Welcome to CloudCannon's Developer Documentation. These articles cover everything you need to know about customizing CloudCannon.
A Developer is anyone who customizes CloudCannon for their team members A person who belongs to the same Organization as you. Team members are other CloudCannon users who have been invited to your Organization to collaborate on Sites, edit content, or manage settings. Each team member has their own CloudCannon account with individual permissions assigned through Permission Groups. An abbreviation of User Interface, the UI is the visual elements and components that you can interact with in the CloudCannon app, such as pages, navigation menus, buttons, and inputs. The service of storing and serving website files on internet-connected servers so they can be accessed by visitors. You can host your Site through CloudCannon or an external service. A general term for an individual who has access to CloudCannon. An abbreviation of Content Management System, a CMS is a software that helps users create, manage, and modify content on a website. CloudCannon is a Git-based Content Management System for Git-backed websites that empowers both technical and non-technical team members to edit website code and content.Team Member
UI
Hosting
User
CMS
As a Developer, you can work in the CloudCannon web app (https://app.cloudcannon.com/) or your local development environment, whichever you prefer. For some settings, you will need to use CloudCannon's UI. The articles in this section of our documentation are designed to explain how CloudCannon works and provide instructions for configuring your CMS experience.
If you need any more help with your CloudCannon website, please don't hesitate to contact our friendly support team.
Syncing#
Articles in the Syncing section cover how to connect your Git Repository A storage location for the code and files that make up your website. CloudCannon supports the repository providers GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket, and highly recommends using a repository to store your website's files for better version control and collaboration. A website in CloudCannon that includes all the files, content, configuration, and settings needed to edit, build, and host a complete website. A distributed version control system used to track changes in source code during software development. In CloudCannon, Git serves as the foundation for all Site content, allowing developers to work in their preferred tools while content teams edit through CloudCannon's interface. All changes made in CloudCannon are automatically committed to your Git Repository, ensuring a complete history and enabling seamless collaboration.Git Repository
Site
Git
Sites#
Articles in the Sites section teach you how to create and configure Sites A website in CloudCannon that includes all the files, content, configuration, and settings needed to edit, build, and host a complete website.Site
Editing#
Articles in the Editing section explain how to customize the CloudCannon editing experience for your team members A person who belongs to the same Organization as you. Team members are other CloudCannon users who have been invited to your Organization to collaborate on Sites, edit content, or manage settings. Each team member has their own CloudCannon account with individual permissions assigned through Permission Groups. An editing interface for markup content structured data values, which appears in the Data Editor and the sidebar or data panels in the Content Editor and Visual Editor. Rich Text Inputs have a WYSIWYG toolbar for formatting. There are two types of Rich Text Input: HTML and Markdown. An editing interface for structured data in your data files or the Front Matter of markup files. Inputs appear in the Data Editor and the sidebar or data panels in the Content Editor and Visual Editor. CloudCannon supports twelve types of Inputs: Boolean, Code, Color, Datetime, File, Number, Object, Array, Select, Text, Rich Text, and URL. A predefined, custom template that determines what should populate an Array Input or Object Input. Populating Inputs with a Structure allows you to maintain consistency across your Site, and create a library of reusable content formats. A predefined template that determines what content should populate a new Collection file. You can configure several Schemas for each Collection, creating a list of file templates for you and your team. A designated area within a webpage template that team members can modify using CloudCannon's visual editing interface. Editable Regions allow non-technical users to update content directly on the page without touching code.Team Member
Rich Text
Input
Structure
Schema
Editable Region
Assets#
Articles in the Assets section cover how to manage large files A digital document or resource stored in your website repository, such as HTML pages, images, stylesheets, JavaScript files, or content files. In CloudCannon, files can be edited, organized, and managed through various interfaces. An abbreviation of Digital Asset Management, a DAM is a system for organizing, storing, and retrieving digital assets like images, videos, and documents. A storage location for the code and files that make up your website. CloudCannon supports the repository providers GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket, and highly recommends using a repository to store your website's files for better version control and collaboration. A website in CloudCannon that includes all the files, content, configuration, and settings needed to edit, build, and host a complete website. The process of converting all your Site files into a single, functional website using the method specified by your SSG. Building on CloudCannon is optional, but is required for specific features, such as the Visual Editor, preview screenshots for output files in your Collection Browser, and the Testing Domain and Custom Domain.File
DAM
Git Repository
Site
Build
Publishing#
Articles in the Publishing section cover how to set up publishing workflows for your Sites A website in CloudCannon that includes all the files, content, configuration, and settings needed to edit, build, and host a complete website. A way to group multiple Sites from the same Git Repository, allowing you to define a main branch, as well as branching and publishing rules. You can access the Projects Browser using the Projects link in the App Sidebar. A website in CloudCannon that includes all the files, content, configuration, and settings needed to edit, build, and host a complete website. The branch containing the copy of your website to which you want to publish your changes (sometimes called the "upstream" branch). Defining a Publish Branch allows team members to work on separate branches in parallel before publishing their changes to a shared branch. A Git feature that proposes changes to a repository and allows for review before merging. In CloudCannon, Pull Requests are one method of publishing changes from a Site to its Publish Branch. Unlike direct merging, Pull Requests require approval before changes are combined.Site
Project
Site
Publish Branch
Pull Request
Sharing#
Articles in the Sharing section cover how you can collaborate with others on CloudCannon. Learn how to create Custom Permission Groups A user-defined set of permissions and access controls in CloudCannon that can be assigned to team members. Custom Permission Groups allow fine-grained control over what users can see and do within your Organization. A person who belongs to the same Organization as you. Team members are other CloudCannon users who have been invited to your Organization to collaborate on Sites, edit content, or manage settings. Each team member has their own CloudCannon account with individual permissions assigned through Permission Groups. An abbreviation of Single Sign-On/Security Assertion Markup Language, SSO/SAML is an authentication method that allows users to access multiple applications with a single set of credentials. CloudCannon supports SSO/SAML for Enterprise Plan customers. With SSO/SAML, rather than logging in to CloudCannon directly, CloudCannon authenticates the user's identity using their Identity Provider software. A website in CloudCannon that includes all the files, content, configuration, and settings needed to edit, build, and host a complete website. A workspace in CloudCannon that groups together Sites, team members, and shared resources. You can define permissions for your Organization, controlling the access each team member has to resources on CloudCannon. You can create and be a part of multiple Organizations.Custom Permission Group
Team Member
SSO/SAML
Site
Organization
Building#
Articles in the Building section cover how to configure and extend the build The process of converting all your Site files into a single, functional website using the method specified by your SSG. Building on CloudCannon is optional, but is required for specific features, such as the Visual Editor, preview screenshots for output files in your Collection Browser, and the Testing Domain and Custom Domain. A website in CloudCannon that includes all the files, content, configuration, and settings needed to edit, build, and host a complete website. A CloudCannon feature that makes one Site dependent on one or more other 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. Site Mounting is an alternative to relying on Git submodules, build hooks, or custom APIs to manage your site dependencies. A digital document or resource stored in your website repository, such as HTML pages, images, stylesheets, JavaScript files, or content files. In CloudCannon, files can be edited, organized, and managed through various interfaces.Build
Site
Site Mounting
File
Hosting#
Articles in the Hosting section cover the features available when you host your website on CloudCannon. Learn how to access your free Testing Domain A free .cloudvent.net URL that CloudCannon assigns to every Site for reviewing your live website content after a successful Site build. Each Testing Domain uses a randomly generated adjective and noun separated by a hyphen. By default, CloudCannon automatically de-indexes Testing Domains so that they do not appear in search engines. A unique address used to identify a website, such as cloudcannon.com. You can purchase a domain from a Domain Registrar and add it as a Custom Domain to your CloudCannon Organization before connecting it to any number of Sites hosted on CloudCannon. An abbreviation of Domain Name System, DNS is the system which allows your computer to translate a domain name, which visitors are most likely to remember, into a machine-friendly IP address, which is required to access a website. The process of forwarding a visitor to a different webpage. By default, visitors see content for the file with a file name that matches the URL. However, routing is useful when you want to redirect old page URLs, configure extra headers, send visitors to a 404 page, remove URL extensions, or use geolocation. The process of verifying a user's identity. When you host your Site on CloudCannon, you can enable an authentication method to control who is allowed to see the live content of your website. CloudCannon supports three authentication methods: password authentication, user account authentication, and SAML authentication. By default, these authentication methods affect every page on your Site, but you can require authentication for specific pages using authenticated routes. A website in CloudCannon that includes all the files, content, configuration, and settings needed to edit, build, and host a complete website.Testing Domain
Custom Domain
DNS
Routing
Authentication
Site
Accounts#
Articles in the Accounts section teach you everything you need to know about managing Organizations A workspace in CloudCannon that groups together Sites, team members, and shared resources. You can define permissions for your Organization, controlling the access each team member has to resources on CloudCannon. You can create and be a part of multiple Organizations. A website in CloudCannon that includes all the files, content, configuration, and settings needed to edit, build, and host a complete website.Organization
Site