These features available on All Plans (except where noted)
Overview
By default, your Campaign Builder displays in Builder View, which displays all your campaign content, regardless of any country- or time-based visibility settings you have in place on any widgets. Use Preview Mode to preview the visibility settings you set up for your widgets, as well as test your campaign in a simulated live setting.
Contents
About
Test Entries/Live Entries
Limits/No Limits
Current Time
Country
Win/Lose
Refresh
Desktop Only/Mobile Only
Getting There
To enter Preview Mode, click on the Preview button at the top of the Campaign Builder.
About
Preview Mode contains all of the settings and features that can be used to view your campaign at a simulated time and in a simulated country. You can also test out the features of your campaign, including submitting entries.
Test Entries/Live Entries
Use the Test Entries or Live Entries button to turn live entry data on and off. When Live Entries is showing, any data you submit to a form will be visible when the campaign is published. It also controls the type of entries that are visible in Preview Mode. What the button displays is the mode you are currently in.
- Live Entries: With the button showing Live Entries, the site will place any entry you submit in the Campaign Builder in the same list as the entries visitors submit.
- Test Entries: With the button showing Test Entries, the site will place any entry you submit in the Campaign Builder in a separate test list from the entries visitors submit. In the Entries Manager, these entries are only visible when using the Show Only Test Entries checkbox in the filtering options.
Limits/No Limits
With the Limits button activated, the restrictions you put in place when designing the Form Container and Entry Display Widgets are enforced when you submit entries or place votes from within the Campaign Builder. If you click the button to deactivate it, it will change to No Limits - at that point, you can submit an unlimited number of entries and vote as many times as needed.
Current Time
If you are using visibility settings based on dates or times, you can use the Current Time drop-down menu to see how your campaign will look at different times. Just like the country settings, if you do not have any specific time/date settings set up, this drop-down menu will not appear.
If you are using the Calendar Giveaway template, this drop-down will not work as expected; in that specific template, you'd need to use the Simulated Date field (in the normal building mode) to view the campaign as it appears on your different calendar dates.
Note: To change the default time zone for your ShortStack account, click your profile pic in the top-right corner of the Campaign Builder, and then click Preferences. Then, click the Edit button in the User Info section and set the new time zone there.
Country
This feature available on the Pro Plan
If you have visibility settings based on country in use in any of your widgets, you can use the Country... drop-down menu to see how the campaign will look to a visitor from that country. If you don't have any country settings set up, this dropdown menu will not appear.
Win/Lose
If you're using a template that makes use of the Instant Win feature, you can use this toggle to test out a winning entry and a losing entry while in Preview Mode; just toggle it to Win for a winner, and Lose for a loser (click the refresh icon after changing from one to the other), then submit your entry using the form in your campaign.
Refresh
When testing your campaign, you may wish to go back to the campaign as it is when you load it up for the first time (for example, if you've submitted an entry, changed a status, or tested out an Action Widget without a way to go back). To do this, just click the refresh icon .
Desktop/Mobile View
If you have widgets set up with Style Panel settings to show only on desktop or mobile, you can toggle between viewing these by using the ruler. Click in the middle of the ruler to change the preview size to mobile mode, and you'll see any widgets that are set to show on mobile. Click anywhere to the left or right in the ruler to a bigger size, and you should see the widgets that are set to display on desktop. When you click on the ruler, you should see the icon in the center change - you'll see a phone icon if it's a mobile size, and a monitor icon if it's a desktop size.
To easily preview your campaign on a mobile device, hover over the mobile device icon and a tooltip will appear with a QR code to scan on your device. Simply bring up your device's camera and scan the QR code to navigate to a preview of your campaign.
Note: The QR code is only meant for preview purposes. Do not share or use this QR code for promotion or marketing of your campaign.