Deployment

After running revela generate all, you have a complete static website in your output/ folder. This guide shows you how to publish it online.

What Gets Generated?

Revela creates a fully self-contained static website:

output/
├── index.html          # Your homepage
├── sitemap.xml         # Search engine sitemap (if baseUrl configured)
├── gallery/
│   └── index.html      # A gallery page
├── images/             # Optimized images (AVIF, WebP, JPG)
├── css/                # Stylesheets
└── js/                 # JavaScript (if any)

No server-side processing needed! Any web host that serves HTML files will work.

Sitemap

Revela automatically generates a sitemap.xml for search engine indexing. To enable it, add baseUrl to your project.json:

{
  "project": {
    "baseUrl": "https://your-domain.com"
  }
}

The sitemap includes all pages with <lastmod> dates. Without baseUrl, the sitemap is skipped (sitemaps require absolute URLs).

Hosting Options

Option 1: GitHub Pages

This is how revela.website is hosted. Free, fast, and integrates with Git.

Manual Upload

1. Create a GitHub repository (e.g., my-portfolio)
2. Upload the contents of your output/ folder
3. Go to Settings → Pages
4. Select Branch: main and / (root)
5. Your site is live at https://username.github.io/my-portfolio/

Automated with GitHub Actions

For automatic deployment when you push changes, create .github/workflows/deploy.yml:

name: Deploy Portfolio

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Download Revela
        run: |
          curl -L https://github.com/Spectara/Revela/releases/latest/download/revela-linux-x64-full.tar.gz | tar xz
          chmod +x ./revela

      - name: Generate site
        run: ./revela generate all

      - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
        uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v4
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          publish_dir: ./output

Note: For pre-releases, replace /latest/download/ with /download/v0.0.1-beta.12/ (your version).

Option 2: Netlify (Drag & Drop)

The easiest option if you're not using Git:

1. Go to netlify.com and sign up
2. Drag your output/ folder onto the page
3. Done! You get a URL like random-name.netlify.app
4. Optionally connect a custom domain

Option 3: Traditional Web Host (FTP)

If you have existing web hosting (1&1, Strato, HostEurope, etc.):

1. Open your FTP client (FileZilla, WinSCP, etc.)
2. Connect to your host
3. Upload the contents of output/ to your web root (often public_html/ or htdocs/)
4. Done!

Using Command Line

# With rsync (Linux/macOS)
rsync -avz --delete output/ user@yourserver:/var/www/html/

# With lftp
lftp -e "mirror -R output/ /public_html; quit" -u user,password ftp.yourhost.com

Option 4: Cloudflare Pages

Fast global CDN with generous free tier:

1. Push your project to GitHub/GitLab
2. Go to pages.cloudflare.com
3. Connect your repository
4. Build command: ./revela generate all
5. Output directory: output

Custom Domain

Most hosts support custom domains. General steps:

1. Buy a domain (Namecheap, Squarespace Domains, etc.)
2. Add a CNAME record pointing to your host:
   • GitHub Pages: username.github.io
   • Netlify: your-site.netlify.app
3. Configure the custom domain in your host's settings
4. Wait for DNS propagation (up to 24h)

Tips

Base Path for Subdirectories

If your site is hosted at example.com/photos/ instead of the root:

// project.json
{
  "project": {
    "basePath": "/photos/"
  }
}

Image CDN

For large portfolios, consider hosting images separately on a CDN:

// project.json
{
  "project": {
    "imageBasePath": "https://cdn.example.com/images/"
  }
}

HTTPS

Always use HTTPS! Most modern hosts provide free SSL certificates:

• GitHub Pages: Automatic
• Netlify: Automatic
• Cloudflare: Automatic
• Traditional: Let's Encrypt (free)

Real Example: revela.website

This documentation site is built with Revela and deployed to GitHub Pages. See:

• Source: samples/revela-website
• Workflow: .github/workflows/deploy-website.yml
• Result: revela.website