Content, media library and blog

The three areas

The bar at the top of the screen leads to “Content”, “Media” and “Blog” alongside the editor.

“Content” is your small editorial system for uniform data records such as references, team profiles or a menu. “Media” holds all images and files belonging to a website. The “Blog” area is where your posts are written and grow.

The same bar leads to “Brand”, “Header & Footer”, “Requests”, “Domains”, “Team” and “Account”. On the far left, “Back to editor” takes you to the page view again.

Whatever you create there always belongs to exactly one website, not to your account as a whole. So the selection at the top decides which collections, images and posts you are looking at.

Creating collections

A “collection” is a set of similar data records. You define once which fields a record has and then fill in as many entries as you like.

The header of the area marks it as “CMS” and states “Collections & entries” of the selected website below. The collections are listed on the left, the entries of the selected collection on the right. Typical examples are references, team profiles or a menu: anything that repeats in the same shape.

Below each name in the left-hand list you see how many entries and how many fields the collection has. As long as nothing exists, the left column says “No collections yet” and suggests a first one — “Blog”, “Team” or “References”, for instance; on the right you are asked to select a collection on the left. A collection without any fields shows up as “No fields”.

1. 1

   Click “New collection” at the top left.

2. 2

   Enter the collective term under “Name (plural)” and the wording for a single record under “Singular name”.

   For example References and Reference. The “Key” field fills in automatically.

3. 3

   Under “Slug field” choose the field the web address of an entry is built from, usually the title.

   With “— none (auto) —” XICflow takes care of it automatically.

4. 4

   Decide on “Create detail pages per entry”.

   When switched on, every published entry gets its own subpage. Leave it off if the entries should only appear as a list.

5. 5

   Under “Fields” use “Add field” to create the input fields: a “Label” and a “Type” for each one.

   The “Key” is derived automatically. “Required field” makes an entry mandatory.

6. 6

   Order the fields with “Move up” and “Move down”; remove a field you no longer need with “Remove field”.

7. 7

   Click “Save”.

The settings per field

Every field in the “Fields” list carries the same four details; the options only appear for the type “Select”. The label field shows “e.g. Title” as an example while it is empty.

If you delete a collection with the bin icon in the edit dialog, XICflow asks “Delete collection … with all … entries?” — the entries are lost along with it.

The nine field types

The “Type” of a field decides two things: how you enter the value and how it later appears on a detail page.

For the type “Select” you also enter the possible values under “Options (comma-separated)”. For the type “Image” you paste the address of a file — copy it in the media library with a click on the image; the placeholder in the field shows both forms: “/storage/…” or “https://…”.

You can still change the field type later on. Values that were already saved are kept, but they do not always match the new kind of input — check a few entries afterwards.

Maintaining entries

Once the structure is in place it is all about filling it: create entries, set the status, change or delete them later.

1. 1

   Select the collection on the left.

2. 2

   Click “New entry” at the top right.

   If you set a singular name, the button carries it: “Reference” becomes “New Reference”.

3. 3

   Fill in the fields. Required fields are marked with an asterisk.

4. 4

   Under “Status” choose between “Draft” and “Published”.

   Only published entries appear on the website later on.

5. 5

   The “Slug” field is optional; if you leave it empty the address is created automatically.

6. 6

   Click “Save”.

To change an entry, click it or use the pencil icon “Edit”; the bin icon deletes it after the confirmation “Delete this entry?”. Close the dialog with “Cancel”, the cross or the Escape key — anything unsaved is discarded.

If your website is multilingual, language switches appear in the entry dialog. The source language is marked “Base”; fields you leave empty in another language inherit its value. Required fields are only checked in the base language.

A collection without entries shows “No entries yet” and asks you to create the first one for it. After that, the list shows each entry with its title, its state (“Draft” or “Published”) and, if set, its slug. Entries without a usable title appear as “Untitled”.

Limits

• A single entry carries at most roughly 256 kilobytes of field content. Above that, XICflow refuses to save it and says the record is too large.
• The entry list loads up to 2,000 entries of a collection at once.
• The slug has to be unique within the collection. If you pick one that is already taken, XICflow appends a number.

Putting collections on pages

Entries you created are not visible yet. They reach the page through the “CMS list” block — and, if you want, additionally as their own detail pages.

1. 1

   In the editor, open the page the entries should appear on.

2. 2

   Add the “CMS list” block.

3. 3

   On the right, choose the collection you want under “Collection”.

   The number of entries is shown after each name. If there is no collection yet, the note links straight to the content area.

4. 4

   Set “Display”, “Columns” and “Maximum count (0 = all)”.

Only published entries are listed, in the order they have in the management view. The card shows the first image field as its thumbnail, the first text field as its title and the remaining fields below.

When “Create detail pages per entry” is switched on, every card links to the entry’s subpage. Its address is made up of the collection key and the entry slug. Title and description of that page are created automatically: the title from the title field, the description from the first longer text field, shortened to about 155 characters.

Media library

The media library collects all uploaded and AI-generated images of a website. The tabs “URL”, “Generate with AI”, “Upload” and “Media library” switch between the sources.

You reach the media library in two places: as its own area from the top bar, and in the editor at every image field of a block. The files and the four tabs are the same; only clicking an image differs — in the “Media” area it copies the address, in the editor it inserts the image.

Uploading files

1. 1

   Switch to the “Upload” tab and click “Choose file”.

   While the file is transferred you see “Uploading…”. This tab takes a single image file.

2. 2

   For several files at once use the dashed area “Drag files here or click to upload” on the “Media library” tab.

   Only through this area does XICflow accept SVG, PDF and video as well.

After the upload something else happens in the background: every raster image gets web versions in four widths (400, 800, 1,200 and 1,600 pixels) as AVIF and WebP, so your page only loads as much data as it needs on each device. Camera data such as GPS coordinates is removed from the original. SVG files are stripped of active content, PDF and video stay untouched.

How much storage you have in total depends on your plan. Once it is full, XICflow refuses new uploads and suggests changing the plan or deleting media you no longer need.

Having images created by the AI

If you have no suitable photo, describe what should be visible on the “Generate with AI” tab. The result lands in the same media library as an AI image.

1. 1

   Switch to the “Generate with AI” tab.

2. 2

   Under “Describe the image” write what the image should show.

   The example in the field shows the direction: “e.g. bright office with a team at a whiteboard”. Up to 2,000 characters are possible.

3. 3

   Under “Purpose” choose what the image is meant for.

   The purpose determines format and composition: “Determines format and composition — e.g. hero with a calm area for the headline.”

4. 4

   Click “Generate”; while it runs the button reads “Generating…”.

Your description stays at the centre; your brand colours and fonts are added automatically — the note below the buttons says so: “Your brand colours and style are added automatically.” It is also predefined what an image must not contain: no text, no recognisable faces of real people and no third-party brands or logos.

After it has been created

• The image is in the media library right away, where the “AI images” filter finds it.
• Its alternative text initially holds your description. That describes what you asked for, not necessarily what can be seen — rewrite it once you have looked at the image.
• An image you do not like stays in the library until you delete it explicitly.
• Every image created counts against the image quota of your plan. Once it is used up, XICflow declines the request and points to your plan.

Finding, reusing and deleting files

The longer a website lives, the fuller its media library gets. Search, filters and multiple selection keep it manageable.

The search field “Search (filename, alt text, title) …” helps you find single files again; it searches the whole library, not just the list on screen. The buttons under “Source” narrow things down to “All”, “AI images” or “Uploads”; if different kinds of files exist, “Media type” with “Images”, “Videos”, “Documents” and “Files” appears as well. Both are view filters only — nothing is deleted by them.

The list shows the 200 most recent files. If you are after an older one, searching gets you there faster than scrolling. Files that are not images carry a marker: “PDF”, “Video” or “File”.

Clicking an image copies its address to the clipboard, confirmed with “Image URL copied to clipboard.”. You can paste that address into an image field of a collection, for instance. In the editor the same click is called “Use this image” and puts the image straight into the block.

To remove an image, click the bin icon “Delete image” on it. If the file is still in use, XICflow asks first and says in how many places. For several files tick the checkboxes; “… selected” then appears above the list, “Delete selection” removes them together and “Clear selection” cancels. What is counted are the blocks and sections of your pages, the sharing image of a page and the files of your brand.

Maintaining alternative text

Alternative text describes what an image shows. Screen readers read it out, and it appears when an image fails to load.

Images without alternative text are marked “No alt text” in the media library, which makes a useful to-do list.

1. 1

   Click the pencil icon “Edit alt text & title” on the image you want.

2. 2

   Under “Alt text (accessibility)” describe what the image shows.

3. 3

   Under “Title (tooltip)” you can add a title as well; that field is optional.

4. 4

   If you like, click “AI: suggest alt text & title”.

   While it runs you see “AI is analysing the image…”. Read the suggestion and adjust it.

5. 5

   Click “Save”, or discard your changes with “Cancel”.

What the suggestion can and cannot do

• The suggestion is derived from the image content and deliberately kept short; the alternative text aims for fewer than 125 characters.
• It only fills the two fields. Nothing is stored until you click “Save”.
• It is offered for raster images (JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF) up to roughly 5 MB. There is no suggestion for SVG, PDF or video.
• Every suggestion counts against the text quota of your plan.
• Alternative text and title are stored per language, up to 500 characters each. What you maintain first is the source language of your website.

Showing images as a gallery

To show several images at once, use the “Gallery” block. It offers three arrangements and picks up the alternative text you maintained in the media library.

• Grid — tiles of equal size in calm rows. The default, and the right choice in most cases.
• Masonry — columns with the images’ natural heights, like a pinboard. Good when portrait and landscape formats are mixed.
• Mosaic — mixed tile sizes for a magazine look. Only in this layout does the tile size appear for each image.

If you give the images categories, a filter bar appears above the gallery; without categories there is none. Tiles without an image are not rendered — an empty field therefore leaves no empty box behind.

Creating posts with AI

The “Blog” area — marked “Editorial” in the header, with “Blog posts” of the selected website below it — keeps all posts in one place: have the AI write them, revise them in the editor, and set status and date in the list.

1. 1

   In the “Create post with AI” panel, click “Suggest topics”.

   You get five suggestions with an angle, a category and tags. “New suggestions” fetches more of them.

2. 2

   Clicking a suggestion transfers topic, category and tags into the fields below.

   Alternatively, write what the post should be about yourself under “Topic”.

3. 3

   Add “Category” and “Tags” if you want: comma-separated, six at most.

4. 4

   Under “Status” choose between “Draft”, “Scheduled” and “Published”.

5. 5

   Set the date under “Date”. For the status “Scheduled” a date is mandatory.

6. 6

   Click “Create post”.

   The progress is shown, for example “The AI is writing the post…”.

While the fields are empty they show examples: “e.g. Five signs your heating needs servicing” for the topic, “e.g. Guides” for the category and “servicing, heating, cost” for the tags.

While it works, the panel says where the job stands: first “Job queued…”, then “The AI is writing the post…” with a percentage; the button itself reads “Creating…” all the while. The topic suggestions announce themselves with “Loading suggestions…”.

What comes out of it

• A post of roughly 1,200 to 1,800 words: an introduction, four to seven sections with subheadings and, at the end, a question block with six questions.
• Plus a page title of 50 to 60 characters, a description for search engines of 150 to 160 characters and a short address of at most six words.
• The text is tailored to your website: what you offer, your tone and your region are taken into account.
• If your website is multilingual, the post is created for every language — with its own address, title and description.
• Both the topic suggestions and the finished post each count once against the text quota of your plan.

Once the post is finished it is marked “New” in the list. Read it through afterwards: it is a draft, not a checked publication.

Revising and managing posts

The “Posts” list is the working surface for everything that is already written.

In each row you can change “Status”, “Date” and “Category” directly; the change is saved immediately and confirmed with “Change saved.”. The pencil icon “Open in editor” lets you edit the text, images and blocks of the post like on any other page. The bin icon “Delete” removes a post after the confirmation “Delete this post?” and reports back with “Post deleted.”.

The list is sorted by date with the most recent post at the top; the number of posts is shown above it. Below the title you see the address of the post. Posts without a title appear as “Untitled”. If nothing has been written yet, it says “No posts yet” with the button “Create first post”, which jumps to the topic field.

The date is more than a note: it sorts the list, appears on the card in the blog and, with the status “Scheduled”, decides from when the post is included at all. The category later drives the filter bar of the blog list — keep the spelling consistent, otherwise you end up with two filters for the same thing.

Everything else — text, images, blocks, language versions and the details for search engines — is edited in the editor. A post is a page like any other there.

The blog on your website

Published posts get an overview, their own addresses and a feed to subscribe to. You bring them onto any page with the “Blog list” block.

Addresses and feed

• The overview sits under /blog/ for each language; if there are more posts than fit on one page, numbered follow-up pages are created.
• Every post has its own address below /blog/ — on multilingual websites one per language.
• Publishing also creates an RSS feed per language under /blog/rss.xml plus a short /feed.xml for the main language. It holds the 50 most recent posts — without drafts and without posts dated in the future.
• The category of a post is included in the feed and appears on the card in the overview.

When something goes wrong

The messages that come up most often in these three areas, and what is behind each of them.

Media library and images

• A message saying the file type is not supported — Allowed are images (JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF), SVG, PDF as well as MP4 and WebM video. Convert other formats first.
• A message saying the file is too large for its type — Every kind has its own limit: 8 MB for images and SVG, 25 MB for PDF, 200 MB for video.
• A message about a maximum of 40 megapixels — It is not the file size but the pixel count that is too high. Scale the image down before uploading.
• A note that the storage quota is exhausted — The media storage of your plan is full. Delete files you no longer need or change your plan.
• A message that an SVG file could not be processed safely — After active content was removed, nothing displayable was left. Export the graphic again, ideally without scripts.
• “{n} file(s) could not be uploaded.” — This message comes from the drop area and only states the number. Upload one of the files individually via “Upload” to see the exact reason.
• “AI suggestion failed.” — Suggestions are only available for raster images (JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF) up to roughly 5 MB — not for SVG, PDF or video.
• “Image generation failed.” or “The AI returned no image.” — The job did not get through or returned no image. Word the description slightly differently and try again; only an image that was actually created is charged.
• “Upload failed.”, “The upload returned no URL.”, “Saving failed.”, “Deleting failed.” — Collective messages for a single operation that did not get through. Repeat it; if it stays that way, reload the page and check the state of the list afterwards.
• “{n} images could not be deleted.” — Deleting several at once left some files behind — usually because the prompt about files still in use was declined. The selection is reset afterwards.
• “No images from this source.” or “No uploaded images yet.” — Not an error but an empty filter or an empty library. Set “Source” to “All” or upload a first file. While the list is being fetched it says “Loading media library…”.
• “The media library could not be loaded.” — The list was not fetched. Reload the page; existing files are not affected.
• “The media library requires signing in.” — Uploading, AI images and the library need you to be signed in. Pasting an image address on the “URL” tab keeps working.

Content and blog

• “Please fill in all required fields.” — At least one field marked with an asterisk is empty. Check the fields in the base language; translations do not count here.
• “Field keys must be unique.” — Two fields share the same key. Change one of them and save again.
• “Please enter a name.” — The “Name (plural)” field is empty. A collection cannot be saved without a name.
• A message that the record is too large — A single entry may not carry more than roughly 256 kilobytes of field content. Shorten long texts or split them across several fields.
• “Entries could not be loaded.” or “Collections could not be loaded.” — The list was not fetched. Reload the page before you change anything. The same goes for “Posts could not be loaded.”, “Websites could not be loaded.” and “Accounts could not be loaded.”
• “Collection could not be saved.”, “Entry could not be saved.”, “Post could not be saved.” — The save did not get through. Try again; your input is still in the dialog or in the row. The same applies to “Collection could not be deleted.”, “Entry could not be deleted.” and “Post could not be deleted.”
• “Please enter a topic.” — The “Topic” field is empty. Write one yourself or take one of the suggestions.
• “The job could not be started. Please try again.” — The writing job never started. Click “Create post” again; nothing was created and nothing was used up.
• A post cannot be set to “Scheduled” — Set a date first in the “Date” field; without one the post could never go out.
• No topic suggestions arrive — Try again. If it stays that way, enter a topic yourself and create the post directly.
• The post could not be created — Start the job again and keep the page open while it runs; depending on the length, writing takes a few minutes.
• A prompt saying a file is still in use — Replace the image in the affected places in the editor first. Otherwise empty image slots stay behind.
• “No website yet.” — This account has no website yet. Create one first; after that content, media library and blog are available.

Frequently asked questions