Introduction to Building

A “build” is when CloudCannon converts all your Site files into a single, functional website. Building your Site in CloudCannon enables you to check all your files function well together, preview screenshots of your pages in the Collection browser, view a preview of your Site live on a Testing and Custom Domain, and use the Visual Editor for an intuitive editing experience.

In the Building section of our documentation, we cover:

• What is a Site build? — Learn about the basics of Site building, including when to build, how to trigger a build, and how to read build logs.
• Configuring your builds — Set up and manage your build settings.
• Extending your builds — Add more functions to your build.
• Scheduling your builds — Learn how to schedule builds manually or automatically.
• Site Mounting — Make files from one Site available to another at build time.

Let’s briefly introduce a few of these topics.

Configuring your builds#

CloudCannon needs to know a few details about your Site to build it, such as which SSG you are using and what commands to run. You can manage these settings on the Site Details and Build Configuration pages under Site Settings.

For a more in-depth explanation of build configuration, including how to set up your first build, manage your build settings, or lock builds, please read our documentation:

• Configure your first build
• Select your SSG
• Configure your command line options
• Configure your environment variables
• Pin your dependency version
• Lock builds for your Site

Extending your builds#

You can add more functions to your build to collect information from your Site, improve your build time, and more.

For a more in-depth explanation of the various ways you can extend your build, including adding build hooks and caching, please read our documentation:

• Build hooks
• Including the .git folder
• Initial Site settings
• Committing build files
• Configure caching between builds
• Optimize your Site

Scheduling your builds#

Scheduling a build allows you to edit your Site when you have the time and release your changes in the future.

For a more in-depth explanation of build scheduling, including manual vs automatic scheduling, please read our documentation:

• Schedule your builds manually
• Schedule your builds automatically

Site Mounting#

Site Mounting makes one site dependent on one or more other CloudCannon sites. Files from a remote site will be accessible to the local site at build time, and any updates to the remote site will trigger a build of the local site.

For a more in-depth explanation of Site Mounting, including how to add and remove Mounted Sites, please read our documentation:

• Site Mounting