Publishing, versions, and approvals

Publish containers

When you publish a container, Tag Manager will make your changes active for the environment specified. If you've added or edited tags, triggers, and variables in a workspace, you will need to publish those changes to make those changes operational on your website or mobile app.

To publish your current workspace:

1. Go to https://tagmanager.google.com.
2. Sign in to your Google Account. Learn how to create a Google Account.
3. Open the Tag Manager container you want to edit.
4. Click Submit at the top right hand side of the screen. The Submit Changes screen will appear, with options to publish the container and save a version of your container.
5. Select Publish and Create Version if it is not already selected.
6. Review the Workspace Changes section to see if your configuration appears as you expect.
7. Enter a Version Name and Version Description.
8. If you have Tag Manager configured to use multiple environments, use the Publish to Environment section to select which environment you'd like to publish to.
9. Click Publish.

You can review changes before you publish. Use the More Actions menu in the Workspace Changes section to view differences between versions for the element in question, or abandon the change. Click on the name of the element in the list to view an expanded detail screen, where you can review what has changed with each element, make last minute changes, or abandon the change.

Versions

A version is a snapshot of a container configuration at a particular time. You can save the current state of a workspace as a version at any time. This enables you to revert your workspace back to a previous version if necessary.

Versions can make it easier to recover from mistakes. For example: If someone accidentally publishes a container version before it's ready for production, you can revert your workspace to an earlier version and publish it.

Users with Approve access or higher can create versions. Every time a container is published, a version of that container is recorded.

To save the current workspace as a version before it is published:

1. Click Submit. The Submit Changes screen will appear, with options to publish or save a version. (Google Marketing Platform customers will see an additional option to Request Approval.)
2. Click Create Version.
3. Enter a Version Name and Version Description.
4. Click Create.

To publish a previously saved version of a container to the site:

1. Click Versions.
2. Click the desired version in the table.
3. Click Action Publish.

Tag Manager maintains a publish history, so you can see when versions were live and who published them. To see the publish history, go to Versions and look for entries with a date in the Published column.

To replace the current container version with a previously saved version:

1. Click Versions.
2. Click the Actions menu next to the desired container version.
3. Select Set as Latest Version.

This replaces the current container draft with the content of the selected container version. You may then make any additional modifications to the container draft, and publish your changes when ready.

To publish a specific version from the Versions screen: Identify the version you'd like to publish and then select Publish To... from the Actions menu.

When you publish or create a version, enter a Version Name and Description that will make it easy to know what changes are being made. For example:

• Version name: "GA page view tag - initial launch"
• Description: "Launch the Google Analytics pageview tag on example.com."

Note: When you create a new container, an initial version titled "Version 1 - Empty Container" is automatically generated for you.

Approvals

This feature is only available in Google Tag Manager 360, which is included in the Google Marketing Platform.

Containers owned by Tag Manager 360 accounts can add approvals to their workflow. Users with Edit access or higher will see an additional option to request approval to publish changes that they have made.

The user that requests approval has the option to assign a specific user to review the request, and leave a comment with instructions or additional information. Any user with Approve or Publish access can take action on the request, but assignment to a specific user is a good way to flag the approval request for a specific person.

Request approval

To request approval for changes made to a workspace:

1. Click Submit.
2. Select Request Approval.
3. Optional: Click Choose Approver to identify someone to review and approve your request.
4. Optional: Use the Comment section to add a descriptive comment to help an approver understand the requested changes.
5. Click Request.

If you are using a workspace that has a pending approval, you will see a banner that indicates the workspace is pending approval status. Click View Request to see the changes as they were requested.

Approve requests

The Approvals page will list all approval requests that have been submitted for a given container. These items will include requests to publish workspaces, approve External Account Links, and add tags pushed from Campaign Manager 360. When there are requests pending approval, the Approvals tab will have an indicator next to it:

• A blue circle means there are open requests that are either assigned to another user, or are available for anyone to review and approve.
• A red circle means there are open requests assigned specifically for you to review.

To review and approve or reject an approval request:

1. Click the Approvals tab.
2. Click the name of the entry to be approved.
3. Review the details of the request.
4. Optional: To assign a specific approver, click Choose Approver.
5. Optional: To add comments to a request, click Add Comment.
6. Click Approve to approve the request, Send Back to deny the request and have the original submitter make further edits, or Withdraw to cancel a request.

Approvals functionality helps Tag Manager 360 customers establish collaborative workflows for their organizations and allow 3rd party agencies or other users access to the tag configuration process in a way that keeps centralized control in the hands of the primary stakeholders. To help meet an organization's standards and minimize errors, container owners may choose to grant Publish access to a smaller set of more experienced users that can review and approve publish requests.

Related resources

• Workspaces
• Folders
• Organize your containers
• Environments
• Users and permissions