At the moment websites require an index.html. Once we have the apps functionality it will allow for any format to be published. Or you can use the API already, but since the UI won’t display the data there is probably no point.

Also, you should be able to use the inner folder that httrack generates, as that has an index.html too. If you use the outer folder then it does a weird redirect when loading the site. I avoided this on QortalDemo by zipping the inner folder only.

When using httrack, outer folders are generated by httrack to promote itself. An inner folder with the name you gave the job should exist and contain purely the site with no modified data to promote httrack.

Simply set the 'dataPath' in settings.json!

For Mac/Linux: set a location for your data storage on your local computer. For example, setting it to save on an external drive, or anywhere other than the default location:

"dataPath": "/mnt/d/data"

Replace this with the specific path on your machine.

For Windows:

"dataPath": "D:\data"

If you do not change this setting, the default location will be the Qortal folder. On Linux and Mac, that will be the 'qortal/data' folder. On Windows, that is C:/program files/Qortal/data

In order to publish a website on Qortal, you must first have a registered name that you wish to use to publish the site, and the website must first be converted to static content. Any website that is written in HTML/CSS/JS will work just fine. (Nothing server-side like php, etc. will function at this point.)

The publishing of a static site on Qortal is VERY SIMPLE, and will become even more simple as time goes on with more development taking place.

Step 1. - build the website. You can use WordPress, or any other existing website builder to build the site, then CONVERT IT, or you can BUILD A STATIC WEBSITE. Either way will work just fine, however we cannot guarantee that the static conversion of EVERY website will work as expected and have complete functionality.

Things like orders, payment processing, etc. will come later with specific plugins built for that. We will make everyone aware when those plugins are developed.

To convert your site, there are multiple methods. In WordPress there is a plugin called 'simply static'. This plugin will allow you to convert a WordPress site to static content and download it as a zip that you can then publish on Qortal.

Another program called 'httrack' can be used for Windows/Linux. This program allows you to input the address of an existing site, along with a bunch of potential options, and it will then download the data from the site in static format for you.

On Mac, there is software called 'site sucker' (costs 5 dollars) that does the same thing.

It does NOT matter which software you use, some sites will have better luck with certain conversion software over others. You will have to do your own research and effort in order to convert your site to static content. We can only make suggestions based on what we have used, and give you the overall concepts.

Step 2 - Once your website is converted to static format, you simply have to put it into a folder, and zip it. We have seen a few people have issues with certain zip softwares. We have personally had success with 7zip (in .zip format) and the default Windows archiving software. A few archiving programs create archives in older formats that will not work correctly. So if one archive doesn't work, try archiving it with a different piece of software before going to tech support.

With the website in a folder, converted to static content, and zipped, move on to Step 3.

Step 3 - Publish the website on Qortal in the websites plugin. Click '+Publish Website', select the name you want to publish to, and browse for your converted site archive. Once that is complete, click Publish. Then be patient while the Qortal core does its magic. Everything from that point on takes place automatically as the files are individually hashed, encrypted, and published on QDN.

It is possible to use a traditional domain name to redirect to a Qortal hosted Website.

For this you need to point your domain name at one or more of your Qortal nodes using A or CNAME records (one for each node). Then, on the Qortal nodes themselves, you enable the "domain map" feature and specify which registered name each domain name should point to. Here's an example settings.json:

"domainMapEnabled": true,
"domainMapPort": 80,
"domainMap": [
  {
    "domain": "examplewebsite.com",
    "name": "registeredNameGoesHere"
  }
]

Note: if you are using a port lower than 1000 for the domain map, you may need to grant additional privileges to java in order to bind to that port. In linux, you can run this command after each system boot (make sure to substitute with the actual java path):

sudo setcap CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE=+eip /path/to/java

It is also possible to setup your node as a gateway for traditional internet traffic to access your QDN site. Here is an example: https://qortal.link/crowetic

If this is something you'd like to do, please go to the How to Setup A Gateway Node page.