Automatic archive extraction means a host unpacks a ZIP and publishes its contents. It avoids manual FTP, but it cannot reliably guess which folder in a development project is the actual website. Prepare a clean archive before upload.
What extraction should produce
For a static deployment, the result should be a public directory with index.html and every file that page requests. A host may flatten one obvious wrapper folder, but do not rely on it to choose among src, node_modules, backup, and dist.
Build an extraction-friendly archive
- Create a dedicated output folder.
- Copy only generated browser files into it.
- Open the homepage locally.
- Compress the output folder’s contents and inspect the ZIP.
- Upload and test the returned URL.
Security is still your responsibility
Do not archive .env files, SSH keys, database dumps, private PDFs, source-control history, or files intended only for your team. Archive extraction is not a secret scanner and cannot know what you meant to keep private.
What extraction cannot do
Unpacking files does not compile a framework, install packages, configure redirects, run a database migration, or make server-side code safe. Generate static output before archiving. If the project needs a runtime, verify its version, environment variables, storage, and database requirements separately.
After deployment, open the root URL and a nested page, then check DevTools Network for 404s. If the home page is missing, inspect the archive structure rather than repeatedly uploading the same file.