Webflow trial subdomain

There exist 2 variations of domains where you can yield your complete site: your Webflow trial subdomain (for example, yoursite.webflow.io) and individualized domains (for example, yourdomain.com). The Webflow trial subdomain is beneficial for experimenting with custom code and attaining approval on your site’s layout before launching your site live to your personalized domain.

If you desire to prevent your webflow.io site from showing up in search engine outcomes, you have the option to deactivate search engine indexing of the Webflow trial subdomain.

Important: The Webflow trial subdomain differs from your branch testing subdomain. Get more insights on branch testing.

Within this tutorial, you will discover:

1. Ways to modify your trial subdomain
2. Specifics on releasing to your trial subdomain
3. Insight into the functionality of trial subdomain cookies
4. Appropriate measures to utilize a specially designated trial domain
5. Steps to enable and disable secluded trial

How to adjust your trial subdomain

You can fine-tune your subdomain in the Site settings section through the Publishing tab under Staging.

Insight: Modifying your site’s subdomain implies an instantaneous replacement of both your trial subdomain (for instance, yoursite.webflow.io) and your site’s read-only link. Any previously shared read-only links will no longer function.

Ways to publish to your trial subdomain

To release your site to the trial subdomain exclusively, without launching it to your individual domain:

1. Access your site through the Designer tool or navigate to Site settings
2. Initiate the Publish function
3. Select the Webflow trial subdomain (for instance, yoursite.webflow.io)
4. Unselect your individual domain
5. Proceed with Publish to select domains

Crucial: When you publish within edit mode, you have the choice to publish to your trial subdomain and/or any individualized domain(s) you’ve appended to your site. When publishing from the Editor, your site will be visible on both your webflow.io trial subdomain and any individualized domain(s) added to your site. If you seek to exclusively publish modifications to your trial subdomain, utilize the Designer or Site settings for publishing.

Functionality of trial subdomain cookies

Beginning on March 1, 2024, the Webflow trial subdomain was consolidated into the Public Suffix List (PSL) to elevate the security of websites published on the trial subdomain. The utilization of PSL aids browsers in constricting cookies to the site subdomain (like yoursite.webflow.io), thereby diminishing cookie interferences across distinct websites.

Given that leading browsers (such as Chrome, Firefox, etc.) integrate updates to the PSL in accordance with their distinct release cycles, the effectiveness of these alterations will not be simultaneous for all site users. The modifications will only apply to site visitors once their browsers are updated to the latest version.

This modification resets analytics cookies on URLs concluding with webflow.io. In case your site is solely available on your Webflow trial subdomain — and not simultaneously deployed to a custom domain — the analytics tools on your site (for instance, Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, etc.) won’t identify returning visitors as such during their initial visit post their browser’s assimilation of the updated PSL.

If conserving your site’s cookies on your trial subdomain is essential, you can include the subsequent script in your site:

// obtain all cookie titles
function obtainCookieTitles() {
  return document.cookie.split(';').map(c => c.trim().split('=')[0]);
}

// cookies necessitating updates
const COOKIES_TO_UPDATE = [
  // the given examples are generic. It is recommended to rely on `obtainCookieTitles()` 
  // to identify the required cookies that should be incorporated in this list
  '_ga',
  '_fbp',
];

(function() {
  const psl = '_psl';
  const pslValue = getCookie(psl);
  // we update pslValue to `1` post migration, thereby ensuring we 
  // eliminate an already migrated cookie
  if (pslValue == '') {
    return;
  }

  function determineCookieTitle(name, value, days) {
    const d = new Date();
    d.setTime(d.getTime() + (days * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
    const expires = 'expires=' + d.toUTCString();

    document.cookie = name + '=' + value + ';' + expires + ';path=/';
  }


  function fetchCookie(cname) {
    const decodedCookie = decodeURIComponent(document.cookie);
    const name = cname + '=';
    const ca = decodedCookie.split(';');
    for (let i = 0; i < ca.length; i++) {
      let c = ca[i];
      while (c.charAt(0) == ' ') {
        c = c.substring(1);
      }
      if (c.indexOf(name) == 0) {
        return c.substring(name.length, c.length);
      }
    }
    return '';
  }

  function restructureCookieToSubdomain(name) {
    const value = fetchCookie(name);
    if (value != '') {
      determineCookieTitle(name, value, 365);
    }
  }

  // Execute the cookie rescoping migration
  COOKIES_TO_UPDATE.forEach(restructureCookieToSubdomain);
  determineCookieTitle(psl, '1');
})();

Ways to utilize a custom trial domain

Webflow Enterprise clients and Enterprise partners hold the option to incorporate personalized trial domains into their sites. This empowers a more detailed oversight regarding your trial domain and guarantees uniformity for testing throughout your team’s technical framework. Remember, only one personalized trial domain can be used per site. Upon attaching a personalized trial domain, you will forfeit the ability to use your webflow.io trial subdomain.

To employ a personalized trial domain on a site:

1. Access Site settings > the Publishing tab > Staging
2. Opt for Utilize a custom domain
3. Associate a custom domain previously linked to your site or establish a novel custom domain. Keep in mind to eliminate any operational custom domains from the Production segment prior to applying it as a custom trial domain

It is recommended to utilize the www version of your personalized trial domain. The utilization of the root domain might not receive support from your DNS provider and necessitates manual configuration.

You can likewise launch to your trial domain when employing publishing workflows or via the Dashboard. Take note, if your team integrates a custom trial domain, it will serve as the default trial domain for publishing through the Designer segment of the publishing workflow.

Ways to activate and deactivate secluded testing

Webflow Enterprise clients and Enterprise partners possess the capacity to institute secluded testing on their sites. Secluded testing renders more authoritative control over who can review site updates before they are officially unveiled.

If private testing is enabled for a site, proof of authentication will be compulsory to access the site on the Webflow trial subdomain (yoursite.webflow.io), personalized trial domain, and staged branches. This ensures that solely logged-in Workspace members and authorized guests with site access can view the site on its testing domain(s). Moreover, if your team implements single sign-on (SSO) for their Workspace, it will also be a prerequisite for accessing secluded testing.

Important: The activation or deactivation of secluded testing will exclusively take effect following the publication of your site.

To initiate secluded testing on a site:

1. Visit Site settings > the Publishing tab > Staging
2. Toggle the switch to “Activate secluded testing”
3. Proceed with Publishing your site

To deactivate secluded testing on a site:

1. Head to Site settings > the Publishing tab > Staging
2. Switch off the option for “Activate secluded testing”
3. Continue by Publishing your site

Note: The evaluation of site search on your trial subdomain becomes inaccessible when secluded testing is enabled. To assess site search functionality through your trial subdomain, disable secluded testing.