> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.go.gbgplc.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Publish journey

> Publish your GBG GO journey to Preview for testing or to Production for live customer use.

Once your journey is fully configured, the next step is to publish it. Publishing a journey makes it available for use in different environments.

GBG GO allows you to publish journeys in two environments:

| **Option**     | **Purpose**                                                                                     |
| -------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Preview**    | Allows testing before going live. Generates a schema for API integration.                       |
| **Production** | Deploys the journey live for real users. Once published, the journey cannot be edited directly. |

Publishing to Preview allows the development team to test API calls and verify that the journey is functioning as expected.

## Publish to Preview

Publishing to preview allows you to test your journey before making it live.

To publish to Preview:

1. Click **Publish to Preview** in the journey editor.
2. A confirmation message appears: *Delivery deployed successfully*.
3. Click on **Dashboard** to see:
   * Environment (Preview)
   * Version number
   * Resource ID
   * Last published date
   * Schema
4. The schema for your journey is automatically generated.

### Understanding the schema

The schema defines what information is required for the modules in your journey.

* If a new module is added, new fields may be included in the schema.
* If a field is already used, it will be shared between modules, for example, an address field used in multiple verification steps.
* Developers can copy the schema and use it for API integration with Postman or other tools.

<Warning>
  Ensure your journey is fully tested in Preview before publishing to
  Production. Any changes will require creating a new version.
</Warning>

## Publish to Production

Once testing is complete, you can publish the journey to **Production**. This makes it available for real users.

To publish to Production:

1. Click the **Actions** list in the Dashboard.
2. Select **Publish to Production** from the menu.
3. Confirm the action in the dialog box by selecting the checkbox.
4. Click **Publish to production**.

The journey is now live. You can now use the Resource ID and schema for API integration in your production environment.

## Important considerations:

* Once a journey is published to Production, it cannot be edited directly.
* If changes are needed, you must **create a new version** of the journey.
* You will have two journey Resource IDs and versions,one for **Preview** and one for **Production**. They will be used for API integration in the steps below.

## What’s next?

After publishing, the journey is ready for integration with your system. Choose either of the following delivery methods, depending on your needs to lauch your journeys:

* [API-first integration guides](/docs/go-v2/developer-integration/overview): Learn how to use the API-first delivery method to integrate your journey into your own frontend and backend systems.

* [Hosted journeys low-code integration guides](/docs/go-v2/low-code-builder/introduction/hosted-journey): Learn how to use hosted journeys to let the GBG GO platform handle the end-user interface and data collection.

* [Investigate](/docs/go-v2/platform/investigate/overview): View submitted data, journey status, and logs in the GBG GO Investigation portal.

## FAQ

<Accordion title="How do I access the preview/sandbox environment?">
  GBG GO provides two separate environments:

  * **Preview environment**: A test environment where you can validate journeys before deploying them to production. Use this to test API calls, verify journey behaviour, and confirm that modules are configured correctly.
  * **Production environment**: The live environment where published journeys are used by real customers.

  **To publish a journey to the preview environment:**

  1. Open your journey in the Journey builder.
  2. Click **Publish to Preview**.
  3. A confirmation message appears: "Delivery deployed successfully".
  4. Click **Dashboard**, where you can see the environment label (Preview), version number, resource ID, last published date, and the auto-generated schema.

  To access preview data in the Investigation portal:

  1. Navigate to **Investigation**.
  2. Click the **Preview Environment** tab.

  The preview environment uses a separate resource ID from production. When testing your API integration, use the preview resource ID from the Dashboard. Once testing is complete, publish the journey to production to generate a production resource ID.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="What is the difference between a resource ID and an instance ID?">
  A **resource ID** identifies a specific published version of a journey. When you publish a journey in GBG GO, the system assigns it a resource ID. You include this ID in the journey start request to tell the API which journey to run. To always use the most recently published version, append `@latest` to the resource ID (for example, `your-resource-id@latest`). To pin your integration to a specific version, use the fixed resource ID without `@latest`.

  An **instance ID** identifies a single execution of that journey. When you start a journey, the API creates a journey instance and returns a unique `instanceId` in the response. You use this instance ID in subsequent API calls.
</Accordion>