Site setup

The office's public site: its look, its pages and their sections, its contact details, how search engines find it, and its own domain. Saving does not publish; “Publish the site” publishes the look and the pages together.

What it is for

Each office has a public site with its address in EstateOS, and it can run on the office's own domain too. Here the site is set up, its design and colour chosen, its pages built from sections, and its contact details written. What you change in the look, the pages and the sections stays a draft until you press “Publish the site”: you write and check, then publish when it is ready.

Who uses it

The page opens for whoever holds “View the website”, to look only, or “Manage the office's settings”, to work in it. In the built-in roles: Owner, Manager, Marketing. They are granted to any role under Settings → Roles and permissions.

Step by step

1. For a new site, press “Set up the site”: the home page is made, with a place in the menu for each page EstateOS offers.
2. In “The look”, choose the design and the main colour, and the second colour if the design uses one, then press “Save the look”.
3. In “Pages and sections”, pick a section from the list under a page and press “Add a section”, then open it, fill its fields and press “Save the section”. The arrows move it up or down, the eye hides or shows it, the bin removes it. For a new page, type its title and press “Add a page”.
4. Fill “Contact details” and press “Save” in the bar under it, then “Being found by search engines” and press “Save the search settings”. Both reach visitors as soon as they are saved.
5. Press “Publish the site” in the toolbar when the pages are ready, then “Open the site” to see it as a visitor does.
6. To close the site without deleting anything, press “Switch the site off”; to bring it back, “Switch the site on”.
7. For the office's own domain (such as www.example.com): type it in the “Own domain” card, leave “With its other form” ticked to add it with and without www, and press “Add the domain”. Then add the two records shown under it at the domain's provider (where it was bought), and press “Check now”.

How it works

The look, the pages and the sections are saved as a draft, and visitors do not see them until “Publish the site”, which publishes them all at once; “Unpublished changes” shows at the top while the draft differs from what visitors see. The contact details and the search settings reach visitors as soon as they are saved, so a wrong number is fixed at once. The site is live once the checklist in the address card is done: the office's subscription is in good standing, the site has been published at least once, the published home page shows at least one section, and the site is switched on, then any step EstateOS adds. The first step not done is the reason written in the card, and a closed site tells its visitor the page does not exist, without naming the office. A hidden section is kept and not published. A removed section or page keeps its content and stays visible to visitors until the next publish; the home page cannot be removed, and only the pages you added can be. A new page's address on the site is made once from its title and never changes after. Some sections show records from EstateOS itself, so they need no typing, and a section marked “No longer available” is no longer offered by EstateOS and is not published. The “Missing” and “Recommended” marks on fields are advice; they never stop a publish. Changing the design deletes nothing. The main colour is the colour under “The office's branding” too: the system changes with it at once, and the site at the next publish. The site's language is the office's language. Every save and publish is written to the action log by its field names, not their text. Only someone holding “Manage the office's settings” changes the site. An own domain needs two records: a TXT record proving the domain is the office's, and a record pointing it at the site (a CNAME for a name such as www, an A record for the bare domain); a domain with an IPv6 address (an AAAA record) does not work. It stays “Waiting to be verified” until both are right, then goes “Live”. The system checks the domains every night, “Check now” works any time, and the reason for any problem is written under the domain. When a domain goes live, or a live one stops pointing at the site, whoever manages the office's settings is told in the bell; one that stays broken three nights in a row is “Paused”, and comes back once its records are fixed. More than one domain can be added: the first is the “Primary domain”, changed with “Make it the main one”. Once the primary domain is live, the site's EstateOS address redirects to it and the security certificate is issued by itself; a domain not live yet shows the visitor “This domain is being connected”. The “Contact us” form on a new domain starts taking messages within minutes, and until then tells the visitor it starts shortly. A domain used by another site in EstateOS cannot be added here. Removing a domain stops the site answering on it, sends it back to its EstateOS address, and frees the domain for others.

On the page

• The site's state (live, unpublished changes, or not live), “Open the site”, “Publish the site”, and “Switch the site off” or “Switch the site on”.
• The site's address, whether it is live or why it is closed, and the checklist: what is done and what is left.
• “Save” for the contact details: they reach visitors at once. The look and the pages wait for “Publish the site”.
• The own domain: add it, then the two records at the domain's provider, then “Check now”.

Questions

I saved and visitors see nothing.

The look, the pages and the sections wait for “Publish the site”. If it is published, look at the address card at the top: the first step not done in its list is why the site is closed.

I fixed the phone number. Do I publish the site?

No. The contact details and the search settings reach visitors as soon as they are saved.

What does “Unpublished changes” mean?

Something in the look, the pages or the sections changed since the last publish, and visitors do not see it yet. Press “Publish the site”.

I added the DNS records and the domain still says “Waiting to be verified”.

Records can take from minutes to a few hours to appear. The reason is written under the domain: “We have not found the TXT verification record yet” means checking the record's name and value against the table; “does not point at the site” means checking the CNAME or A record, and removing any AAAA record. Then press “Check now”; the system checks again every night too.

Does anything change for visitors once the domain is connected?

The site opens on your domain, and its old EstateOS address redirects to it, so old links keep working.

Do I lose anything if I switch the site off?

No. The site is only closed to visitors; everything you wrote stays, and “Switch the site on” brings it back.