How to

An overview of bootzee.com, how to select a template, edit files, add images and link your site to a domain.

Create an account

To start using bootzee.com for developing templates or sites, simply sign in to create an account.  At the moment only Google sign in is supported.  Since most web developers will have accounts for Analytics, Webmaster Tools or Google+ we don't believe this to be an issue. However, you can always just sign up for a new Gmail account or, alternatively, create a Google account out of your current non Google email address here.

Support

If you have questions, feedback or suggestions, head over to our Google+ Community, you can add a post there or contact us directly via our Google+ page. Alternatively send an email to service@bootzee.com.

Creating a template

Go to My Templates section, then in the add template box, enter a template name and check for the name's availability.  Once you've picked a unique name you will get a template area with only a blank home page. Copy and paste in any existing template or just start editing.  Add required CSS and Javascript files into the relevant sections, the system will deliver them via the /css and /js virtual directories, there is no way of changing this currently.

Creating a site

Either select a template from the public templates section or select from your own private templates to start a site.  Alternatively just start from the basic minimal template by using the Create Site section in My Sites.  Enter a unique name for your site and you can start editing.  Add pages, CSS and Javascript to complete the site.

Uploading and using images

Images are uploaded to to Google's Cloud Storage, from there we are issued an image serving URL  This URL needs to be inserted into your image links, you can get to this URL either from the My Images section or from the image drop down in the the side bar of the editing page.  You have the option of copying just the URL or it can insert an img tag at the current location for you, with the option of adding an alt text attribute. There is an image resizing function - you can add arguments to this URL to get the desired size and crop parameters. The available arguments are:

  • =sxx where xx is an integer from 0–1600 representing the length, in pixels, of the image's longest side. For example, adding =s32 resizes the image so its longest dimension is 32 pixels.
  • =sxx-c where xx is an integer from 0–1600 representing the cropped image size in pixels, and -c tells the system to crop the image.
  • =s0 will serve the image in it's original size.

Alternatively, use one of the many third party image services and insert the link, such as Cloudinary or Blitline 

Switching on Less mode

To use Less for developing your CSS files, simply switch on Less mode when you create a new CSS file.  For an existing CSS file we do need you to empty the file first, so as not to overwrite anything you've already developed, simply copy and paste it somewhere else if you want to keep the existing CSS.

Switching on minifier

For css and js files, there is an option to minify the output, so the browser client receives a reduced payload.  Minify should be switched on once the development is done, once switched on, it will minify on-the-fly on next request and then the system will cache that version, until the next edit.

Using a custom domain with your site

  1. Currently only domains with Google Apps activated are supported and only a sub domain can be used, not a naked domain, usually this will be www for a website.
  2. However, if your domain is not already using Google Apps, it is a simple process to signup for a 30 days free trial. Once the trial is over, if you don't want to continue using Google Apps for your domain, you can leave the registration dormant and the domain point to our app will continue to work. Please remember to verify domain ownership using a TXT or CNAME  record.
  3. From the Google Apps admin console select App Engine Apps (this may be under More controls at the bottom if not visible), select Add Services, then under Google App Engine, enter App ID bootzee-app and click Add it now.  After accepting agreement, under web address, click Add new URL then enter www and click Add. 
  4. Make a note of the required DNS settings and make those at your domain's registrar control panel.
  5. There is a cost for using this service of $30 per year per site, this is to cover the increased traffic cost of a live site, and it is subject to a fair usage policy. You can switch the site that the domain is attached to as many times as you want during that period.
  6. You are not required to pay to activate it, payment is only due at the end of the first month. Therefore you can try it out for up to 30 days and if you decide not to continue there is nothing to pay. We will send you a PayPal payment request when you activate then, if this is not paid after 30 days, we will switch off the domain adding facility for the site.