Websites

Host a website you already have from its files, uploaded or pushed to a Git repository.

A files website is HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images and any other files, served exactly as they are. Its files come from uploads on its page, or from a repository in Git Repositories, where each push publishes them. Every change makes a version, and the live version is shown at the website's Magpie address or your own domain.

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Uploading files

Drop a folder, files or a ZIP on the website's page, or choose them with Upload files or Upload folder. Before anything is sent, the page lists what will be uploaded, which files will replace ones already on the website, and which cannot be uploaded and why. The files will go live together when the last one has arrived.

Home page and addresses
index.html at the top is the home page. A visitor who asks for /about gets about.html or about/index.html, and a file called 404.html is shown for an address that has nothing.
One folder at the top
When an empty website gets a folder or ZIP with one folder at the top, that folder's contents become the website, so my-site/index.html is the home page.
Sizes
A file can be up to 200 MB, and a website can have up to 5,000 files. One account can upload 2,000 files an hour, across all its websites.
What is refused
Programs, installers and shortcuts, and server-side code such as PHP, which Magpie does not run. Upload the HTML the code produces instead.
Storage
Each file counts toward the storage of the person who uploaded it, on their plan, while any kept version uses it.

Versions and Restore

Every change makes a new version: an upload, a rename, a move, a delete or a restore. The Files band lists the live version's folders and files, where files can be renamed, moved to another folder and deleted. To change what a file contains, upload a new copy of it.

  1. The Versions band

    Lists the 50 most recent versions, newest first, with who made each one, when and what changed.

  2. Restore

    Makes an earlier version live again as a new version, so the versions after it are kept.

  3. Download ZIP

    Gives the files of any kept version.

Files from a Git repository

A files website's files can come from a repository in the team's Git Repositories instead of uploads. Switch where files come from, in the website's More menu, chooses the repository and its branch. Until the first push or Build now, the website keeps the files it has.

  1. Push to publish

    Each push to the branch will make the website again from the files at that commit, and the new version will be live at once. Build now makes it from the branch as it is.

  2. Who can change it

    Only a member who can push to the repository can change the website's files.

  3. A push that cannot be built

    Its log will be kept in the Versions band, and the live version will stay as it was.

  4. Back to uploads

    Switching back to Uploads on this page keeps the live version, and pushes stop changing the website.

Files as they are, or built from Markdown

A repository without a content/ folder is copied as it is, except the .git folder, files and folders whose names start with a dot, and files a website refuses. A repository with a content/ folder is built into pages from Markdown and templates.

content/
One page for each Markdown or HTML file: content/about.md is published at /about/. Front matter sets a page's title, date, layout and address, and draft: true leaves the page out.
layouts/
Templates written in Twig, with the site's pages, the page's details and its content as variables. layouts/default.html is used when a page names no other layout.
static/ and site.yml
static/ is copied to the website's root as it is. site.yml sets the site's title, description and language.
What Magpie adds
sitemap.xml lists every page, feed.xml lists the newest dated pages in content/posts/, and layouts/404.html becomes the page for an address that has nothing.
Repository limits
Magpie reads up to 5,000 files from the repository, 60 MB in total and 12 MB per file, and makes up to 2,000 pages. Past a limit, nothing is published and the log says which limit.

The Magpie address and your domain

The Magpie address is made from the website's name when you create it, and can be changed in Edit details. A files website is published from the start, and visitors see it once its first files arrive. Turning off Published takes it offline.

A files website is served at its own address, never at Magpie's, so its scripts cannot read anything of your Magpie account. Team admins can show it at a domain the team owns, such as example.com, by adding the DNS records Magpie lists.

Team access and plans

A website belongs to Personal or to a team. In a team, admins can upload, change and restore its files, and so can other members when the team's Member access is Can edit. Only a team admin can connect a domain.

The Free plan includes 1 website, and Pro and the Team plan include 20, counting files websites and editor websites together.

Upload your website's files.

Create a Magpie account, open Websites, choose New website, then Upload your own files.

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