TentmakerHelp

Download my site

On this page

This screen gives your church a copy of everything it owns on its website, so you can keep it safe or take it somewhere else. It is for Owners only. A Manager or an Editor does not see it in the menu, and the server refuses them if they type its address.

Open Download my site in the left menu, under Church, or from Settings.

What you get

One file, a zip, with:

  • every page you have published, as a plain readable web page and as data, and every blog post;
  • your events (with their repeats and an events.ics file that opens in any calendar app), your staff and your missionaries, as spreadsheets and data;
  • your shared blocks, the menu, the sidebar and the footer;
  • your settings: the church's name, address, phone, public email, service times, social links, language and timezone, the look you chose and the template and version you applied, your custom CSS, the sites you allow to be embedded, which optional parts are on, and your redirects (also as a spreadsheet);
  • your pictures, your hosted videos with their captions and your logo, under the names you gave them, with a spreadsheet that says which file is which and which pages use it;
  • the owners and managers of the site, with their names, email addresses and roles;
  • a README in plain words that explains every folder, and a manifest that lists every file with a checksum, so you can check that nothing was damaged.

What is not in it

  • Sign-in links, sessions and anything that would let someone sign in. Tentmaker has no passwords.
  • The keys Tentmaker itself uses to run, anything that belongs to another church, and Tentmaker's own records.
  • The safety-net email queue. The activity log is left out too unless you choose it.
  • The names and addresses of Editors. Only Owners and Managers are listed.

Asking for a download

  1. Open Download my site.
  2. Choose what goes in. Everything you published, your settings, your people lists and your pictures are always in. The choices are:
    • Include hosted videos is ticked to begin with. Videos can be large. Turn it off if the download would be too big, or you only want the words and pictures.
    • Include drafts adds pages, posts and changes that were saved but never published.
    • Include every earlier version adds every earlier saved version of your pages, shared blocks, menu, sidebar and stylesheet, each with who saved it and when.
    • Include the activity log adds who changed what and when, as a spreadsheet.
    • Also build a plain website I can host anywhere adds a folder with your published pages as ordinary files that work on any web server, with their stylesheets, fonts, logo and pictures, and no script. It is drawn by the same program that draws your live site, so it looks the same. It is a best effort. A readme inside it lists what cannot come along: embedded maps and videos from other sites keep needing those sites, forms cannot send anything, and a month calendar shows only the month it was made in.
  3. Press Make my download.

You can ask for three downloads a day, and only one can be made at a time. The other Owners of your church are told by email when a download is asked for and when it is taken.

While it is being made

A card shows how far along it is and refreshes by itself every few seconds. Refresh now does the same by hand. You can leave the page. Tentmaker keeps going on its own, even for a large site with videos, and emails the Owner who asked when it is ready. The email links to Download my site, not to the file.

Cancel this download stops it and throws away what was made.

Taking the file

When it is ready it appears under Your downloads with its size and the day it will be deleted, seven days after it was made. Press Download. Only the Owner who asked for it can take it, and only while signed in. The link on the button works for a few minutes and then the page makes a new one, so a link that is forwarded or saved opens nothing for anyone else.

Delete removes the file straight away. You can make another.

Opening it

  • A .html file opens in your web browser.
  • A .csv file opens in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. Text that would act like a formula has a small quote mark added in front, on purpose.
  • A .json file is the same information as data, for programs.
  • A .zip opens by double-clicking it on Windows and Mac.

Keeping and moving

The download is for keeping and moving. Tentmaker cannot read it back in yet. It carries a format name and a version number, so a later version of Tentmaker, or someone you hire, will know exactly how it is laid out.

If something goes wrong

The messages are in Common problems, under Download my site. If a download did not finish, the list says so in plain words and you can ask again.

Before you close the site

Closing a site deletes everything and nothing can bring it back. Close this site reminds you to Download my site first. It does not stop you, so do it on purpose: make the download, take the file, and check that it opens. See For the pastor.