Creative Exchange export is linking to missing optimized files

Question

This is a clean install of Sitecore 9.1 with SXA 1.8.0. When I export the site using Creative Exchange (Both to zip or folder), the exported index.html file is linking to the optimized-min files instead of linking to the individual files like it used to in v1.7.1 and lower.

Example of the new links:

<link href="-/media/Feature/Experience-Accelerator/Bootstrap-4/Bootstrap-4/Styles/optimized-min-1.css" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="-/media/Base-Themes/Core-Libraries/styles/optimized-min-2.css" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="-/media/Base-Themes/Main-Theme/styles/optimized-min-3.css" rel="stylesheet">

These files are not exported, and so the static html version of the site does not show the styles correctly.

The site is working correctly in Sitecore, but I have also noticed that the site no longer obeys the aodisabled= query string.

Answer 1

This is due to a new setting added to SXA in 1.8 that has a known bug.

The setting is XA.Foundation.Theming.AssetsOptimizationSwitch.Enabled, it is disabled by default so that users cannot disable the asset optimizer on the CD servers.

As a work around, for now you can re-enable the asset optimizer switch and also disable the asset optimizer for your site. It will then export correctly. This patch file will re-enable the switch:

<configuration xmlns:patch="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/" xmlns:set="http://www.sitecore.net/xmlconfig/set/">
  <sitecore>
    <settings>
        <setting name="XA.Foundation.Theming.AssetsOptimizationSwitch.Enabled" set:value="true" />
    </settings>
  </sitecore>
</configuration>

Now in your site, disable the asset optimizer:

Once you have done that, Creative Exchange will export your static file references correctly. This behavior should be fixed in the next update.