Running the Build Command
Now that you have some amazing content, you'll want to compile your site into static HTML.
This is as easy as executing the build command:
php hyde build
You can also compile a single file:
php hyde rebuild <filepath>
And, you can even start a development server to compile your site on the fly:
php hyde serve
Further reading
Key Concept: Autodiscovery
When building the site, Hyde will use all the routes generated when the auto-discovery process scanned your source directories for files. The command will then compile them into static HTML using the appropriate layout depending on what kind of page it is. Thanks to Hyde, the days of manually defining routes are over!
Learn more about these commands in the console commands documentation:
Deploying Your Site
One of the things that make static sites so enjoyable to work with is how easy it is to deploy them to the web. This list is not exhaustive, but gives you a general idea of the most common ways to deploy your site. If you have ideas to add to the documentation, please send a pull request!
General deployment
In essence, all you need to do is copy the contents of the _site directory to a web server, and you're done.
Once the site is compiled there is nothing to configure or worry about.
FTP and File Managers
If you have a conventional web host, you can use FTP/SFTP/FTPS to upload your compiled site files to the web server.
Some web hosting services also have web-based file managers.
To deploy your site using any of these methods, all you need to do is upload the entire contents of your _site
directory to the web server's public document root, which is usually the public_html, htdocs, or www directory.
GitHub Pages - Manually
GitHub Pages is a free service that allows you to host your static site on the web.
In general, push the entire contents of your _site directory to the gh-pages branch of your repository,
or the docs/ directory on your main branch, depending on how you set it up.
Please see the GitHub Pages documentation for more information.
GitHub Pages - CI/CD
Hyde works amazing with GitHub Pages and GitHub Actions and the entire build and deploy process can be automated.
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We have a great blog post on how to do this, Automate HydePHP sites using GitHub Actions and GitHub Pages.
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You can also copy our sample GitHub Actions Workflow.yml file.
By the way, HydePHP.com is hosted on GitHub Pages, and the site is compiled in a GitHub Action workflow that compiles and deploys the site automatically when the source is updated using this GitHub workflow.
Next Steps
So what's next? Well, keep creating amazing content, and share it with the world!
We'd love to see your creations, so please share your site with us on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social media platform. Use the hashtag #HydePHP and #MadeWithHydePHP so we can find it!
SEO Tips
While HydePHP takes most of the hard work out of setting up metadata tags for search engines, there are still a few things you can do to improve your site's SEO.
Set a site URL
This is the most important: Make sure you have set a SITE_URL either in the .env file or in the hyde.php configuration file. This is so that Hyde can generate absolute URLs, which are favored by search engines and required for sitemaps and RSS feeds.
Sitemaps and RSS Feeds
Next, since HydePHP automatically generates sitemaps and RSS feeds, you should take advantage of these by submitting them to search engines. For example, Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. This will jumpstart the indexing process, and make sure new pages are indexed quickly. You will also be able to see how your site is performing in search results.
Social sharing
Finally, keep sharing your content, so other people can find your site!