Adding new page to live store - development best practice

BrandWorks
Visitor
2 0 1

Hi - I haven't been able to get a clear answer from Shopify support about this, so hoping someone here has an idea.

I am working on a live store for a client - adding a new page, using a new theme template file.

Whenever making code changes to live sites, I have always first made a duplicate of the current theme (example name Development Theme) - to avoid making any changes to the live site. I have created the new page template under this development theme (example name - page.new-page.liquid).

I have created the new page under Pages (example name - New Page). I have set this page to be hidden as I don't want it to be accessible on the live site, or visible to search engines while it is being developed.

The issues I'm having are - 
1. Because page.new-page.liquid only exists under the Development Theme, I can't select it from the Theme template dropdown in the page editor
2. Because New Page is hidden, I can only preview it via the button in the page editor - which obviously only previews it using the live theme, not the development theme.
3. I can't modify or preview any of the page blocks on New Page, because I can't navigate to the hidden page under the Customise button next to the development theme.

Am I missing something about the proper way to add a new page? This doesn't seem like it should be an unusual request to build a new page and template, and have neither the page nor the theme to be active on the live site.

Thanks

Replies 2 (2)

BrandWorks
Visitor
2 0 1

For anyone else encountering this issue, I haven't been able to find a perfect solution.

Shopify support were able to generate a preview URL for the hidden page with the development theme applied so I can at least see how it looks. I've removed any identifying information, but the format of the URL is - 

https://xxxxxxxxxx.shopifypreview.com/pages?preview_key=xxxxxxxxxx&view=new-page

They confirmed it's not possible to view the hidden page under the Theme Customiser, so I'm not able to edit the content for the blocks on the page. The only way I am able to do this is -
1. Make the page live (visible). I obviously haven't added it to the site's navigation.
2. Create a blank page template with the same name in the Live theme. In my case, I have simply created a blank template saying Coming Soon.

Obviously I didn't want to edit the live site's code, or make the hidden page visible. But unfortunately there doesn't seem to be another way, so that's the closest thing to a workaround I've been able to find.

LitExtension
Shopify Partner
4860 1001 1133

I want you to understand the issues:
- You cannot select a template if the theme is not public. So you need to make it public, choose a template for the page and unpublic.
You can do this when the store has the fewest hits and it only takes a few seconds for all. This will be quick and unique for you to choose the template.
Please note, you should not visit the page after selecting the template, because once the theme is unplaced, the template may return to default if you visit the page.
- You can only view the Hidden page through the preview link.
- Also you can use ?view=... to display page template in source.
Hope it helps!

LitExtension - Shopping Cart Migration Expert
Check out our Shopify migration app to migrate your online store to Shopify