xStatic adds Git and FTP support
By popular demand Git and FTP support has been added to xStatic. This latest beta release also makes it possible to add in a custom deployer, and adds a little bit of logging and better error handling.
Use Git to deploy to GitHub Pages
The first new deployer added in the latest xStatic beta release is using Git. This will clone an existing repository from a remote source and commit/push all future deploys back to the origin. This allows you to easily use GitHub Pages, but it can also be used with a wide range of other continuous deliver platforms.
There are a few limitations to be aware of before choosing this over the preferred Netlify deployer. Firstly you need to be in 64 bit mode and you need to accept that the size on disk will be larger as the entire repo history will be stored alongside the files.
It is also recommended to use a custom hostname rather than the default GitHub Pages URL. If you want to deploy to a site to a location that isn't the root of the domain (e.g. {username}.github.io/{projectname}) you will likely need to write some custom transformers.
Utilise your existing hosting by deploying with FTP
If you have a more traditional hosting configuration, you can now deploy your xStatic site using FTP. This will mirror the remote FTP folder to match the built assets of your Umbraco instance.
FTP is the slowest of the deployment methods.
Error handling and logging improvements.
The deployment processes have all been improved to notify users of failures and log the exception in the standard Umbraco log. If you do have any issues with your deployments check App_Data/Logs to pinpoint the reason.
Create your own deployers
You can now create your own custom deployers without having to alter the core xStatic codebase. It is as simple as implementing a one method interface and configuring in the xStaticConfig.json file. The user interface is all handled by xStatic.
Download today
The new beta package is now available on Our.Umbraco and has been tested with version 8.11.1 of Umbraco.
