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Edit from the live site

Browsing your published site and spot something to fix? If you can edit the site, the admin bar runs across the top of the live page. It names the page you're on and opens it in the Besigner in one click.

Plan availability

Every plan, Free included. The count of today's views of the page you're on is Pro+, like per-page traffic.

Who sees it​

The bar only appears for someone whose role on the site can edit content: Admin, Editor or Author. Workspace owners and admins are admins on every site. A Viewer doesn't get a read-only bar; they get no bar at all.

Nobody else gets the bar. A visitor who isn't signed in, or who is signed in without edit access to this site, gets the page exactly as it is.

On your aglyn.app address​

On your site's aglyn.app address, the bar appears by itself. Open any page of the site in the browser you use the console in, and the bar is there with nothing to click.

The console makes that possible by leaving a hint for aglyn.app sites in your browser. While you're signed in, it refreshes the hint at most once a day as the console loads, so you may notice a quick redirect through console.aglyn.app. The hint lasts a week. It isn't a sign-in: each time the bar connects, the site's server checks that your account still exists and can still edit this site.

On your own domain​

A custom domain like www.example.com can't see that hint, so there the bar waits until you ask for it. On any page of the site, either:

  • add ?aglyn-edit to the address, as in https://www.example.com/about?aglyn-edit, or
  • press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + E.

Visit on the console's Sites list opens your site with ?aglyn-edit already added.

An Edit this site button appears in the bottom-right corner. Click it and a small console window opens. It checks your console sign-in and your role on this site, then connects the site; the window closes and the bar appears. If you aren't signed in to the console, the window says so and links to sign in. Sign in, then click the button on your site again. An account that can't edit the site sees No edit access instead.

The connection lasts 30 minutes and is kept in your browser for that site, so other pages and tabs of the site show the bar without asking again. When it runs out, connect the same way again.

?aglyn-edit and the shortcut work on the aglyn.app address too. There they bring the bar straight up, with no button, whenever the hint is in your browser. Visit site on a site's dashboard opens that address with ?aglyn-edit added.

The bar​

From left to right:

  • the site's name, beside the Aglyn mark and the site's favicon, if it has one. It opens the site's dashboard in the console.
  • the page you're on. A blog post or another collection page shows the collection and the template page that renders it, such as Blog entry · Post. An address no page serves shows Unrouted page.
  • Draft changes, when the page has a version newer than the one that's live.
  • Edit this page, which opens the Besigner on that page, at the version the site is serving. On a blog post or another collection entry it reads Edit template, because that template is the design every entry shares, and Edit this entry beside it opens the entry itself — its text, cover and author — in the console's content editor.
  • today's page views across the site, and on Pro+ how many of them were of this page, as in 120 views today · 18 on this page. Days are counted in UTC. It opens the site's analytics.
  • Pages, plus Inbox and Orders where the inbox and commerce plugins are enabled on the site.
  • your email, which opens a menu with Account settings, Site dashboard and Disconnect.
  • ×.

Every link opens the console in a new tab, where your usual permissions apply. As you browse, the bar follows: go to another page and it names that one.

The bar sits above the page rather than over it. The page moves down by the bar's height, and so does a site header pinned to the top of the window. On a phone, the bar keeps the site name, the edit links and ×, and a ⋯ menu holds the links, your email and Disconnect.

Hide it​

  • × hides the bar until the next full page load.
  • Disconnect forgets the connection for this site in this browser, and the bar stops appearing by itself there. ?aglyn-edit or the shortcut brings it back.

What it never does​

  • Appear on its own for anyone who can't edit. A visitor sees nothing unless they add ?aglyn-edit or press the shortcut themselves. Even then, all they get is the Edit this site button, and the console window answers it with Sign in first or No edit access.
  • Change your site. The bar reads which page you're on and today's counts, and links to the console. Every edit still happens in the console, with your normal permissions, and what visitors see is untouched.
  • Give the site your console sign-in. The site gets a pass that works only on that site and expires in 30 minutes, plus your email to show in the bar.
  • Set cookies on your own domain. The hint lives on aglyn.app, and only in the browsers of people who use the console.

Good to know​

  • Signing out of the console doesn't remove the hint. It lapses within a week, and the site's server re-checks your access every time the bar connects. On a shared computer, use Disconnect on each site you opened, or clear the browser's cookies and site data for aglyn.app.
  • Taking away someone's edit access stops new connections straight away. A connection their browser already holds keeps showing the bar until its 30 minutes run out, and every link in it leads to the console, which refuses them.