Static site generator for an idiot who doesn't want to learn a new templating language just to have a blog?
from ctag@lemmy.sdf.org to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 19:55
https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/24352461

Hi,

I’m interested in setting up a small static-site-generator site. Looked at 11ty recently and feel pretty uncomfortable with the amount of javascript and “funny language” churn just to make some html happen.

Do you know of any alternative that’s simpler / easier / less complicated dependencies? Or do you have an approach to 11ty that you think I should try?

Thanks in advance for any input, it’s appreciated!

#selfhosted

threaded - newest

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 28 Oct 19:56 next collapse

I did try setting up 11ty, despite my misgivings over node.js. Using Markdown went OK, except it wouldn’t render explicit <img> tag parameters to allow me to do one-off formatting.

shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol on 28 Oct 21:49 collapse

What templating languages do you know already, and are you running 11ty v3? There are some gotchas around images because (I think) the eleventy-image plugin is enabled by default.

I’ve found success running with .webc which is effectively HTML until you need it to be more.

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:20 collapse

Thank you for the advice! I’ll give webc a look before I check out the alternative platforms.

I don’t know or really want to learn anything other than html/css or markdown. The site I’m trying to migrate was raw html/css, and I liked it well enough even though the shortcomings (and argument for template stuff) is very obvious.

shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol on 29 Oct 02:55 collapse

Using the template syntax you can start by copy/pasting the site to be migrated, and then inject sections that render using markdown syntax.

pseudonym@monyet.cc on 28 Oct 20:00 next collapse

I use Hugo and I’ve been pretty happy with it. It has a lot of layout templates you can use out of the box so you don’t need to learn a new templating language unless you want to do customizations. I write blogs in markdown and it’s automatically rendered and published.

bahbah23@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 21:35 next collapse

But as soon as you do want to customize it, you’re stuck learning one of the most esoteric languages that wasn’t meant as a joke.

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:14 collapse

Thanks for the heads up. That feels like the same roadblock I got with 11ty. It ran OK on markdown, but one you dig into how wide the customizations go I couldn’t keep up.

DichotoDeezNutz@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 22:56 next collapse

I used Hugo for my portfolio site, and it’s great if you like an existing theme, but making one from scratch is a challenge. The documentation is unclear and there’s a chicken and egg problem about how to learn Hugo.

The go templating is OK, I prefer other syntax but it works.

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:13 collapse

Good to know. Thanks!

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:13 collapse

Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll definitely take a look at Hugo.

sk@hub.utsukta.org on 28 Oct 20:05 next collapse

I found pelican to be quite simple to start with and depending on how deep you want to go it can be quite customizable. Being proficient in python helps.

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:21 collapse

That looks neat. Thanks!

[deleted] on 28 Oct 20:05 next collapse

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ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:17 collapse

Good to know. Thank you for the recommendation!

morethanevil@lemmy.fedifriends.social on 28 Oct 20:07 next collapse

Use Publii, it has a WYSIWYG editor, a block editor and a markdown editor. It creates the files on your PC and can upload it to your server. Just point your webserver to the uploaded folder.

Very beginner friendly ☝🏻

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:18 collapse

Thanks for the recommendation!

bruhbeans@lemmy.ml on 28 Oct 20:08 next collapse

getpublii.com

It’s a GUI app that runs on your local system and pushes sites to a server.

FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world on 29 Oct 00:56 next collapse

I’m planning on porting my Wordpress site to this. I haven’t used it yet but based on what I’ve read it will be easier than Hugo.

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:17 collapse

Thank you for the recommendation!

variants@possumpat.io on 28 Oct 20:09 next collapse

Have you checked out grav learn.getgrav.org/17/basics/what-is-grav

github.com/getgrav/grav

I use it just to make simple markdown sites for info like my gaming servers or if I feel like making a random blog post

dudenas@slrpnk.net on 28 Oct 21:17 next collapse

Technically Grav is not a static site generator, it is just a flat file cms. It means there is no need to generate all the files of website and upload them to server each time you write a post. I have no idea why people like static sites for blogging.

sik0fewl@lemmy.ca on 29 Oct 01:48 collapse

Use rsync and only upload the files that have changed.

exu@feditown.com on 28 Oct 21:46 next collapse

As the sibling comment says, not a static site generator. If you want to customize pretty much anything about the layout or theming you still need to use Twig, CSS and if you’re unlucky JS.

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:18 collapse

Thanks for the recommendation. I actually did look at grav a while back, but I can’t recall why I moved on. Will give it another pass.

avid1@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 20:25 next collapse

I like using Hugo at present

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:15 collapse

Thanks for the recommendation!

ikidd@lemmy.world on 28 Oct 22:10 next collapse

This might be what you’re looking for: Zola

Single binary that lets you keep your markdown/config in git and just build it from the git clone folder you’re in at the time.

I know some people that have moved off of Hugo to this, and Alex from the Selfhosted podcast recently talked about it on their show.

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:15 collapse

Thank you for the recommendation! Zola looks promising.

richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one on 28 Oct 22:14 next collapse

My preference is Nikola.

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:17 collapse

Thank you for the recommendation!

jjlinux@lemmy.ml on 28 Oct 22:27 next collapse

I’m looking for something similar that I can host in blue host, but all there is, apparently, is WordPress (hell no), joomla and drupal, and these are certainly not static.

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:16 collapse

That’s like the OG crew of web content haha. I used to be pretty big on Wordpress, but then two of my sites got compromised (through a plugin probably?), and of course the recent kerfluffle going on.

thagoat@lemmy.sdf.org on 28 Oct 22:32 next collapse

I think you might like hugo

It’s what I use for my blog

sxan@midwest.social on 28 Oct 22:38 next collapse

Seconded. OP, if you can write Markdown, Hugo will turn it into a website.

Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee on 28 Oct 23:11 next collapse

Do you know if hugo blogs can federate?

thagoat@lemmy.sdf.org on 28 Oct 23:27 next collapse

No, hugo does not federate.

rsolva@lemmy.world on 30 Oct 15:56 collapse

It has RSS built-in, but since it is a static site generator, it does not support ActivityPub out of the box. But I do think I have seen implementations with some custom JavaScript.

moroni@lemmy.ca on 29 Oct 00:59 next collapse

Another deer!? 😱

thagoat@lemmy.sdf.org on 31 Oct 00:26 collapse

Lol yes another gd deer, just got the car back yesterday.

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:12 collapse

Thank you for the recommendation!

And best of luck with the repair. That’s a crazy bill estimate.

TrueMonoxidist@lemmy.zip on 29 Oct 02:24 next collapse

Zola. Similar to Hugo, but newer and written in Rust.

www.getzola.org

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Oct 02:33 next collapse

Thanks!

rutrum@lm.paradisus.day on 29 Oct 10:01 collapse

I used Zola for a while, but at the end of the day there wasnt enough themes available that fit what I was looking for. I ended up messing with the templating engine to get what I needed.

I suggest OP choose Hugo over Zola, in the hopes that they find a theme that suits them best and for the most part prevents them from having to touch templating to begin with.

Hawk@lemmynsfw.com on 29 Oct 04:49 next collapse

Quartz or mkdocs

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 30 Oct 14:03 collapse

Thanks for the recommendations!

arscynic@slrpnk.net on 29 Oct 05:22 next collapse

Codeberg Pages if you don’t mind a give-or-take weekly 30 min downtime. GitHub Pages if you do. GitLab Pages if you have a creditcard which they require to verify your identity.

hedy@lemmy.sdf.org on 30 Oct 03:42 collapse

I recently switched to Codeberg Pages and it’s the first time I’m hearing about a weekly downtime. Is there somewhere this is documented or I can read more about it?

arscynic@slrpnk.net on 30 Oct 06:17 collapse

“Honestly, I am completely unsure how to proceed with the pages server.
It might be the best idea to deprecate it.”

JackbyDev@programming.dev on 29 Oct 05:34 next collapse

Relevant comment chain: programming.dev/comment/12187727

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 30 Oct 14:03 collapse

Neat, thanks!

fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com on 29 Oct 05:43 next collapse

Docusaurus. It’s all markdown.

lefaucet@slrpnk.net on 29 Oct 06:07 next collapse

Thanks for the rec! Looks awesome; Imma try it :)

docusaurus.io

lefaucet@slrpnk.net on 29 Oct 06:15 collapse

Oof. Meta open source. Srsly sus. •͡˘㇁•͡˘

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 30 Oct 14:02 collapse

Will give that a look, thanks!

xavier666@lemm.ee on 29 Oct 10:16 next collapse

I think mkdocs is easier than hugo but less flexible in terms of capability. However it serves all my needs (list of webpages accessible from a central frontpage)

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 30 Oct 14:02 collapse

Thanks!

filcuk@lemmy.zip on 30 Oct 07:12 next collapse

In case you’re familiar with Obsidian, there’s Quartz: quartz.jzhao.xyz/ Runs in docker too, practically zero config to start

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 30 Oct 14:02 collapse

Thanks for the recommendation!

[deleted] on 30 Oct 16:24 next collapse

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agelord@lemmy.world on 30 Oct 19:14 next collapse

Quarto.org

quarto.org/docs/websites/website-blog.html

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 31 Oct 13:11 collapse

Quarto is probably the most unique one I’ve seen so far. Thanks for the input.

GameGod@lemmy.ca on 31 Oct 02:37 next collapse

I want to second Pelican for Python. Really easy to set up and get going. No need to learn a complicated templating language (it’s jinja2, which is what everything uses).

ctag@lemmy.sdf.org on 31 Oct 13:09 collapse

Thanks for the recommendation!

vegetaaaaaaa@lemmy.world on 31 Oct 22:19 collapse

www.sphinx-doc.org + pradyunsg.me/furo/ theme + myst-parser.readthedocs.io markdown parser + sphinx-design.readthedocs.io extensions.

Just drop all your markdown files in a directory and run sphinx-build. Highly customizable but also works out of the box