Web_Designer_UK__May_2018

10 BEST STATIC SITE GENERATORS
8.
8. METALSMITH www.metalsmith.io
PRO : Metalsmith is an extremely
simple tool where all functionality
is provided by plugins
Metalsmith takes a different approach
to many other static site generation
tools, in that it doesn’t try to do very
much at all. Essentially, static site
generatorstakeasetofsourcefiles,
manipulate them, and then generate a
set of output files which is the static
site itself. Metalsmith provides a
framework for doing this, but leaves all
of the actual manipulations to plugins.
These manipulations are things which
typically come out of the box with
other static site generators, such as
utilising templates, substituting
variables, or interpreting languages
like Markdown.
When run through Metalsmith, all
source files are converted to
JavaScript objects, which means that
manipulations by plugins are
essentially modifications to properties
“ METALSMITH IS
IMMENSELY
CUSTOMISABLE,
BUT REQUIRES A
LITTLE MORE
CONSIDERATION
DURING SETUP ”
of these JavaScript objects. There is,
for example, a markdown() plugin
which transpires Markdown to HTML.
The result of this approach is that
Metalsmith is immensely customisable,
but requires a little more consideration
during setup than some of the more
monolithic tools. Don’t like Jekyll’s use
of the Liquid templating engine? Here
you can pick your own. On the
Metalsmith page, you’ll find a lengthy
list of plugins to provide a wide range
of functionalities, ranging from
compiling Sass to CSS through to
computing a word count.
If you have a preference for
unopinionated frameworks,
Metalsmith is about as unopinionated
as you can get.
HONOURABLE
MENTIONS
THERE ARE MANY MORE STATIC SITE
GENERATORS OUT THERE. HERE ARE A FEW
MORE WHICH ARE WORTH A LOOK
OCTOPRESS http://octopress.org
Octopress is a framework for
Jekyll which tailors specifically
for blogging, and bundles a
number of commonly-used
plugins. If you like Jekyll’s style, it
may take some of the setup work
off your hands.
9.
9. MIDDLEMAN
PRO : Middleman has been
around for a long time, and is
designed with more complex
sites in mind
Middleman was released around the
same time as Jekyll, and will be most
familiar to developers who have
worked with Ruby on Rails. Its default
template engine is ERB (Embedded
RuBy) and it also includes built-in
https://middlemanapp.com
support for Haml, Sass, SCSS and
CoffeeScript, and can be extended
further to support more.
Some leading static site generators
are heavily geared towards blogs, but
Middleman sets its ambitions wider
and aims to provide the flexibility to
develop any type of site. It’s highly
unopinionated and extensible. This
means, if all you are doing is a blog,
the setup is a little more complex
since you’ll have to configure it.
10.
10. SPIKE
www.spike.cf
PRO : Spike is the spiritual
successor to Roots, a popular
static site generator that is no
longer maintained
Spike is built by the same team as
Roots, which saw great popularity
while it was actively maintained. It
provides a familiar ecosystem for
JavaScript developers, utilising
webpack, Postcss, Reshape and
Babel. Much like Metalsmith, Spike
is designed to provide a very
simple framework and allow
plugins to handle your
transformations.
PUBLII https://getpublii.com
If you don’t want the trouble of
setting up a command-line tool,
Publii is a desktop application with
GUI designed to develop static
sites. Think of it like a CMS that
sits on your local machine rather
than a server.
HAKYLL https://jaspervdj.be/hakyll/index.html
Someone made a Haskell library
for static site generation? It might
not be that widely used, but fans
of Haskell (and there are many
around) will love this.
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