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Deploying Your Prodcat Site

Once your Prodcat documentation website is generated, deploying it is essentially the same as deploying any Docusaurus site. This tutorial will cover common deployment strategies.

1. Build Your Docusaurus Site​

Before deploying, you need to build your static Docusaurus site. Navigate to your website directory and run the build command:

cd website
npm run build

This command will create a build directory (e.g., website/build) containing all the static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files for your website.

2. Choose a Hosting Provider​

Docusaurus generates static sites, which can be hosted on a variety of platforms. Popular choices include:

  • GitHub Pages: Excellent for open-source projects.
  • Netlify: Offers continuous deployment from Git, custom domains, and more.
  • Vercel: Similar to Netlify, popular for Jamstack applications.
  • Firebase Hosting: Google's hosting solution.
  • Amazon S3 / Google Cloud Storage: For more manual control or integration with other cloud services.

3. Deployment Steps (Example: GitHub Pages)​

If you're hosting on GitHub Pages, you might use the docusaurus deploy command or a GitHub Actions workflow.

Using docusaurus deploy​

First, ensure your docusaurus.config.js has the correct url and baseUrl properties set.

// docusaurus.config.js
const config = {
  url: 'https://your-username.github.io', // Your GitHub Pages URL
  baseUrl: '/your-repo-name/', // Base URL for your repository
  // ...
};

Then, run the deploy command from your website directory:

cd website
npm run deploy

This typically pushes the contents of your build directory to the gh-pages branch of your GitHub repository.

Using GitHub Actions​

For continuous deployment, you can set up a GitHub Actions workflow that builds and deploys your Docusaurus site every time you push to your main branch. Consult the Docusaurus documentation for a sample GitHub Actions workflow.

4. Keeping Your Live Site Updated​

Remember that after you make changes to your products.js, prodcat.config.js, or any templates:

  1. Run prodcat generate.
  2. Navigate to your website directory.
  3. Run npm run build.
  4. Deploy the updated build directory to your hosting provider.

Automating these steps with CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) is highly recommended for larger projects.