Review blog post revisions

How to undo a bad edit by restoring a previous version of a post

Every time you save a change to a Published blog post, SGEN stores a revision — a snapshot of what that post looked like before the save. The View History screen lets you look back at those snapshots, preview them, and restore an older one. It is your safety net for bad edits, accidental overwrites, or "I liked the old copy better" moments.

What is this for?

Revisions are your undo tool for blog content. When you realize the post you just published is worse than what you had yesterday, you do not have to rewrite it from memory — open the revision list, find the right snapshot, and restore it.

SGEN keeps the last 10 revisions for every Published post. Older versions fall off silently as you make new saves.

Before you start

• The post must be Published. Revisions are only accessible from the View History screen when the post is in Publish status on this version. Drafts and trashed posts do not show a revision history.
• You are signed in to SGEN as an admin.
• You have a rough idea of which revision you want back — the table lists each revision by timestamp, author, and a short content snippet.

Good use cases

Example 1: Roll back a bad edit.

You rewrote a product update post, saved, and now realize the old version was better. Open the post's Edit screen from Blog → All Blogs. Click View History in the top-right action bar. The history table shows every revision — current content at the top (marked "Current"), older revisions below. Click Preview on yesterday's revision to confirm it is the one you want, then click Restore. Confirm the prompt. The post's content is replaced with the older version. Open the public URL to verify readers now see the restored copy.

Example 2: Compare versions before publishing changes.

Before pushing a heavy rewrite live, use Preview on prior revisions to compare what the post looked like across its history. Preview opens each snapshot in a read-only view — you can browse freely, and only Restore makes an actual change. Use this as a sanity check ("did I make the post better or worse since Monday?") before committing to big edits.

What NOT to use this for

• Do not try to view revisions on draft or trashed posts. On this version, the View History screen only works for Published posts. If you open /sg-admin/blog/history/<ID> for a Draft, Private, Password Protected, or trashed post you land on a "Data not found" admin page instead of the revision table. Flip the post to Publish first, then click View History.
• Do not rely on revisions as a full backup. Only the last 10 revisions are retained. Older versions are deleted silently as new saves happen. If a version is more than 10 edits old, it is gone. For long-term backups, Export the post as JSON from the row action on the Blog list.
• Do not expect the post's URL to roll back when you restore a revision. Restore replaces the post's title and body content with the older version. The post's slug (URL) stays on whatever the current version had. If you also want the old slug back, edit the Permalink field on the Edit form after the restore.
• Do not use revisions for SEO, Page Banner, or Thumbnail changes. Revisions snapshot the post's content only. SEO fields, Page Banner settings, per-post Header/Footer Scripts, Thumbnail, Status, and Category/Tag assignments are not versioned — restoring an old revision does not roll those back.

How this connects to other features

• Create and manage blog posts (create-and-manage-blog-posts) — View History is reached from the Edit screen of any Published post.
• Import / Export — use row-action Export to save a full-post JSON backup (title + content + metadata). Revisions only cover content, not metadata.

Where to go

1. From Blog → All Blogs, click the title of a Published post to open Edit.
2. Look at the top-right of the Edit form for the View History button. It only appears when the post has at least one saved revision.
3. Click it to land on /sg-admin/blog/history/<ID>.

Steps to restore a revision

1. Pick the revision

The history page lists revisions newest to oldest with timestamp, author, and a content snippet. The top row is marked Current — that is what readers see right now on the public post.

2. Preview (recommended)

Click Preview on the row you are considering. This opens the snapshot in a read-only view so you can confirm it is the version you want — without making any change.

3. Restore

Click Restore on the chosen row. A confirmation dialog asks you to confirm. Confirm, and the post's content is replaced with the revision's content. The public URL updates on the next request.

What success looks like

• The Blog list shows the post with its expected Title (unchanged by the restore).
• Opening the post's public URL in a private/incognito window shows the older content you restored.
• The history view now shows your restore as a new Current revision at the top of the list. The previous current content becomes the second row — so you can swap back if you change your mind.

What to do if it does not work

• The View History button is not on my Edit screen. Either the post has never been edited (zero revisions yet — make one edit + Save to create the first) OR the post is not Published. Flip to Publish first if you want revision tracking.
• I opened View History on a Draft post and got "Data not found." Known behavior on this version — View History is only accessible for Published posts. Flip to Publish, then click View History.
• I cannot find the version from last month. The 10-revision cap means older versions are deleted as new saves happen. There is no way to recover revisions beyond the 10. Going forward, use row-action Export on important posts to save JSON snapshots.
• Restore did not change the public page. Your browser or an upstream cache is serving the old content. Try a private/incognito window or append ?cb=1 to the URL.
• My Page Banner / SEO / Thumbnail did not roll back after I restored. Expected. Revisions only cover the post's content; metadata is not versioned. Use a full-post JSON from Export if you need a complete restore.

Next step

• Back up important posts via the row-action Export on the Blog list — downloads a JSON of the post that can be re-imported later.
• Keep posts Published while you iterate so every save writes a revision. Switching to Draft to "work on it" disables the history safety net on this version.
• Return to the post list via Blog → All Blogs to continue editing.