minimalsite 1.00 11 Sep 2012
A fast minimal static website builder.
Minimalsite generates web pages from a source file hierarchy. It supports markdown and textile syntax, but plain txt and html can be evenly used. Template files are python modules, providing huge flexibility and keeping the codebase tiny and simple.
In order to run minimalsite you need a working Python 2.X or 3.X installation. If you plan to use markdown or textile syntax, one of the following modules is required:
- Python Markdown for markdown syntax support
- PyTextile for textile syntax support
Extract the archive and install it using the following commands:
$ tar xzvf minimalsite-<version>.tar.gz
$ cd minimalsite-<version>
$ sudo python setup.py install --prefix=/usr/local
Minimalsite can also run without being installed. Just run the tool within its own directory.
$ minimalsite.py --help
usage: minimalsite.py [-h] -t TEMPLATE [-V] [-s SRC] [-d DST] [-v] [-m SITEMAP]
Fast minimal static website builder
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-t TEMPLATE, --template TEMPLATE
specify a template file name. Valid templates must
terminate with '_template.py'
-V, --verbose verbosely display site structure
-s SRC, --src SRC source dir, where the textual hierarchy resides
-d DST, --dst DST destination dir, where the html pages will be written
-m SITEMAP, --sitemap SITEMAP
full path name for the XML sitemap
-v, --version show program's version number and exit
You must start minimalsite providing a valid template file.
Please note that you need to place an index file in each directory you want to parse. Those directories will be ignored otherwise.
You can create your own template starting from default_template.py. See
comments inside for help. Templates provide a very flexible tool for building
your site by adding how many functions and features you want; See
example_template.py for a more advanced template.
Minimalsite supports page ordering for menu entries. Add a numerical index before the pathname, for example:
/home/marco/website/30_university.md
/home/marco/website/50_contacts.md
These pages will be translated to:
/var/www/marco/htdocs/university.html
/var/www/marco/htdocs/contacts.html
and "university" will be displayed before "contacts" in the menu. Both files and directories are supported.
The following example explains how to run minimalsite to create a simple site
using the default template. Source markdown files are written under
/home/lavish/mysite, while the site is generated under /var/www/htdocs/.
$ mkdir /home/lavish/mysite
$ cd /home/lavish/mysite
$ echo "Hi all" > index.md
$ echo "List of my publications" > publications.md
$ echo "You can send me a postcard here..." > contacts.md
$ mkdir software
$ echo "I contributed to the following projects..." > software/index.md
$ echo "A great editor" > software/vim.md
$ echo "A great mail client" > software/mutt.md
$ echo "A great irc client" > software/irssi.md
$ minimalsite.py -s /home/lavish/mysite -d /var/www/htdocs \
-t /usr/local/share/minimalsite/templates/default_template.py \
-m /var/www/htdocs/sitemap.xml
[*] Processing files from /home/lavish/mysite
[*] Writing html files into /var/www/htdocs
/var/www/htdocs/contacts.html
/var/www/htdocs/index.html
/var/www/htdocs/software
/var/www/htdocs/software/irssi.html
/var/www/htdocs/software/index.html
/var/www/htdocs/software/vim.html
/var/www/htdocs/software/mutt.html
/var/www/htdocs/publications.html
[*] Writing sitemap to /var/www/htdocs/sitemap.xml
$ cp /usr/local/share/minimalsite/templates/style.css /var/www/htdocs
$
Please refear to Markdown Syntax and Textile Syntax documentation before writing your pages.
Minimalsite is written by Marco Squarcina lavish@gmail.com
The following people have contributed to this project:
- Anselm R Garbe, provided the idea behind this tool (genosite)
- Luca Postregna, testing and lots of useful suggestions
- Josie Panzuto, linguistic revision
- Emanuele Giaquinta, some tips