Publishing and recovery
Save drafts, publish the live website, understand generated files, and use the recovery tools safely.
Save and Publish are different
| Action | What happens |
|---|---|
| Save | Stores the current builder project without replacing the live website files. |
| Publish | Creates the website files in /public, removes stale builder-managed files, saves a recovery backup, and restarts or starts the selected server. |
Publish a website
- 1Check the desktop and mobile previews.
- 2Press Save first when you want to keep the latest draft.
- 3Press Publish.
- 4Wait while the builder creates the backup and writes the new files.
- 5The selected website server is restarted automatically. If it was offline, the builder starts it instead.
- 6Open the website URL and allow a few seconds for the server to finish restarting.
Generated file locations
| Path | Purpose |
|---|---|
/public/index.html | The home page. |
/public/page-name/index.html | An additional page available at /page-name. |
/public/xsystems-builder/ | Shared generated CSS, JavaScript, images, and builder assets. |
/public/.xsystems-builder.json | Tracks the files managed by the builder so later publishes can clean them safely. |
If the selected server already contains a website, download a copy before publishing. The builder only treats tracked builder paths as its own during normal publishing, but recovery tools can intentionally remove more.
Reset builder files
Use this when you want to remove the site generated by the builder and return to a blank builder project.
The server is stopped first. The builder creates a backup, removes builder-managed files and folders, then starts the server again. Server configuration stays in place.
Delete all website files
Use this only when you want to clear the selected web server's website content.
The server is stopped, the detected website is backed up, and files and folders inside /public are removed. Confirmed old Website Builder folders beside /public can also be removed. The /public folder itself and server configuration files stay in place, then the server starts again.
What stays untouched
- The web server record and its domain.
- The
/publicfolder itself. - Server configuration such as environment and startup configuration.
- Project files outside the cleanup paths, including configuration files that are not website content.
External changes warning
The builder can warn when the live server files no longer match the last builder publish. This can happen after editing generated files directly in Pterodactyl or uploading another version of the site.
Choose carefully: publishing from the builder replaces its managed files with the current builder project.
Common problems
| Problem | What to check |
|---|---|
| The live page still shows the old version | Wait for the automatic restart to finish, then reload the website. Use a hard refresh if the browser cached old CSS or JavaScript. |
| An additional page returns 404 | Publish again and open the exact page path shown in Pages, such as /about. |
| Publish cannot access the server | Check that the web server is active and that the saved Pterodactyl Client API key still works. |
| Reset or delete is still working | Leave the builder open while the server stops, files are backed up and removed, and the server starts again. |
| A block image does not load | Check the image URL or replace it with another public image address, then publish again. |