Content, Design, And Media

This guide is for the day-to-day work of running a site.

Content Workflow

A normal content update looks like this:

1. Open Site Builder, Pages, or Posts.
2. Edit the title, slug, excerpt, body blocks, SEO fields, and optional metadata.
3. Save as draft or publish.
4. Rebuild if the admin asks for it or if you changed shared site structure.
5. Visit the public page to review the result.

The public site is generated into static files. That means public pages are easy to serve, inspect, back up, and recover.

Page Builder Blocks

DesertCMS stores page bodies as structured blocks. This keeps editing visual without requiring Markdown.

Useful block types include:

• Text for normal page copy.
• Image for public image derivatives.
• Resource for explicitly published downloads.
• Quote for pull quotes or citations.
• Link for callouts to pages, posts, docs, or external URLs.
• Content reference for linking an existing page or post.
• Module content for Showcase, Forms, Shop, Map, or Documentation when enabled.

Resource blocks only use public resource copies. Uploading a source file does not automatically make it public.

Navigation And Redirects

Navigation controls public menus. Keep labels short and clear.

Redirects are useful when:

• A page slug changes.
• A retired URL still receives traffic.
• A campaign or old page needs to point to a newer page.

Redirects are emitted into the generated public site artifacts during rebuild.

Comments And Ratings

When enabled for content, comments and ratings give visitors a way to respond. Moderation stays inside the admin. Review pending items before they become part of the public experience.

Design Basics

Design is where site identity and public presentation live.

Common settings include:

• Site name.
• Public description.
• Logo and image fit choices.
• Header and footer layout.
• Theme color presets.
• Light and dark mode defaults.
• Typography.
• Button and card style.
• Basic metadata for discovery.

Use the live preview before saving. The preview includes light and dark mode so you can see whether text, buttons, cards, and media remain readable.

Search And Discovery

Site discovery settings include:

• Meta title and description.
• Sitemap output.
• Robots output.
• Search Console submission when the platform or plan allows it.
• IndexNow submission when configured.

Contributor sites inherit indexing defaults from the master platform unless their plan explicitly allows overrides.

Media Pipeline

DesertCMS treats every upload as a private source asset first.

Asset type	Private source	Public output
Images	Original upload stays private.	Optimized JPEG derivative, responsive sizes, dimensions, and public image metadata.
Documents and data files	PDF, TXT, Markdown, CSV, TSV, JSON, DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX stay private.	Public Resource Download only when explicitly published.
Audio	MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG, WebM audio, and FLAC stay private.	Public Resource Download only when explicitly published.
Video	MP4, M4V, MOV, WebM, and OGV stay private.	Public Resource Download only when explicitly published.

Private source assets live outside the public webroot. Public pages should only reference optimized image derivatives or explicit resource copies.

Media Metadata

Use metadata to make media easier to find and understand:

• Title.
• Description.
• Alt text for images.
• Source notes.
• Category.
• Tags.
• Collections.

Document and resource assets can also show file family labels, byte labels, headings, safe snippets, and extracted metadata when available.

Private Previews

Some non-image files can have admin-only preview artifacts.

Examples:

• PDF page thumbnail.
• Video poster frame.
• Audio metadata preview.
• Text snippet from PDF or Office files.

These previews are private. They are served through authenticated admin routes and are cleaned up with media retention and lifecycle tools.

Resource Downloads

Resource Downloads are controlled public copies of private source files.

Use Resource Downloads when visitors should be able to download a document, data file, audio file, video file, catalog sample, portfolio sample, or resource package.

The workflow is:

1. Upload the source file to Media.
2. Add title, description, category, tags, and collections.
3. Publish it as a Resource Download if the feature is available on the plan.
4. Add it to a page with a Resource block.
5. Unpublish it when public access should stop.

Unpublishing removes the public copy. The private source remains in the media store unless later deleted through cleanup.

Storage And Quotas

Hosted contributor sites can have:

• Total media storage quota.
• Per-file upload limit.
• Plan-gated Resource Downloads.
• Storage pressure warnings in Media and Billing.

The OpenBSD request-body limit also caps upload size. A plan can allow a larger upload limit only if the deployment allows requests that large.

Lifecycle And Cleanup

Media lifecycle tools help find:

• Missing private sources.
• Orphaned public resource files.
• Stale image derivatives.
• Large unused assets.
• Old unused private source assets.
• Preview jobs that need retry.

Retention cleanup is archive-first for old unused private sources. Referenced public resources are kept during downgrade-safe cleanup.