Whatfix recommends you to migrate to the Player Extension, which consolidates the capabilities of both preview and production extensions into a single, unified solution.
What Changes With the Player Extension
Previously: Two Separate Extensions
The following table explains the previous setup:
Extension | Purpose | Who Uses It |
|---|---|---|
Production Extension | Delivers Whatfix Content to end users in live environments | End users |
Preview Extension | Enables content authors and testers to view and validate content before it goes live | Content authors, Testers |
Now: Player Extension
The Player Extension serves both purposes. A single extension installation serves end users, content authors, and testers with behavior controlled through Whatfix Dashboard configuration rather than which extension is installed.
How the Player Extension Determines What Content to Serve
Content visibility depends on the environment mappings configured in the Whatfix dashboard. Each URL or environment in your organization is mapped to one of three content stage configurations:
Configuration | Content Behavior | Typical Use Case |
|---|---|---|
Draft, Ready, Production | Displays all content stages. Lower stage takes precedence when multiple versions exist | Development or testing environments used by authors |
Ready, Production | Displays Ready and Production stage content. Lower stage takes precedence when multiple versions exist | User Acceptance Testing (UAT) or staging environments |
Production only | Displays only Production content | Live environments used by end users |
Example: Consider an organization that uses the Salesforce application across multiple environments:
URL:
https://acmecorp.my.salesforce.comStage: mapped to Production only
Content Behavior: End users see only published content.URL:
https://acmecorp--uat.sandbox.my.salesforce.com
Stage: mapped to Ready, Production
Content Behavior: UAT testers see content awaiting final approval.Info:
Lower stage takes precedence when multiple content exists.
URL:
https://acmecorp--qa.sandbox.my.salesforce.comStage: mapped to Draft, Ready, Production
Content Behavior: Content authors see all content, including work in progress.
Info:
Lower stage takes precedence when multiple content exists.
This setup ensures that end users are never exposed to unpublished content, while authors and testers can validate content in the appropriate stage.
Content Preview With the Player Extension
The Whatfix Studio works alongside the Player Extension to provide a seamless authoring and preview experience.
Whatfix Studio's standalone preview mode continues to work as before.
When preview mode is used alongside the Player Extension, it packages Custom Code, enabling a more integrated preview experience within the target application.
Get started
Info:
Whatfix Player Extension and the Enhanced Application Environment Configuration are beta features. To enable these features, contact Customer Success Manager or support@whatfix.com.
Configure environment mappings in the Whatfix Dashboard and map each of your application URLs to the appropriate content stage configuration.
Test the Player Extension functionality.
Migrate your users to the Player Extension post validation.