Deploying to other hosting platforms¶

Publish Silex websites to Netlify, Vercel, AWS, or any static host.

Overview¶

While Silex includes a connector for GitLab Pages, you can publish to any static hosting platform by downloading the built website from your forge and deploying it manually, or by setting up custom CI/CD pipelines.

Two approaches:

Download the built site from the CI and deploy manually: universal, works everywhere
Custom CI/CD integration — Automate with platform-specific tools

Prerequisites¶

Understanding of publication transformers
Knowledge of your hosting platform's deployment process
Basic familiarity with Git and CI/CD

Approach 1: Download and manual deployment¶

Silex has no download connector. The build runs on the forge, and the forge keeps the result.

User workflow¶

Publish the website to GitLab
In the GitLab project, go to Build → Jobs
On the most recent pages job marked Passed, click Download artifacts
Extract the zip: the built site is in its _site folder
Upload the content of _site to your host

To upload to an FTP or SFTP server on each publication instead, add the upload to build.json. See Publish to your own web host. Silex Desktop can also publish with FTP or SFTP.

Deployment to Netlify¶

After downloading:

Go to netlify.com
Create a new site: Add new site → Deploy manually
Drag and drop the extracted folder, or:

npm install -g netlify-cli
cd _site
netlify deploy --prod

Deployment to Vercel¶

After downloading:

npm install -g vercel
cd _site
vercel --prod

Or push to GitHub and connect the repo to Vercel.

Deployment to AWS S3¶

After downloading, install the AWS CLI, then:

# Configure credentials
aws configure

# Upload to S3
cd _site
aws s3 sync . s3://my-bucket-name --delete

Enable website hosting in S3:

Bucket → Properties → Static website hosting → Enable
Index document: index.html
Error document: 404.html (if available)

Approach 2: Custom CI/CD integration¶

Automate deployment by setting up a CI/CD pipeline on your platform.

Every site published with Git storage includes a build.sh script, generated by Silex from build.json. Running sh build.sh builds the site into _site/ — that's the build command to use on any platform below.

Netlify via Git integration¶

Connect your Silex repository to Netlify:

Push website source to GitHub/GitLab
Go to netlify.com
Add new site → Import an existing project
Connect your Git provider
Configure build settings:
Build command: sh build.sh
Publish directory: _site

Or create a netlify.toml:

[build]
  command = "sh build.sh"
  publish = "_site"

[build.environment]
  NODE_VERSION = "18"

[[redirects]]
  from = "/*"
  to = "/index.html"
  status = 200

Vercel deployment¶

Push to GitHub and connect Vercel:

Push website to GitHub
Go to vercel.com
Import Project → Select repo
Configure:
Build command: sh build.sh
Output directory: _site
Deploy

Or use Vercel CLI:

vercel --prod

GitHub Pages¶

Publish from a GitHub repository:

Push website to GitHub (main branch or /docs folder)
Go to Settings → Pages
Select source: GitHub Actions or main branch /docs folder
Optionally add custom domain

If using GitHub Actions, create .github/workflows/deploy.yml:

name: Deploy to GitHub Pages

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: '18'
      - run: sh build.sh
      - uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          publish_dir: ./_site

Cloudflare Pages¶

Deploy via Git or Wrangler CLI.

Via Git:

Push to GitHub/GitLab
Go to Cloudflare Pages → Create a project
Connect Git repo
Configure:
Build command: sh build.sh
Build output directory: _site
Deploy

Via CLI:

npm install -g wrangler
wrangler pages publish _site

AWS Amplify¶

Deploy from Git:

Push to GitHub/CodeCommit/GitLab
Go to AWS Amplify → New app → Host web app
Connect Git repo
Configure build settings:

version: 1
frontend:
  phases:
    build:
      commands:
        - sh build.sh
  artifacts:
    baseDirectory: _site
    files:
      - '**/*'
  cache:
    paths:
      - node_modules/**/*

Redirects and rewrites¶

Many platforms need custom redirect rules. Examples:

Netlify redirects¶

Create _redirects file:

# Redirect /old-page to /new-page
/old-page /new-page 301

# SPA: redirect 404s to index.html
/*  /index.html  200

Or use netlify.toml:

[[redirects]]
  from = "/old-page"
  to = "/new-page"
  status = 301

[[redirects]]
  from = "/*"
  to = "/index.html"
  status = 200

Vercel redirects¶

Create vercel.json:

{
  "redirects": [
    { "source": "/old/:path*", "destination": "/new/:path*" }
  ],
  "rewrites": [
    { "source": "/:path*", "destination": "/index.html" }
  ]
}

Custom domain setup¶

All platforms support custom domains. General steps:

Point your domain's DNS A record to the platform's IP
In platform settings, add the domain
Wait for DNS propagation (5-24 hours)
Enable HTTPS (automatic on most platforms)

Environment variables¶

Pass secrets to build processes:

Netlify: 1. Site settings → Build & deploy → Environment 2. Add variables (e.g., API_KEY=...)

Vercel: 1. Settings → Environment Variables 2. Add variables

GitHub Actions: 1. Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions 2. Add repository secrets 3. Use in workflow: ${{ secrets.MY_SECRET }}

Performance optimization¶

Most platforms offer: - Image optimization - Automatic compression - Caching headers - CDN distribution

Configure in your build:

// Add cache-busting to asset names
config.cmsConfig.cacheBuster = true

// Set cache headers in netlify.toml
[[headers]]
  for = "/assets/*"
  [headers.values]
    Cache-Control = "public, max-age=31536000, immutable"

[[headers]]
  for = "/*.html"
  [headers.values]
    Cache-Control = "public, max-age=0, must-revalidate"

Comparing platforms¶

Platform	Ease	Free tier	Custom domain	Analytics	CDN
Netlify	Very easy	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vercel	Very easy	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
GitHub Pages	Easy	Yes	Yes (with Pro)	Via 3rd party	Yes
Cloudflare Pages	Easy	Yes	Yes	Via Analytics	Yes
AWS Amplify	Medium	Free tier	Yes	Via CloudWatch	Yes
AWS S3 + CloudFront	Medium	No	Yes	Via CloudTrail	Yes