# How it works

> A showcase is a folder of files owned by a key in your iCloud Keychain. One server turns it into a fast website at your name or your own domain.

Your devices, the server, and every way your photos, listings and key travel between them. Pick a flow to walk it step by step.

The page draws it as an interactive diagram. Here is every flow it plays, step by step.

### Showing

#### Publish a listing

Photos are made ready on your device, sent first, and the listing last, so a page never points at a missing photo.

1. You photograph it and fill in the few fields that matter.
1. The app resizes each photo to three widths and writes it afresh with no metadata: no location, no camera details. Private fields are sealed with the showcase’s key.
1. Each file is signed with the showcase’s key, over its exact contents and the time.
1. The write API checks the signature and stores the photos, then the listing.
1. The next visit reads it: the listing is live.

#### Someone visits

Real pages, fast on any phone. Visitors leave nothing behind.

1. A visitor opens yourname.showcaser.app, or your own domain.
1. The server reads your folder and renders the page: your listings, photos at the size their screen needs, your theme and fonts.
1. Search and filters run in their browser over a small index of your listings.
1. They call, text, email or open a map. There is no form and no tracking; nothing is stored about them.

#### Use your own domain

One or two records where your domain is managed; the app watches until it works.

1. At your registrar, point www (or the domain) at domains.showcaser.app. The app shows exactly what to type.
1. Cloudflare issues a certificate for it, usually within minutes.
1. The same server answers on your domain, and your showcaser.app address sends people there.

### Owning it

#### Edit on two devices

Nobody saves over a change they haven’t seen.

1. Each device has the showcase as it was when it opened, with each file’s version.
1. The Mac saves a listing, naming the version it started from.
1. The iPhone, editing the same listing, saves against its older version: the API refuses, and the app asks. Keep mine, use theirs, or keep editing.
1. Site settings changed on two devices simply combine, field by field.

#### Your key, on every device

No account and no password: the key is the ownership.

1. Making a showcase makes its key, in iCloud Keychain.
1. iCloud Keychain carries it to your iPad and Mac, end-to-end encrypted.
1. The Mac signs with that same key. It never makes a new one for a showcase it didn’t create.
1. A recovery key, shown as text or a QR code, brings the showcase to anyone else’s device. Whoever has it owns the showcase.

### Help

#### Report an issue

From the app or this website, privately, to the people who make it.

1. Report an Issue is the last row of the sidebar. A short check proves it’s a person.
1. What you write goes to Manolab, with the app’s version and your device model, and a screenshot or diagnostics only if you add them.
1. Without the app, showcaser.app/support sends the same.

## A folder, a key and one server

A showcase is a folder of files: a little JSON for each listing and page, and the photos. The app writes the files; one server, a Cloudflare Worker, turns them into your website every time someone visits. There is no database behind it and no account to sign into.

Whoever holds the showcase's key owns it. The key lives in your iCloud Keychain, so your iPhone, iPad and Mac all have it, and every change is signed with it. The server accepts a change only when the signature matches the showcase's key.

## What each piece does

- **The key.** Made on your device, kept in iCloud Keychain, never sent to us. A recovery key, shown once and printable, brings the showcase to a new device or a client. (Your key: /docs)
- **Your device.** Resizes every photo to three widths, removes its location and other metadata, compresses video, and seals the fields only you should read. (Photos: /features#listings)
- **The server.** Checks each signed change, stores the files, and renders every page fresh: real HTML, a sitemap and structured data for search engines. (The site: /features#site)
- **The visitor's browser.** Search and filters run there, over a small index of your listings. Nothing a visitor does is sent back or stored. (Principles: /principles)
- **Your address.** yourname.showcaser.app from the start; your own domain with one or two DNS records, checked until it's connected. (Domains: /features#site)
- **Two devices at once.** Each save names the version it started from. Changed elsewhere meanwhile, the app asks before anything is overwritten. (Devices: /features#devices)

## Your files, readable

A showcase is readable JSON and your original photos. We host it; we never hold it hostage.