Plain Static

A simple static site generator. For those times that you don't need streams or pipes or plugins... you just need a site built quickly.

Currently only works with Markdown, Mustache, and Less.

Install

npm install plain-static --save-dev

Use

// Options
var opts = {};
// Require and init
var plainStatic = require('plain-static')(opts);

// Build all the things!
plainStatic();

Options

• opts.src Build source path. Default is src.
• opts.targetFiles Focused file pattern. Default is /**. Used to filter what files to process/copy/watch.
• opts.dest Build destination path. Default is dist.
• opts.appRoot Root path. Default is the current working directory.

Templates

A JSON file is parsed and stored in the main data object. The data is mostly left untouched except when it discovers a markdown property. Every parsed object is stored in the main object using the file name.

Markdown property

The markdown property should be a file name that can be found in the defined source directory. You'll get a nasty error during build if it's not there!

So, if the object looks like:

{
  "title": "hello!",
  "markdown": "index.md"
}

The parsed object will look like...

{
  title: "hello!",
  content: 'MARKDOWN PARSED INTO HTML'
}

The Markdown file is processed using the data object. The markdown property is stripped from the object. The tool will also do a deep check for nested markdown properties.

Data Objects

Although JSON is the default (and simpler) data object to use, PlainStatic also supports creating a data object programmatically in a JavaScript file. Just return the desired plain JavaScript object using the module exports directive and PlainStatic will do the rest.

Mustache Helpers

In order to create Mustache helpers, you need to create your data object in a JavaScript file. Consider the following file:

var moment = require('moment');

module.exports = {
  markdown: 'index.md',
  footer: {
    markdown: 'footer.md'
  },
  formatDate: function () {
    return moment(this._meta.today).format('YYYY');
  }
};

In this file, named index.js, the Mustache helper formatDate will be available only to files named index. For example, index.md will have access to this file but not about.md. This makes it easier for PlainStatic to associate related files. See Data Storage and File Structure below for more info.

Global Data

Reusing the same data in multiple JSON/JS data files is not helpful. Be creating a file named global.json or global.js, PlainStatic will parse the data and place it the namespace _global within the data object. All templates have access to this object and can use simply by accessing the property. For example: {{_global.title}}.

This is very useful for navigation items, page titles, or common Mustache helpers.

Data storage and File Structure

If the source directory looks like this:

• src
• index.json
• about.json
• index.mustache

The resulting data object would look like:

data: {
  index: {},
  about: {}
}

Although, when the tool attempts to build the templates, it will never use the about property since there is no about template.

Contact

Juan Orozco

License