Super Awesome Totally Rad Going To Blow Your 

Mind Static Site Generators

Twitter: lesjames

Les James
UX Developer
Republic Wireless

2002

Dreamweaver

The original static site generator

Site compiling:

Dreamweaver -> CMS
Local -> Server

CMS: great for marketing, pain for development

2014

RW = Backbone + Drupal

Time for a new architecture

What is a static site generator?

Why SSG?

Simplicity

Development speed

Performance

Security

Precise control of output

Search: static site generator

assemble.io

Problems with SSG

No GUI

File based models

Frustrating templating

Search: static site generator

Metalsmith? Broccoli Taco?

This is the problem with developers

Build your own tools?

Fears of tool building

Time?

Skill?

Yet another SSG?
How can we innovate?

A CMS needs a...

URL

Context

Template

Formidable

Maintainable URLs

Data driven context

Django Template Language

Fully Async


    // URL definition
    // src/urls.js

    var url = require('rw-formidable/urls').url;

    module.exports = [
        url('/', 'pages/views/home', 'pages:home')
    ];
    
    // View definition
    // src/pages/views/home.js

    var context = require('rw-formidable/context');

    module.exports = {
        template: 'pages/home.html',
        context: context({
            greeting: 'Hello',
            name: 'World'
        })
    };
    
    {# Template definition #}
    {# src/pages/templates/pages/home.html #}
    
    <!DOCTYPE html>
    <html lang="en-us">
        <head>
            <meta charset="UTF-8">
            <title>Welcome</title>
        </head>
        <body>
            <h1>{{ greeeting }}, {{ name }}!</h1>
        </body>
    </html>

Demo: Github API

We have an asynchronous data driven context. Now what?

Demo: Contentful

What else can we do?

Demo: Photon

github.com/republicwireless-open

Don't be afraid to build your own tools.

Questions?

Thank you!

github.com/republicwireless-open

Twitter: lesjames

Next Level Static Site Generators

By Les James

Next Level Static Site Generators

The team at Republic Wireless loves static site generators, but choosing to use one for an e-commerce site had some complications... so we built our own. Come learn about the cutting edge architecture Republic Wireless is using to drive it’s marketing site. You’ll learn about static site generators, cloud based CMSs, even Django style views and templating. You’re guaranteed to walk away inspired and excited about the possibilities Node has opened up for developers.

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