GuidesPublishing your app

Publishing your app

Publishing puts your app on the web at its own address. Visitors see only what you have published. The preview in the studio is where you keep working, and nothing you change there reaches visitors until you publish again.

Publish

  1. Open the project in the studio.
  2. Click Publish in the top bar.

The studio checks the app first. If it has problems that stop publishing, the publish is cancelled and Checks opens with the list. Fix them (the Fix button sends a problem to the agent) and publish again.

When the publish succeeds, a panel says Your app is live, with the address, a Copy button and the version number. The address also stays in the top bar, so you can open the live app at any time.

The address

A published app lives at its own address on phiwebs.app:

https://<app>.phiwebs.app

The <app> part comes from the project’s name when you created it, plus a short random ending, for example lotus-yoga-k3m9. It is fixed for the life of the project: renaming the project or publishing again does not change it. A duplicated project gets its own address.

What gets published

The project exactly as it stands in the studio: its pages, data models, sign-in and access rules, images and packs. Two more things travel with it:

  • Records files. Records in app/content/ are written into the live app on every publish, so the project’s copy wins over edits made in the live app. Records in app/data/ are a starting set: they only fill a model that has no records yet, so your visitors’ records are never touched. See Records.
  • Connection secrets. The secrets you set in App → Connections are sent to the live app, sealed for that app alone. They never become part of the project’s files. See Connections.

Your first publish: you become the admin

If nobody is on the app’s people list yet, the person who publishes is added as its first admin: they get the app’s administration role. After that you can invite others from App → Sign-in & people. See Visitor sign-in.

Who can open the live app

That depends on the app’s sign-in:

  • No sign-in — anyone with the address.
  • Sign-in, not required — anyone can browse; signing in unlocks what the app’s roles allow.
  • Sign-in required — visitors must sign in before they see any page.

Who may sign in at all (anyone, or only people on the list) is set in the same panel.

Publishing an update

Ask for the change in the chat, check it in the preview, then click Publish again. Every publish is stored as a new version of the live app. Publishing a project that has not changed since a version you already published simply puts that version live again.

Going back to an earlier version

  1. Open History in the top bar.
  2. Click Restore on the version you want. Your current version stays in the history.
  3. Click Publish.

Restoring changes only the project and its preview. The live app changes when you publish.

Taking the app offline

Click the project name in the top bar and choose Unpublish, then confirm. Visitors see “not found” from then on. The app’s address and its stored versions are kept: click Publish to put it back.

Taking the app with you

Export in the top bar downloads the whole project as a .pwpack, or the built web app as an archive you can host yourself. See Working in the studio.

See also

Working in the studioVisitor sign-in