WHFS Export format

WHFS exports (generated using eg. wh whfs export) are structured as a directory tree, possibly compressed into one or more ZIP files.

Each WebHare folder corresponds to a directory in the exported tree.

Metadata for a folder is stored in folder.whfs.yml file inside that folder. Metadata for files is stored in <filename>.whfs.yml. Downloadable files have their data stored under their original filename.

A simple exported site contaninig an index richtext document and an image would look like this:

site/                    <-- a directory
site/^folder.whfs.yml    <-- folder metadata, eg its title and metadata showing 'home' is the folder index
site/home.whfs.yml       <-- the rich content of home.whfs.yml
site/image.jpg           <-- an image
site/image.jpg.whfs.yml  <-- metadata for image.jpg

A whfs metadata file consists of some core metadata fields at the top level and its data instances, eg:

# Export of file "/home" from WebHare v6.0.0 on arnold.whdev at 2026-04-02T11:09:07.167Z
type: platform:filetypes.richdocument
created: 2026-04-01T13:57:17.715Z
modified: 2026-04-01T14:15:19.855Z
instances:
  - whfsType: platform:virtual.objectdata
    data:
      title: Home
      description: This is a cool description for SEO purposes
      order: 1
      keywords: ""
      publish: true
  - whfsType: platform:filetypes.richdocument
    data:
      data: ...

See RTD Json format for more information about how rich text is stored in an export

Large files contained in metadata are stored as separate assets. Their resource descriptor will point to a 'file: asset:', eg:

image:
  file:
    asset: home^4.jpg
  extension: .jpg
  mediaType: image/jpeg
  width: 640
  height: 480

home^4.jpg will be in the same directory as home.whfs.yml.

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