Future Time Machine: Inconsistent Content Display for Traditional vs. Headless Pages

Problem Statement

UVE's "Future Time Machine" feature, designed to preview pages with their future content on a specified date, is exhibiting a critical bug. The content displayed when previewing traditional pages through this feature differs from the content displayed when previewing headless pages for the same future date. This inconsistency can lead to significant user confusion, as they are presented with conflicting versions of what the future content should be. This bug severely impacts the reliability and usability of the "Future Time Machine" feature, as its core purpose is to provide an accurate preview. The issue appears to be consistent, affecting all instances where traditional and headless page content is compared via the feature. The description does not specify a front-end browser or OS component, suggesting the discrepancy likely originates from a backend content rendering or retrieval mechanism rather than a client-side display issue.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Ensure access to UVE's "Future Time Machine" feature and identify a traditional page and a corresponding headless page (or a page whose content can be delivered via both traditional and headless CMS).
2. Using the "Future Time Machine", select a specific future date to preview the content for the chosen traditional page. Observe and record the displayed content.
3. Repeat step 2 for the chosen headless page, ensuring the exact same future date is selected for preview.
4. Compare the content displayed for the traditional page with the content displayed for the headless page.

Expected Result: The content displayed for both the traditional and headless pages should be identical for the selected future date.
Actual Result: The content displayed for the traditional page will differ from the content displayed for the headless page.

Acceptance Criteria

1. The content displayed for headless pages when using the "Future Time Machine" feature must precisely match the content displayed for traditional pages when viewing the same future date.
2. The entire content response mechanism for "future" pages must be homogenized across all page types (traditional and headless) to ensure consistent and accurate previews.
3. Any incorrect or divergent content currently displayed for headless pages via the "Future Time Machine" must be corrected to align with the canonical content shown for traditional pages.

dotCMS Version

4fa6eac7

Severity

Medium - Some functionality impacted

Links

Start by reproducing the discrepancy in UVE's Future Time Machine with matching traditional and headless pages and the exact same future date. Compare the content responses and trace the future-page content mechanism for both page types. Done means headless previews return the same canonical content as traditional previews for the selected date.