How publishing works
All websites created with Site Builder must be self-hosted. This means an FTP account must be provided to publish the site.
When a user publishes a site, we will use FTP to move some static files (index.html), proxy files (a few PHP files) and the .htaccess file to the location you've specified for that site.
The PHP file is very small and acts as a proxy. The PHP file responds to the first request to the published site via the 404 handler specified in the .htaccess file. It makes a call to Site Builder for the contents of the page, which are then returned to the user's browser.
At the same time, the PHP file caches the content for each subsequent request to avoid future calls to Site Builder for the contents. The next time the user publishes the site, the cache is cleared and the process starts again.
Setting FTP Credentials
If the product is an addon to a valid hosting account using a cPanel, Plesk, or DirectAdmin module, WHMCS will set the FTP Publishing Credentials automatically.
If this fails for any reason or needs to be modified, see our article here.
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