Integration

Getting started

We work hard to make Surreal as simple and powerful as possible, but there are a few things you should know before you get started.

Backup your sites

You should always keep a backup of your sites somewhere in a safe place. Since Surreal works with files directly on your server, changes you publish become permanent. Even though Surreal keeps track of page revisions, you should not rely on them to recover lost or overwritten files.

Set your doctype

We strongly recommend using the HTML5 doctype, but Surreal will work with other doctypes, too. Please note that the editor will output HTML5-compatible markup, no matter what doctype you use.

For a great read on HTML5, refer to Mark Pilgrim’s excellent book, Dive Into HTML5.

Avoid markup errors

Surreal’s HTML parser is pretty resilient. Your markup doesn’t have to be perfect, but it should be free of mismatched tags and other significant structural errors. If you find a page isn’t publishing as expected, chances are you have an error that the parser tried to fix during the publishing process.

One of the best ways to check your pages for structural errors is with the W3C validator.

Browse happy

Surreal CMS works best with modern browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 10+, and Opera. Internet Explorer 8 and 9 are also supported, but users may notice subtle differences in appearance, speed, and functionality.

Your site, your files

Our policy on file ownership is clear: you upload it, you own it. We don’t store your files anywhere but on your server. If you ever decide to leave Surreal, your site will still work as expected and all of your files will remain on your server.

For technical purposes, files have to be uploaded to our system for processing before we can send them to yours, but we don’t keep copies and we remove all traces of them once they reach your server. We will never try to lock you in by holding your files hostage.

A note about security

Security is extremely important to us. We take every precaution to ensure your data is safe from unauthorized access. This is especially true for FTP/SFTP credentials, third-party authorization tokens, and other sensitive information. For your protection, we use 128-bit AES encryption on all sensitive data — the same encryption that governments throughout the world use to safeguard top secret information. The bottom line? Your information is safe with us.