to happen at a precise moment, even overnight.
Setting a schedule
- Choose Schedule when you create the release, or open an existing draft and click Set a schedule on the release page.
- Set the Deploy at date and time.
- Optionally turn on Roll back automatically and set a Roll back at time.
- Stage your changes, then click Schedule at the top of the release page and confirm.
The release is now Scheduled. Until you click Schedule, it stays a draft and will not deploy on its own, so a half-prepared release can't go live by accident.
Time zones
Schedule times are entered and shown in your account's time zone, and stored in UTC. Check yours in Account settings to avoid surprises.
How scheduled deploys run
MageDrop checks for scheduled releases every minute:
- Any Scheduled release whose deploy time has passed is deployed automatically.
- It goes through exactly the same process as Deploy now: a rollback snapshot is captured and the staged fields are applied through the MageDrop module (see Deploying releases).
Your release goes live within 60 seconds of the scheduled time. If you need it live sooner, click Deploy now on a scheduled release to deploy it immediately instead of waiting.
Automatic rollback
If you set a Roll back at time, the release rolls back automatically when it arrives:
- The same every-minute check looks for live releases whose rollback time has passed.
- The rollback restores every changed field to its value from deploy time.
- The release status changes from Live to Rolled back.
This is particularly useful for:
- Limited-time promotions. Start a sale on Friday at 00:00 and end it on Sunday at 23:59.
- Event content. Show a banner for an event, then remove it automatically when the event ends.
- Trial changes. Try a content change for a set period, then revert automatically.
Example schedules
| Scenario | Deploy at | Roll back at | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekend sale | Fri 27 Mar, 00:00 | Sun 29 Mar, 23:59 | Goes live at midnight on Friday, rolls back at the end of Sunday |
| Homepage refresh | Tue 31 Mar, 09:00 | None | Goes live on Tuesday morning and stays live until you roll it back |
| Flash sale | Wed 1 Apr, 12:00 | Wed 1 Apr, 18:00 | Live for 6 hours, then rolled back automatically |
Changing the schedule
While a release is a draft or scheduled, click Change schedule on the release page to:
- Move the deploy time earlier or later.
- Add, change or remove the rollback time.
- Clear the deploy time, if you'd rather deploy by hand.
Once a release is live, its schedule can no longer be edited. You can still roll it back by hand at any time.
Keeping track
The store page lists every release with its status. The release page shows when it goes live and rolls back, and a timeline of everything that has happened to it.
If a scheduled deploy or rollback fails
- Nothing is left half-deployed: if an attempt fails with an error, the changes it had already made are put back.
- If the store couldn't be reached or was busy, MageDrop tries again automatically: after 1, 5, 15, 30 and 60 minutes by default. See Automatic retries.
- If the error would happen again (invalid data, a deleted entity, a missing permission), or the retries run out, the release is marked Failed and the store owners get an email.
- Fix the issue and click Retry deploy. See Troubleshooting for common errors.