Exhibit home pageExhibit.

Self Hosting

Benefits of Self Hosting

By hosting your own instance of Exhibit you will gain access to the following additional features:
  • Custom DNSe.g. exhibits.yourdomain.com
  • Custom AnalyticsYou will be able to access your own Google Analytics dashboard via Firebase, giving you the ability to see how each of your exhibits is performing, and track which actions (such as sharing/embedding) are most commonly used.
  • Custom StylingYou will be able to commission us to alter the styling of Exhibit, such as changing fonts, colours, and logos.
  • User AccountsYou will be able to use your organisational email account(s) to log in to Exhibit and access a My Exhibits page listing all of the exhibits you have created. Anonymous (no username/password) logins can still be used either in combination with user accounts, or exclusively.
  • File UploadYou will gain access to a file administration interface where you can drag and drop JPEG, PNG, and TIFF images, and 3D models in GLB format (which can be downloaded from Sketchfab). These will be processed into thumbnails and IIIF manifests, and stored in your Google Cloud Storage bucket.
  • YouTube SupportYou will be able to import YouTube videos into your exhibits by URL. This feature can be enabled on request.
  • Exhibit ExportSelf-hosted Exhibit instances can be configured to enable an export option so that exhibit data can be used in other applications.

Back-end

Exhibit uses Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for all back-end functionality.

Services include:

  • Firestore DatabaseAnnotations, user accounts, and file metadata storage
  • Cloud FunctionsProcessing file uploads to create thumbnails and IIIF manifests
  • Cloud StorageStoring uploaded files along with thumbnails and IIIF manifests

These GCP services can be created and administered via your Firebase dashboard.

You will need a valid credit card in order to create a Firebase account using the Blaze Plan. The Blaze Plan includes all of the allowances of the free Spark Plan, but also includes the ability to deploy Cloud Functions, which are necessary for Exhibit to function correctly.

Once you have created a Firebase account, create a new project named "exhibit-myproject" and contact us to give us access so that we can deploy the Exhibit back-end for you.

Front-end

Exhibit uses Vercel to host the front-end Next.js application.

Next.js is the leading React framework for creating Server-Side Rendered (SSR) websites. SSR allows for better SEO and performance over client-side rendered websites. Vercel is a hosting platform made by the authors of Next.js and provides the best support for SSR.

You will need a valid credit card in order to create a Vercel account using the Pro Plan. Once you have created a Vercel account, create a new project named "exhibit-myproject" and contact us to give us access. Once we have configured your project to host the Exhibit front-end, you can optionally transfer your project back to a free Personal Account.