Adding New Publishing Targets in Sitecore

By default, Sitecore publishes content from the master database to the web database. This covers most standard use cases, but there are scenarios — particularly around preview environments and staged publishing workflows — where you need content pushed to an additional database before it reaches the public web database.

A common example: you want non-Sitecore users (like a client or a QA team) to review content before it goes live. You can publish to a separate preview database first, accessible only through an internal preview URL, while the live site remains unaffected.

How to Add a New Publishing Target

Step 1 — Create the publishing target item in Sitecore

In the Content Editor, navigate to /sitecore/system/Publishing targets and insert a new publishing target item. Give it a meaningful name (e.g. Preview) and set the Target Database field to the name of the database you want to publish to — for example, preview.

Step 2 — Add the connection string

Open your Sitecore instance's ConnectionStrings.config file and add a new entry for the target database. The name must exactly match what you entered in the Target Database field:

<add name="preview"
     connectionString="Data Source=.;Initial Catalog=web_preview;
     User ID=youruser;Password=yourpassword" />

Step 3 — Create a configuration patch file

The cleanest way to register the new database with Sitecore is via a patch file. Create a new .config file under your project's App_Config\Include\ folder (following your project's architecture conventions). The patch needs to register the new database in three sections: eventing, PropertyStoreProvider, and databases.

Here's the patch template for a database named preview:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/">
  <sitecore>
    <eventing defaultProvider="sitecore">
      <eventQueueProvider>
        <eventQueue name="preview"
          patch:after="eventQueue[@name='web']"
          type="Sitecore.Data.Eventing.$(database)EventQueue, Sitecore.Kernel">
          <param ref="dataApis/dataApi[@name='$(database)']"
                 param1="$(name)" />
          <param hint="" ref="PropertyStoreProvider/store[@name='$(name)']" />
        </eventQueue>
      </eventQueueProvider>
    </eventing>
    <PropertyStoreProvider>
      <store name="preview" patch:after="store[@name='web']"
        prefix="preview" getValueWithoutPrefix="true" singleInstance="true"
        type="Sitecore.Data.Properties.$(database)PropertyStore, Sitecore.Kernel">
        <param ref="dataApis/dataApi[@name='$(database)']" param1="$(name)" />
        <param resolve="true"
               type="Sitecore.Abstractions.BaseEventManager, Sitecore.Kernel" />
        <param resolve="true"
               type="Sitecore.Abstractions.BaseCacheManager, Sitecore.Kernel" />
      </store>
    </PropertyStoreProvider>
    <databases>
      <database id="preview" patch:after="database[@id='web']"
        singleInstance="true"
        type="Sitecore.Data.DefaultDatabase, Sitecore.Kernel">
        <param desc="name">$(id)</param>
        <icon>Images/database_web.png</icon>
      </database>
    </databases>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

Step 4 — Create the physical database

The connection string references a database (web_preview in the example above) that must actually exist on your SQL Server. Create it in SSMS — either as a fresh empty database or as a copy of your existing web database if you want it pre-populated.

Step 5 — Verify

Restart your Sitecore instance to pick up the config changes. Navigate to the Publish dialog — your new publishing target should now appear in the Publishing Targets section alongside the standard Web target.