Publishing and your own domain

What publishing does

XICflow saves your changes in the editor as you work; the status indicator then reads “saved”. Saved is not the same as published — which is why several areas show the note “Saved. The changes are applied on the next publish.”

1. 1

   Open the editor with the website you want to publish.

2. 2

   Click “Publish” at the top right.

   The process runs in the background, so you can keep using the editor meanwhile. Visitors never see a half-finished state.

3. 3

   Wait until the indicator changes from “Publishing…” to “Published”.

   The address of your website appears next to it as a clickable link. Depending on the size of the website this takes a moment.

A double click does no harm: while a publish is running, another click does not start a second one, it shows the running job instead. Anything you change during the publish already belongs to the next state.

What happens in the background

Several steps sit between your click and the finished website. You do not have to trigger any of them yourself — but it helps to know where things can stall.

The eighth step matters most to your visitors: the new state is first assembled completely next to the old one and only then put in its place in a single move. That is why there is never a moment in which the website is half old and half new. If that step fails, the previous state is reactivated.

What gets published

Publishing collects the complete state of your website — not just the page you edited last. The overview below shows what goes along.

Images become a part of your website in the process: every image from the media library that is in use is delivered as a file of its own and loaded from your own address. If an image file is missing, that single image is skipped — the publish continues.

If the AI assistant is enabled for your website, it is published along with it and answers on the basis of the newly published state afterwards — it does not know drafts or posts that are not due yet.

Preview and live version

The large area in the editor is the “Live preview”. It shows your current working state — including what nobody else can see yet. The switches above it move between “Desktop”, “Tablet” and “Mobile” and between light and dark display.

To see what visitors actually get, use “Live version” above the preview: it opens the published page in a new tab, in the language you are currently editing. Comparing both views is the simplest way to check whether a change is already live.

The button always leads to the address on xicflow.com — even when your own domain is already connected. Both addresses show the same published state. It opens exactly the page you are working on; for the home page that is the language entry point.

The “Blog” area has a preview of its own as well. The note below it states what it shows: “Shows the published state. Changes appear after saving and publishing.”

Draft, schedule, published

Every page and every post carries a status. It decides whether the content goes out with the next publish — regardless of how finished it looks in the editor.

Blog posts add the “Date” field. The note in the “SEO & meta” area sums up the rule: “A future date + “Scheduled”/“Published” = automatic release at that time.” A post whose date still lies in the future is not delivered; it appears with the first publish on or after its date.

Versions and undoing

Every publish leaves a state you can return to. You find it in the editor under “Version history” — its subtitle names the three sources: “Publish states, AI changes & checkpoints”.

1. 1

   Open the “Version history” in the editor.

   The list starts with the most recent state; each entry shows number, label, time and the person.

2. 2

   Click “Restore” on the state you want and confirm with “Yes, restore”.

   The note below states what happens: “Replaces the current content with version … The current state is automatically saved as its own restore point first.”

3. 3

   The editor reloads and shows the restored state.

4. 4

   Publish the website so the restored state also appears on the internet.

   Until then, visitors keep seeing the last published state.

Before a bigger rebuild it pays to set your own marker: “Save current state” creates a checkpoint with a short label. The history shows the 200 most recent entries.

Who did what and when sits next to it under “Activity”. The note there reads: “AI actions, publishes and checkpoints appear here automatically.” That view is history only — restoring happens in the version history.

What happens with search engines

Every publish also generates the files search engines expect. You do not have to set anything up; you steer the result per page under “SEO & meta”.

Multilingual websites are linked up cleanly: every page points to its versions in the other languages, and an additional entry names the primary language as the default for all remaining cases. The same links appear in the sitemap. A language for which a page has no translation does not show up there.

• Pages set to “noindex” drop out of the sitemap automatically.
• Legal pages always carry “noindex” — they do not belong in the search index.
• The blog overview is only advertised if there really are published posts.
• If you rename a page, XICflow remembers the old path and permanently redirects it to the new address.

Legal pages come along

Before every publish XICflow checks whether the legally required pages exist and creates missing ones. Pages that already exist are left untouched.

The content of the two mandatory pages is generated from the company details of your website — name, authorised representative, address, phone, email, VAT ID. If those details are incomplete, so is the legal text. It is therefore worth reading both pages calmly once after the first publish.

In the footer you decide under “Legal texts (footer column)” which of those pages are linked. The note there names the usual selection: “Default: Imprint / Privacy / Terms / Accessibility.”

Your address on xicflow.com

As soon as you publish for the first time, your website is reachable at an address of the form your-short-name.xicflow.com — no domain of your own required.

In the “Domains” area this address appears with the marker “Preview” and the status “Active”. It is encrypted (https) and works well for showing the website in advance while your own domain is not connected yet.

• The address is derived from the short name of the website; that short name is unique across all accounts.
• You neither have to set DNS records nor verify anything for it.
• The address does not count towards your plan quota for custom domains.
• It stays in place even when your own domain joins later.

Adding your own domain

You reach the area through the “Domains” tab in the header or from the account menu under “Your domains”. Start by selecting the website you mean at the top.

1. 1

   Enter your domain under “Add your own domain”, for example my-company.com.

   You can leave out a leading https://; upper and lower case do not matter.

2. 2

   Click “Add”.

   While the domain is being registered the button reads “Registering…”.

3. 3

   Read the message “Domain registered. Set up the DNS records shown below, then verify.”

   The domain now appears in the list with the status “DNS pending”.

A domain can only ever be connected to one website. If it is already taken, XICflow reports that when adding; release the existing connection first in that case.

Setting DNS records and verifying

Below every domain that is not active yet you find the box “Set these DNS records at your domain provider:”. Each record lists “Type”, “Name” and “Value”; clicking a value copies it to the clipboard.

1. 1

   Sign in with the provider you bought your domain from and open its DNS management.

2. 2

   Create the TXT record shown.

   It proves that the domain belongs to you. Its name starts with _xicflow-verify, its value is a long string generated for your domain.

3. 3

   Create the second record shown.

   For a domain without www this is an A record, for a www address a CNAME record. Copy name and value exactly as displayed.

4. 4

   Return to XICflow and click “Verify” on the domain.

   The note below states the usual waiting time: DNS changes often take 5–30 minutes.

5. 5

   On success you see “Domain verified. You can now activate the domain.”

   The status changes to “Verified”. Otherwise “Not verified yet. DNS changes can take some time.” appears — in that case try again later.

When verifying, XICflow queries the TXT record several times in a row before giving up — that absorbs short delays at your provider. If the check fails, the message names the values actually found. That is the fastest route to a typo.

Activating the domain

Once the domain is verified, only the activation is left. It sets up the encrypted connection for your address and points the delivery of your website at it.

1. 1

   Click “Activate” on the verified domain.

2. 2

   The message “Domain is being activated (SSL certificate being issued).” appears.

   The encryption for your domain is set up; XICflow records the expiry date of the certificate.

3. 3

   If it reads “Activation started — the final step is enabled by us.”, there is nothing further for you to do.

4. 4

   As soon as the status reads “Active”, your website is reachable under your own domain.

   Active domains additionally carry an “SSL” marker.

Primary domain, www and the addresses of your pages

If several addresses are connected, exactly one carries the marker “Primary”. It is the main address of your website and decides which addresses appear in links, in the sitemap and in the details for search engines.

For a custom domain the base address is derived with a leading www — even when the domain itself is entered without www. So add both addresses and set up both records, so visitors arrive under either spelling.

The “Primary” marker moves on automatically when you remove the previous main address: a remaining connected address takes its place. To get the changed base address into the sitemap and the links, publish the website again afterwards.

Removing a domain, quota and permissions

A connection can be released again at any time. How many custom domains you can have connected at once depends on your plan — and who may manage them depends on the team role.

1. 1

   In the row of the domain, click the bin icon on the right (“Remove domain”).

   The preview address on xicflow.com does not have that icon — it belongs to the website permanently.

2. 2

   Confirm the question “Remove domain …?”.

   Your website is then no longer delivered under that address; the address on xicflow.com remains. Please delete the DNS records at your provider yourself.

The preview address on xicflow.com does not count towards the quota. Once the limit is reached, XICflow reports when adding that the limit of your plan has been reached. You then have two options: remove a connected domain you no longer need — or choose a larger plan under “Account & billing”. In the “Choose plan” overview each plan states how many “custom domains” are included; “Select” switches the plan.

The number of publishes is counted per calendar month and shown in the usage overview under “Account & billing”. The number of websites, by contrast, is a stock figure: it states how many websites may exist at the same time.

If something goes wrong

The most common problems around publishing and domains — and what is usually behind them.

After “Verify” the status still reads “Not verified yet”.

Usually the record has not spread everywhere yet. Wait 30 minutes and click again. Also check that name and value of the TXT record were copied exactly — some providers append the domain name automatically, so it must not be entered a second time.

The message lists the TXT values found, but none of them matches.

Then a different value sits in the zone — often an old proof from a previous provider. Compare the value character by character with the one shown in the box and remove surplus quotation marks or spaces.

When adding you see “Please enter a valid domain (e.g. my-company.com).”

Enter the plain domain name only — without a leading https://, without a path and without spaces.

When adding, XICflow reports that the domain is already registered.

The domain is already connected to a website. Check your other websites in the “Domains” area and release the connection there before adding the domain again.

After “Activate” a status line appears that talks about resolution.

Then ownership is proven, but the A or CNAME record does not point to our server yet. The message names the expected and the found value. Correct the record or wait for it to spread, then click “Activate” again — the domain stays in its previous state meanwhile.

You see “Activation started — the final step is enabled by us.”

That is not an error. The final step runs with elevated rights on the server and is enabled by us. There is nothing further for you to do; the domain stays in its current state until then.

The domain shows the status “Error”.

Click “Activate” again. If the status stays, check whether the A or CNAME record is still set unchanged; if it was altered afterwards, the encryption cannot be set up.

The bin icon is missing on the xicflow.com address.

That is intentional: the preview address belongs to the website and cannot be removed on its own. Only your own domains can be removed.

A change does not show up on the website.

Check in this order: does the status read “saved”? Did you click “Publish” afterwards? Is the page in question set to “Published” rather than “Draft” in the page list? Is the block set to visible in the editor? Then reload the page in your browser once.

A deleted page is still reachable.

Deleting only affects the working state at first. Publish the website once; afterwards the page is gone from the internet as well.

A post with a future date does not appear.

That is intended: posts are not delivered before their date. Publish the website again on or after that date and the post appears.

An image is missing on the published page.

If the source file is missing, that single image is skipped so the whole publish does not fail. Check the image in the media library, set it again in the block and publish once more.

Publishing stops with an error message.

The message appears next to the “Publish” button, and an email goes to the account owner. The previously published state stays online unchanged. Try again after a short while. If the error persists, note the wording of the message and contact support.

“Publishing…” stays on screen for a very long time.

Large websites take longer, and several jobs are processed one after another. If a job gets stuck, it is marked as failed once the time budget has passed — after that you can publish again.

The “Publish” button cannot be used.

Check whether a website is selected at the top and whether a publish is already running. As an invited member you also need at least the “Editor” role; viewers may only read.

Frequently asked questions