Preview and Live environments

A preview environment is where you develop functionality and content for your Web site including Promotions. A live environment is where you send content to which is ready for consumption by Web site visitors. The following diagram provides an overview of the SmartTarget preview and live environments.

Content Explorer
Create Components ( content items ) in the Content Explorer screen and publish these to a Fredhopper environment.
Targeting
Create Promotions in the Targeting screen. Promotions are stored in Promotion Lists which represent the Promotions available on a specific Fredhopper environment served to a Web site (in the simplest scenario, Preview and Live).
Experience Manager
Open the Editing Sites screen and validate Promotions in Experience Manager. When you have finished fine-tuning Promotions, copy them to live environments.
Fredhopper Preview environment
The Fredhopper Preview environment is where you send Promotion s (and content) you are developing: the Fredhopper Preview environment handles requests for Promotions displayed in Experience Manager.
Fredhopper Live environment
The Fredhopper Preview environment is where you send Promotion s (and content) you want to go live: the Fredhopper Live environment handles requests from your public-facing Web sites.