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Guide → Deploy the Roe app

Troubleshooting → Site Sync

Guide → Publish a static site

Recovery

How to publish your Roe site

This article covers: Site Sync, Static Site Sync and Site Backups.

Site Sync

In Roe, there is a “local site”, this is the site/ folder on a laptop/personal computer, and a “live site”, this is the site/ folder on a webhost/server.

Site Sync:

  • tracks changes on the “local site” and “live site”
  • syncs changes between them.
  • only sends the files that have changed, not the entire site folder.

Note: Site Sync handles content only. If you’ve updated Roe to a new version, you want to Deploy.

Typical workflow:

  1. Write and edit content locally
  2. Site Sync → Push content to live
  3. (Weeks later) Roe releases an update
  4. Update your local version of roe
  5. Deploy → Send update to live site
  6. Site Sync → Push new content to live

When to Use Site Sync

Scenario Action
First deploy Push local content to live site
Published new posts locally Push to live
Edited content on live server Pull to local
Setting up a new computer Pull from live
Regular backup Create local backup

Setup

First Time

  1. Deploy your Roe app to your host (see Guide → Deploy)
  2. Go to Admin → Site Sync on your local site
  3. Enter your Live Site URL (e.g., https://yoursite.com)
  4. Click Save Settings
  5. Click Refresh Sync Status
  6. You should see “Last contact with Live site: less than a minute ago”

Authentication

Site Sync uses a token to authenticate between your local and live sites. Both sites must share the same token.

The token is generated automatically. If you need to set it manually (for example, when restoring from backup):

  1. Copy the token from your local Site Sync settings
  2. On the live server, sign into the Admin and paste the token on the same

Push to Live

Send your local content to the live site:

  1. Make sure sync status shows a successful connection
  2. Click Push to Live
  3. Type LIVE to confirm
  4. Wait for the sync to complete

The first push may take several minutes depending on how much media you have. Subsequent pushes are faster because only changed files are transferred.

Pull from Live

Download content from the live site to your local machine:

  1. Click Pull from Live
  2. Type LIVE to confirm
  3. Wait for the sync to complete

Use this when:

  • You’ve made changes directly on the live server
  • You’re setting up Roe on a new computer
  • You want to create a local backup

Sync Status

The Site Sync page shows:

  • Last contact — When the live site was last reached
  • Local changes — Files modified locally since last sync
  • Live changes — Files modified on live since last sync
  • Push/Pull buttons — Available when connection is healthy

Best Practices

  • Work locally, sync to live — Do your writing and editing locally, then push
  • Sync before deploying — Make sure your content is synced before updating Roe
  • Pull before major edits — If you edit on live, pull to local first to avoid conflicts
  • The live database is separate — Your local and live databases are independent. Site Sync handles the database content as part of the sync process.

Static Site Sync

Roe can build a static site which you can upload to almost any webhost. You can enable static site generation Admin → Settings → site.yml page. Note: This section will only be present if Static Site Sync is enabled.

Sync Status

This shows the last time you’ve pushed a website to a static host or downloaded your zip file.

Download Zip

Many static site web hosts can take just a zip or folder:

  1. DOWNLOAD ZIP
  2. Sign into webhost and find the File Manager
  3. Upload Zip or Folder (whichever is needed)
  4. The site is live

SFTP & FTPS

These are common protocols for transferring files over the internet. A webhost will have documentation about the right protocol to use. Set up the settings that work with your host.

Push

Once settings are in place, TEXT CONNECTION and once green, PUSH. This will send your local static_site/ folder to a host folder. It will only send files that have changed since your last PUSH.

Site Backups

Site Sync creates a backup of the local site and the live site every time there is a PUSH TO LIVE NOW or a PULL FROM LIVE. Backups are stored locally in site_backups/production/ and site_backups/local.

The backup system is smart:

  • first time, full backup of everything
  • subsequent backups only track what changed since the previous backup
  • this keeps the size of each backup to a much more reasonable size

Scroll down the Site Backups section to trigger a local backup manually with CREATE BACKUP

Restore from a Backup

If something goes wrong, you will have backups available and your can RESTORE any of them. The last 15 backups are kept.