Hi there, I am trying to export websites that I made for clients, and upload the files into A2 Hosting (a website hosting service).
My question is, what exactly am I exporting, and is there any major limitations (please read the example below)?
For example, if I create a website for a client that involves contact forms, email forms, or purchasing product features, can I export the code so that I can host it on A2 Hosting with all those features accessible to anyone using the website?
Secondly, I get this message next to the export feature, “Exports don’t include CMS, native form or Ecommerce functionality. You can export Collection content from the Collections panel.
Add a Site plan to take full advantage of our CMS, Ecommerce, forms, and search features.”
Now, if CMS is all those forms and features I mentioned above, then why don’t I have access to them?
I bought the marketing agency workspace which includes CMS functions, or am I misunderstanding something?
Any information on this would be appreciated.
Thank you.
You can read the docs but you will understand what a site export gives you by unzipping the export and looking at it with a code editor. No collections, collection templates are missing everything except the wrapping elements and any collection bindings/elements, forms won’t work, neither will logic or members. HTML files will have a .html extension. You can get a CSV export of your collections but that won’t give you a CMS. For that you need to roll your own. Also any code inside collection fields will be missing as Webflow simply removes it last I checked.
I wrote a bunch of local scripts to rename all the files, move them into subdirectories, and update all the internal links but it’s a pain. You could do rewrites in your web server as an alternative but I hate the fact that Webflow does not use index files. If I think that I won’t be hosting on Webflow I just build with other tools.
Yes the lack of CMS support in the export feature is very limiting.
There are some approaches you can use, but as Jeff indicated, if you’re building a CMS-driven site that you intend to host elsewhere, Webflow is probably not the easiest option.
@webdev That sounds advance, but I am new to this all. Thank you for the information, though.
As I understand it, I can’t even use as much an email form on my website if I plan to host it with someone else than Weblfow? That seems ridiculous.
I will likely switch to wordpress unfortunately as I was enjoying webflow very much… But email / contact forms is to important for me to not offer my clients.
@memetican Yes, very limiting. I will likely switch to wordpress, unfortunately. I was enjoying webflow very much… But email / contact forms is to important for me to not offer my clients. Thanks for your help.