Managing your website

Start with the right address

The preview is publicly accessible to anyone with its address. “Noindex” asks search engines not to list it; it does not make the site private.

How the two websites work together

Think of the customer website as your shop counter and the admin website as the office behind it. Customers choose food and request a collection time at the counter. In the office, you decide what is available, when people can book and what stage each order has reached.

Both use the same stored information. If you change an item’s price in admin, the customer website reads the updated price when it next loads the menu. If a customer places a booking on the preview, that booking appears in admin.

What is a “drop”?

A drop is one day of service. For example, you might plan to serve food on a Saturday between 5 pm and 8 pm. That Saturday is the drop. Within it, you create collection windows such as 5:00–5:15 pm and 5:15–5:30 pm. Those windows are called time slots.

The booking window is different: it is when people can place their orders. You could let people book from Wednesday morning until Saturday afternoon, even though collection happens on Saturday evening.

There are two kinds of changes: operational changes, such as prices or opening bookings, are saved through admin. Website changes, such as adding a page or changing its layout, need the development workflow in the Codex guide.

What a customer does

1. Explore. Browse the homepage and menu to see the food, options and prices.
2. Choose a booking opportunity. A drop is a planned service date. The customer selects an available collection slot for that drop.
3. Build the order. Choose menu items, steak doneness where required, and available upgrades such as Beast Mode.
4. Review. Check the items, collection slot and total. Enter name, email, phone number and any notes, then complete the bot-protection check.
5. Confirm. The API validates availability and saves the booking. The customer is taken to a confirmation page with their order link.
6. Track and collect. The order link shows progress as staff update the order. Keep that link private: it identifies the customer’s order.

This is a booking and order-management flow. The reviewed booking form does not include an online card-payment step; agree the payment arrangements separately.

Why a slot can disappear

Another order may take the last space while a customer is filling in the form. The server checks availability again on submission. If a slot is full or closed, the customer must choose another one.

What you can do without coding

Use the admin site for day-to-day operations. You do not need Codex to manage an existing drop or order.

Homepage wording, layout, photography and new functionality are code changes. Use the Codex guide for those.

Update the menu

Before you start: decide which item is changing, its new price and whether it should be available to customers.

1. Sign in to admin.steakholders.uk and open Menu.
2. Find the item in the list. Use its edit control to open the item form.
3. Review the name, category, size, cut, description and price. The form labels the price as Price (pence). Enter 1500 for £15.00, not 15.
4. Check Requires doneness for an item that needs the customer to choose how the steak is cooked. Review the active setting and sort order.
5. Save the change. Open or refresh the menu on the customer preview and check the displayed item and price.

Expected result: the customer sees the saved details for an active item. Inactive items are excluded from the public menu. This changes shared test data; you do not need to publish a new version of the website.

Prefer making an item inactive when it should stop appearing. Do not casually delete records that may be used by existing orders. Existing order items store a price at the time of ordering; changing the menu price is not the same action as editing an existing order.

Set up your first test drop

Before you start: have a service date, collection times and a sensible maximum number of orders per slot. Check that the menu contains the items you intend to sell.

For a small test, use a future service date, two short collection slots and a low capacity. These are example settings: choose values that fit your own operation.

1. Sign in to admin and open Drops → New Drop.
2. Choose the service date. Set the optional Booking Opens and Booking Closes times to the period in which you want orders accepted.
3. Open the new drop and add time slots. Each needs a start time, end time and Max Orders. Keep the slot’s “Closed” setting off when accepting bookings.
4. Use the drop’s status controls to move from Draft → Scheduled → Open. Confirm the date and booking window as well as the status.
5. Open the customer preview and check that the drop and slots are available. Create one small test order with your own email address.
6. Find that order in admin and check the slot, items, total and notes.

Understand the status buttons

Follow the available buttons in order. Scheduling a drop is not the same as opening bookings, and opening bookings is not a substitute for checking the collection slots.

Repeat a previous service

The Clone action creates a new drop with the same time slots. Choose the new date, then review the new drop before opening it. Do not assume that copying the slot layout means all dates and settings are ready.

A drop normally progresses from Open → Closed → Completed after bookings finish and service is done. Closing a slot prevents new bookings in that slot.

Check displayed dates and times against your intended UK service time, especially around daylight-saving changes. Do not assume a date alone makes a drop bookable.

Move an order through service

The normal order progression is:

Pending → Confirmed → Pickup assigned → Preparing → Ready → Collected

Review the order, confirm it, assign the pickup time where needed, then advance it as the kitchen prepares and hands it over. Use the available controls in the order detail or service view; the API restricts invalid status changes.

Find and check an order

1. Open Drops in admin and choose the relevant service date.
2. Find the order in that drop’s orders list. Use the status filter if you are looking for a particular group.
3. Open the order detail. Check customer details, chosen items, doneness, collection slot, total and notes.
4. Use the available status or editing controls for the action you intend. After saving, confirm the record shows the new value.
5. If the change affects the customer, check their order-status page and any expected notification separately.

Pending means the order needs attention; it does not by itself tell you that payment has been taken. Ready means the food is ready for collection. Collected means it has been handed over.

You can cancel an eligible order or correct certain statuses using the supported controls. Use those controls rather than deleting database rows. Item edits can change the total, so recheck it after every adjustment.

What sends a message?

The reviewed backend attempts email on booking confirmation, pickup-time assignment and when an order is marked ready. Delivery depends on the configured email service. A saved booking does not prove its email arrived: check the inbox and spam folder separately.

Some pages also offer WhatsApp links. Do not assume that every status change automatically sends a WhatsApp message.

A routine for service day

Before bookings open

Check menu prices, active items, the drop date, booking window and collection-slot capacity. Open the customer preview yourself and confirm the options are understandable. Make sure staff know how payment will be handled.

While orders are coming in

Monitor the drop’s orders in admin. Review notes and unusual requests. If you need to stop new bookings for a slot, use its Closed setting. Check existing orders before reducing capacity; do not assume a capacity edit cancels anything already booked.

During collection

Use the service view and order details to keep progress up to date. Assign pickup times as needed, move orders through preparation and mark them collected after handover. Only mark an order Ready when you want the customer to be told it is ready.

After service

Close bookings if they are still open, check outstanding orders and mark the drop completed when finished. Export orders if you need a separate operational record. Handle those exports as customer information and share them only with authorised staff.

A short acceptance checklist

• Preview opens the actual site; both public domains still go to Canva.
• Homepage and menu look correct on a phone and laptop.
• An open test drop has at least one available slot.
• Make a booking using your own contact details; verify items, total and notes in admin.
• Open its confirmation/status link and follow it through service.
• Verify the expected email arrives, including its destination link.
• Check an unavailable or closed slot cannot be booked.

Known link caveat: notification links use the backend’s configured customer-site address. If an email link opens the public domain, it will currently go to Canva. Report that exact link behaviour; the preview’s frontend deployment does not change backend email settings.

Record feedback as: page URL, device, what you did, what you expected, what happened and a screenshot. Remove personal details before sharing it.

When something looks wrong

I see Canva

Use the preview address for testing. Canva is intentional on the two public addresses.

No dates or slots appear

Check drop status, date, booking window, slot capacity and the slot’s closed setting. If those are correct, report the API error rather than repeatedly creating drops.

Booking confirmation email is missing

First check whether the order exists in admin. Then check spam and the email configuration. Avoid placing duplicates just to trigger another email.

The bot check fails

Refresh and retry once. If it continues, report the hostname and error; Turnstile’s hostname configuration and backend secret need to match.

Can we reset the test data?

Yes, as a separate planned task. Decide exactly what to remove, take a backup and confirm the target database first. Redeploying the website does not reset data.

What happens when we launch?

Review test data, booking availability, notifications and payment arrangements. Then explicitly approve removing the public redirect and deploy that change. The preview’s existence does not automatically launch the public site.