NSM Live Look is a Multi-Site Manager compatible ExpressionEngine addon that allows you to preview entries in template content directly in the CP.
The Problem
Since version 1.6.1. ExpressionEngine has implemented a 'Live Look' entry preview functionality. While a welcome addition, it didn’t quite match my development workflow.
Problems with the native Live Look implementation include:
- No custom urls support forcing you to use
/template_group/template/entry_id/format. This doesn't't suit my site which used custom url formats including the{url_title}parameter. - No Pages Module support.
- No Publish Form preview.
- Limited to one preview URL per channel.
How it works
NSM Live Look uses custom statuses and / or channel parameters to preview entries in templates secured by URL obfuscation or basic authentication (built into EE).
The preview URL is based on the entries attributes (<entry_id>, <url_title>, <author_id>, etc). The url is then used to load the corresponding template into an <iframe> custom field in the publish form.
Gallery
Custom tab
Preview existing entries before making changes using the custom tab. Save revisions to quickly reload the template preview
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Switch between multiple previews
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Current preview URL
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Shrink or enlarge the preview window
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Preview your site exactly how it appears from the Publish Form
Post submit review
Confirm your changes are ok as soon as they are published. No speeeling mistakes here.
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Preview live entry after publishing
Features
NSM Live Look has many features to enhance your publishing workflow. They include:
- Multiple preview urls — Preview your entries using one or more dynamically template paths generated from entry data such as
{url_title},{entry_id},{author_id}and more - Publish Form Live Look tab — Preview entries while editing them directly from the CP
- Multi-Site Manager compatible — Independent extension settings for each site
- NSM Addon Updater compatible — Stay up-to-date with the latest versions of NSM Live Look