7 ms·

Introducing Stasis: A new way to build static sites with Ruby

133 points by winton 15y ago

bherms 15y ago
I've never used a static site builder in any language, but I'd be tempted to use this. The only problem I see is that, off the top of my head, I can't think of a use for all these extra features. What sort of use cases do people use these generators for (outside of the blogs some have mentioned)?
- riffraff 15y ago
  I've built a minimal "online presence" website for a friend's business with nanoc. It does not need any dynamism, since basically it's just: home, contacts page, directions page and products page (unlikely to change more than once a year). It has the side effect against a joomla install or whatever that if he wants to change something I have to do it for him, but since this event is pretty rare and non time sensitive it's not a big deal.
jondot 15y ago
Looks very nice and aesthetic. Simple to get started, way to go!
waffle_ss 15y ago
Cool project. I just starting transitioning my blog from the bloated Wordpress to a static site using nanoc. Any (current or planned) benefits of using Stasis over nanoc or jekyll?
- winton 15y ago
  I created Stasis because jekyll wasn't versatile enough and nanoc seems a bit overly complex for what it is doing. I am trying to strike a good balance with Stasis.
  - waffle_ss 15y ago
    Yeah that's kind of what I'm finding with nanoc. Seems to be a large time investment at the start to understand how the whole compilation process works, and then to get the basic skeleton created for your site (or maybe it's just my stupidity?). I'll see if I can give Stasis a try this weekend. Thanks for creating it!
  - socratic 15y ago
    Could you go into a little more detail about how Jekyll isn't/wasn't versatile enough? Maybe a use case or two where it failed (or was too complicated) for you? I'm actually about to learn Jekyll to make a blog today, so I'm very curious. My primary reasons for going Jekyll are that (a) it seems to have the most mindshare (in the Ruby world and in general) and (b) I can just deploy using git with Github Pages. Relatedly, if anyone is a Jekyll user (which seems pretty common around here), are there any plugins/modifications I should be using?
    - winton 15y ago
      Jekyll is made for blogs. Specifically, blogs using HTML, Markdown, or Textile. Anything past that starts to become a hack. There are inherent constraints to the framework because it must be "safe" enough for GitHub's environment. For example, an issue close to my heart: https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/issues/225 https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/issues/225
    - josegonzalez 15y ago
      I'm a very big proponent of the Jekyll approach, and made a few plugins for my own use (https://github.com/josegonzalez/josediazgonzalez.com/tree/master/_plugins https://github.com/josegonzalez/josediazgonzalez.com/tree/ma...). I also started the list of plugins on the Jekyll Wiki (https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/wiki/Plugins https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/wiki/Plugins), so I recommend you check both of those out. Stasis seems nice, but I'm not sure the changes I'd have to implement to move to it would be worth the trouble.
      - socratic 15y ago
- ddfreyne 15y ago
  Hi, author of nanoc here. This morning I’ve been playing around with Stasis and it does look like a nice tool for building and maintaining simple sites. I like the controller-based approach! Now, here’s a quick (and undoubtedly biased) comparison between Stasis and nanoc. Stasis and nanoc serve a different audience. Stasis is simple, nanoc is powerful. If I want to quickly build a simple site, I might even use Stasis instead of nanoc… :) nanoc, quite unlike Stasis, focuses on being powerful and flexible. Due to this, it is not as simple as other site generators. You can build any site you want with nanoc! For Stasis to be more powerful, it would need to support metadata, custom filters and multiple representations… perhaps more… but then it would leave its original scope and people would say about Stasis that it is too complex. :)
gorm 15y ago
This looks like a very cool project, but how many of these tools do we need and how can we differentiate between them? Just in the Ruby world we now have: Webgen, Webby, Nanoc, Staticmatic, Jekyll, Ace, SassRoku, Hobix, Middleman +++ If we include Python, Node and Perl, there should be plenty more to choose from.
- tptacek 15y ago
  Do any of those have the trivial controller/directory model that Stasis has? It seems like a major win.
  - urza 15y ago
    Blogofile (python) has something like that. http://www.blogofile.com/ http://www.blogofile.com/
- bonzoesc 15y ago
  One for each person who wants to learn how to build them. I recommend building this kind of thing to other people pretty often.
- asymmetric 15y ago
  another nice one for ruby is frank[0] [0]: https://github.com/blahed/frank https://github.com/blahed/frank
- ddfreyne 15y ago
  There are a few more Ruby ones around. I have a list at [0] but even that one is outdated, as it does not include Ace or Stasis yet… and I’m not familiar enough with Python/Perl/JavaScript/etc to know the state of site generators there. Writing site generators is easy and homegrown site generators will fit the author’s need best, so there you have the reason why there are so many. Mind you that quite a few are no longer actively maintained. For example, StaticMatic and Webby have recently both been discontinued (see [1] and [2]) and their authors recommend MiddleMan and nanoc, respectively. [0]: http://nanoc.stoneship.org/docs/1-introduction/#similar-projects http://nanoc.stoneship.org/docs/1-introduction/#similar-proj... [1]: http://groups.google.com/group/staticmatic/browse_thread/thread/b641a3d9e16def23 http://groups.google.com/group/staticmatic/browse_thread/thr... [2]: http://groups.google.com/group/webby-forum/browse_thread/thread/41362c82c63f5276 http://groups.google.com/group/webby-forum/browse_thread/thr...
sleight42 15y ago
I've used nanoc more than a few times. On seeing this, after first I thought "Why would the community need this??" However... I dig the "controller"-based preprocessing and, especially, that the served pages are then processed through the typical host of rendering engines. This should feel very familiar to anyone who has done any Rails or Sinatra. High marks for obviousness! I may have to try this out!
macrael 15y ago
Does Stasis (or any of the other tools in this space) allow you to run a service on your web server that you could post new markdown files to, kicking off a recompile of your static site? I'd like to be able to post a new entry without having to hit the command line, re-render everything and rsnyc changes back up.
- JangoSteve 15y ago
  It looks like this could be done easily enough with the stasis server mode (http://stasis.me/#more http://stasis.me/#more).
  - trebor 15y ago
    But only if it uses Redis? You probably need a backup solution for folks w/o things like Redis.
- pangram 15y ago
  Using git with a post-commit hook would work well for this.
tvon 15y ago
It appears to be slashdotted.
- winton 15y ago
  Hosted on GitHub pages, so blame them :)
developish 15y ago
If this works like I think it might, it could be a great tool for building mobile web apps with coffee script
nathansobo 15y ago
Gorgeous! I will definitely give it a try when I need to build a static site for the library I'm working on. I like the scrolling effect with the links on the documentation site.
thenduks 15y ago
Everyone seems to have one of these static site generators these days. Probably a lot of people, myself for instance, who have written their own over the years as well. This one looks like it has some interesting ideas related to pre-processing using the 'controller' idea.
chrido 15y ago
like it, but can't use it emotionally, probably other german speakers also name reminds to much at the cruelty the stasi has done. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi
cmer 15y ago
If you're about to overlook this because "it's just another damn static site generator", think again. I almost did, but I was very impressed with Statis! It sure is worth a look.
callmeed 15y ago
Looks really cool. I've been frustrated with Jekyll too. Question: how would you create an index/archive page with links to other posts/pages (if you did want to use it as a blog)?
overshard 15y ago
I think too few companies are throwing out static websites because they think they need something "dynamic" such as a flashy contact form. If they just used static websites and just put an email address and such by which they could be contacted they could save quite a bit on development time and cost of hosting.
bbq 15y ago
Sweet. This seems to be exactly what I was about to make a much worse version of myself. Good work.

133 points by winton 15y ago

I've never used a static site builder in any language, but I'd be tempted to use this. The only problem I see is that, off the top of my head, I can't think of a use for all these extra features. What sort of use cases do people use these generators for (outside of the blogs some have mentioned)?

riffraff 15y ago
I've built a minimal "online presence" website for a friend's business with nanoc. It does not need any dynamism, since basically it's just: home, contacts page, directions page and products page (unlikely to change more than once a year). It has the side effect against a joomla install or whatever that if he wants to change something I have to do it for him, but since this event is pretty rare and non time sensitive it's not a big deal.

jondot 15y ago

Looks very nice and aesthetic. Simple to get started, way to go!

waffle_ss 15y ago

Cool project. I just starting transitioning my blog from the bloated Wordpress to a static site using nanoc. Any (current or planned) benefits of using Stasis over nanoc or jekyll?

winton 15y ago
I created Stasis because jekyll wasn't versatile enough and nanoc seems a bit overly complex for what it is doing. I am trying to strike a good balance with Stasis.
- waffle_ss 15y ago
  Yeah that's kind of what I'm finding with nanoc. Seems to be a large time investment at the start to understand how the whole compilation process works, and then to get the basic skeleton created for your site (or maybe it's just my stupidity?). I'll see if I can give Stasis a try this weekend. Thanks for creating it!
- socratic 15y ago
  Could you go into a little more detail about how Jekyll isn't/wasn't versatile enough? Maybe a use case or two where it failed (or was too complicated) for you? I'm actually about to learn Jekyll to make a blog today, so I'm very curious. My primary reasons for going Jekyll are that (a) it seems to have the most mindshare (in the Ruby world and in general) and (b) I can just deploy using git with Github Pages. Relatedly, if anyone is a Jekyll user (which seems pretty common around here), are there any plugins/modifications I should be using?
  - winton 15y ago
    Jekyll is made for blogs. Specifically, blogs using HTML, Markdown, or Textile. Anything past that starts to become a hack. There are inherent constraints to the framework because it must be "safe" enough for GitHub's environment. For example, an issue close to my heart: https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/issues/225 https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/issues/225
  - josegonzalez 15y ago
    I'm a very big proponent of the Jekyll approach, and made a few plugins for my own use (https://github.com/josegonzalez/josediazgonzalez.com/tree/master/_plugins https://github.com/josegonzalez/josediazgonzalez.com/tree/ma...). I also started the list of plugins on the Jekyll Wiki (https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/wiki/Plugins https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/wiki/Plugins), so I recommend you check both of those out. Stasis seems nice, but I'm not sure the changes I'd have to implement to move to it would be worth the trouble.
    - socratic 15y ago
ddfreyne 15y ago
Hi, author of nanoc here. This morning I’ve been playing around with Stasis and it does look like a nice tool for building and maintaining simple sites. I like the controller-based approach! Now, here’s a quick (and undoubtedly biased) comparison between Stasis and nanoc. Stasis and nanoc serve a different audience. Stasis is simple, nanoc is powerful. If I want to quickly build a simple site, I might even use Stasis instead of nanoc… :) nanoc, quite unlike Stasis, focuses on being powerful and flexible. Due to this, it is not as simple as other site generators. You can build any site you want with nanoc! For Stasis to be more powerful, it would need to support metadata, custom filters and multiple representations… perhaps more… but then it would leave its original scope and people would say about Stasis that it is too complex. :)

gorm 15y ago

This looks like a very cool project, but how many of these tools do we need and how can we differentiate between them? Just in the Ruby world we now have: Webgen, Webby, Nanoc, Staticmatic, Jekyll, Ace, SassRoku, Hobix, Middleman +++ If we include Python, Node and Perl, there should be plenty more to choose from.

tptacek 15y ago
Do any of those have the trivial controller/directory model that Stasis has? It seems like a major win.
- urza 15y ago
  Blogofile (python) has something like that. http://www.blogofile.com/ http://www.blogofile.com/
bonzoesc 15y ago
One for each person who wants to learn how to build them. I recommend building this kind of thing to other people pretty often.
asymmetric 15y ago
another nice one for ruby is frank[0] [0]: https://github.com/blahed/frank https://github.com/blahed/frank
ddfreyne 15y ago
There are a few more Ruby ones around. I have a list at [0] but even that one is outdated, as it does not include Ace or Stasis yet… and I’m not familiar enough with Python/Perl/JavaScript/etc to know the state of site generators there. Writing site generators is easy and homegrown site generators will fit the author’s need best, so there you have the reason why there are so many. Mind you that quite a few are no longer actively maintained. For example, StaticMatic and Webby have recently both been discontinued (see [1] and [2]) and their authors recommend MiddleMan and nanoc, respectively. [0]: http://nanoc.stoneship.org/docs/1-introduction/#similar-projects http://nanoc.stoneship.org/docs/1-introduction/#similar-proj... [1]: http://groups.google.com/group/staticmatic/browse_thread/thread/b641a3d9e16def23 http://groups.google.com/group/staticmatic/browse_thread/thr... [2]: http://groups.google.com/group/webby-forum/browse_thread/thread/41362c82c63f5276 http://groups.google.com/group/webby-forum/browse_thread/thr...

sleight42 15y ago

I've used nanoc more than a few times. On seeing this, after first I thought "Why would the community need this??" However... I dig the "controller"-based preprocessing and, especially, that the served pages are then processed through the typical host of rendering engines. This should feel very familiar to anyone who has done any Rails or Sinatra. High marks for obviousness! I may have to try this out!

macrael 15y ago

Does Stasis (or any of the other tools in this space) allow you to run a service on your web server that you could post new markdown files to, kicking off a recompile of your static site? I'd like to be able to post a new entry without having to hit the command line, re-render everything and rsnyc changes back up.

JangoSteve 15y ago
It looks like this could be done easily enough with the stasis server mode (http://stasis.me/#more http://stasis.me/#more).
- trebor 15y ago
  But only if it uses Redis? You probably need a backup solution for folks w/o things like Redis.
pangram 15y ago
Using git with a post-commit hook would work well for this.

tvon 15y ago

It appears to be slashdotted.

winton 15y ago
Hosted on GitHub pages, so blame them :)

developish 15y ago

If this works like I think it might, it could be a great tool for building mobile web apps with coffee script

nathansobo 15y ago

Gorgeous! I will definitely give it a try when I need to build a static site for the library I'm working on. I like the scrolling effect with the links on the documentation site.

thenduks 15y ago

Everyone seems to have one of these static site generators these days. Probably a lot of people, myself for instance, who have written their own over the years as well. This one looks like it has some interesting ideas related to pre-processing using the 'controller' idea.

chrido 15y ago

like it, but can't use it emotionally, probably other german speakers also name reminds to much at the cruelty the stasi has done. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi

cmer 15y ago

If you're about to overlook this because "it's just another damn static site generator", think again. I almost did, but I was very impressed with Statis! It sure is worth a look.

callmeed 15y ago

Looks really cool. I've been frustrated with Jekyll too. Question: how would you create an index/archive page with links to other posts/pages (if you did want to use it as a blog)?

overshard 15y ago

I think too few companies are throwing out static websites because they think they need something "dynamic" such as a flashy contact form. If they just used static websites and just put an email address and such by which they could be contacted they could save quite a bit on development time and cost of hosting.

bbq 15y ago

Sweet. This seems to be exactly what I was about to make a much worse version of myself. Good work.