Using the Hierarchy API in content previews

Release date: 13th May 2026

In this release we’ve made some changes to allow you to use the Hierarchy API in content preview apps. You can now preview your site at a specified time and date in the future, and make use of the features of the Hierarchy API to retrieve upcoming updates to page structures, site maps and other content modeled using hierarchies.

You can also use the Hierarchy API with the preview edition feature. This allows you to preview the content of an individual edition alongside published content, without first having to schedule the edition. This further enhances the workflow for your content creators and planners.

Hierarchy preview support in beta

Preview support for the Hierarchy API is currently in beta and we have some guidelines to optimize performance.

Content preview example

In this example we've scheduled an edition containing updates to our site hierarchy and list of store locations.

The user chooses a date and time from which to preview their content and the preview app is launched. The preview app uses the Hierarchy API to return the site menu content that is scheduled to be published on the date and time chosen by the user. The hierarchical content will appear in the preview exactly as it will when all the content is published.

Content previews and virtual staging

The URL shown in the image above is a virtual staging URL and it's passed to your content preview app. Encoded within the URL is the date and time selected by the user. The URL is used in place of the production content delivery URL to retrieve content that is scheduled to be published at the specified time.

Virtual staging allows you to use the same code for your preview apps as you do for your production site. Because you can now make use of all the features of the Hierarchy API, the user experience will be the same for your content previews as it will be when all your scheduled content goes live.

You can find out more about how previews use virtual staging in Dynamic Content and Virtual Staging and the Creating content previews page.

Related pages

Hierarchies

Hierarchy API

Using the Hierarchy API in content previews

Developing content preview apps

Preview apps and virtual staging