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Static Blog Publishing Done Easy

So from Stephen Hargrove's "Site Rewrite Complete" on his Spirit of Nine site, he goes into the steps that he went through to create a "static" html site. That is, one where the pages are static HTML, and none of Wordpress's problems and workarounds.

It's a system only a programmer could love or use.

I was referred to the article by Brent Simmons' "Stephen Hargrove’s Blog Workflow" post talking about it. Hargrove was himself inspired by Simmons' own version of it, detailed in "New publishing system / tour of my head".

Brent's system is also a system only a programmer could love or use.

Note, all of this is to get a site where the data exists as plain HTML so a database crash doesn't kill your site, or your database server being overloaded doesn't make your site unusable.

Here's what I did:

1) Got a web provider that gave me a decent amount of space, with reasonably easy FTP access to said space. (digital.forest)
2) Installed Movable Type

Okay, done. Over the years, I made one major modification to that, which was using Disqus to manage comments. With that, what little work I did for commenting dropped by 90% or so.

Now, it's not as PURE a system as theirs, and the install is something only an IT person could "love". (Seriously, Movable Type's install is just crap, but tedious though it is, if you do what the directions say, it works.) There is a database, but I could take it down now, and the only problem the site would have is me adding new content. I can live with that, and it makes backups simpler.

When I add a post via MarsEdit, it's entered into the database, then the required static HTML pages are generated. The database is used as a SOURCE for the publishing system, not as the primary engine. Best of all, I don't really have to fuck with it, unless I want to update the page templates. That's done in Coda, and then I manually regen the site in Movable Type. That takes some time, but I don't care, I'm not staring at it happen.

For image resizing, by and large I don't. I use PNG for the format, and enough CSS to make sure the images fit the page correctly. Other than that, I don't resize shit. If it takes a little longer to load, meh, this ain't CNN, you're not learning anything world-shaking here.

But it is amusing to me to see the differences in approach. A programmer instantly thinks of creating their own system and maintaining it so it perfectly reflects their needs. A sysadmin wants something that will meet their major requirements and if it's not exactly perfect, as long as the mismatches can be handled reasonably, and it works, who cares who coded it.

Categories: Technology

Posted by John C. Welch at 10:21 | Permalink

Comments

Warning for Notes users: The commenting system uses HTML.
I know this will be scary for some of you, especially Notes fans. However, open standards, rah-rah.
If you want to use less-than or greater-than signs, or other similar characters that HTML reserves,
you'll simply have to learn to do it the HTML way. Luckily, HTML is kind of popular, no matter what
your re-educators have told you, and you can easily find help on the intertubes.

So from Stephen Hargrove's \"Site Rewrite Complete\" on his Spirit of Nine site, he goes into the steps that he went through to create a \"static\" html site. That is, one where the pages are static HTML, and none of Wordpress's problems and workarounds.\n\nIt's a system only a programmer could love or use.\n\nI was referred to the article by Brent Simmons' \"Stephen Hargrove’s Blog Workflow\" post talking about it. Hargrove was himself inspired by Simmons' own version of it, detailed in \"New publishing system / tour of my head\". \n\nBrent's system is also a system only a programmer could love or use.\n\nNote, all of this is to get a site where the data exists as plain HTML so a database crash doesn't kill your site, or your database server being overloaded doesn't make your site unusable.\n\nHere's what I did:\n\n1) Got a web provider that gave me a decent amount of space, with reasonably easy FTP access to said space. (digital.forest)\n2) Installed Movable Type\n\nOkay, done. Over the years, I made one major modification to that, which was using Disqus to manage comments. With that, what little work I did for commenting dropped by 90% or so.\n\nNow, it's not as PURE a system as theirs, and the install is something only an IT person could \"love\". (Seriously, Movable Type's install is just crap, but tedious though it is, if you do what the directions say, it works.) There is a database, but I could take it down now, and the only problem the site would have is me adding new content. I can live with that, and it makes backups simpler.\n\nWhen I add a post via MarsEdit, it's entered into the database, then the required static HTML pages are generated. The database is used as a SOURCE for the publishing system, not as the primary engine. Best of all, I don't really have to fuck with it, unless I want to update the page templates. That's done in Coda, and then I manually regen the site in Movable Type. That takes some time, but I don't care, I'm not staring at it happen.\n\nFor image resizing, by and large I don't. I use PNG for the format, and enough CSS to make sure the images fit the page correctly. Other than that, I don't resize shit. If it takes a little longer to load, meh, this ain't CNN, you're not learning anything world-shaking here. \n\nBut it is amusing to me to see the differences in approach. A programmer instantly thinks of creating their own system and maintaining it so it perfectly reflects their needs. A sysadmin wants something that will meet their major requirements and if it's not exactly perfect, as long as the mismatches can be handled reasonably, and it works, who cares who coded it.