Featured Photo by Pero Kalimero on Unsplash
In my last post, I mentioned that I’m trying some new things and I am going to use this post to elaborate a bit on what those things are and why I think this is the best place to be spending my time.
First a bit about options for running a website:
They suck
There’s really no point in trying to find a website that does everything you want and is cheap and easy. You’re going to have to compromise on something. The web is still a very young place and it can be hard to appreciate just how far we’ve come.
In steps the cloud.
(Photo by Henry Dick on Unsplash)
I have been focused for several years on updating my coding skills for the cloud, often frustrated by how not-native most tools for cloud dev are, but time flies when computing power is doubling every 18 months.
After a short brain break to keep my brain from breaking, I got back on the horse and discovered the horse is now a luxury sedan. I want to talk a bit about the tools I’m using. Some newer, some older, but all getting better and more tightly integrated with an ecosystem designed to keep your work in the cloud, and save the local computing for fun.
First up, Github -
Github has been the place to go for version control in the open source sector for so long it’s like the dev’s Facebook account. It’s where I store the code that makes this site possible.
Take a look at the code here: https://github.com/ryanjbartley/gphugo
Second, Gitpod -
Gitpod is the real cornerstone of the development work. It’s gthe environment in which I work. Traditionally, your environment was a closed system like a computer that was focused on storing information local and secure. That doesn’t reflect the current operating norms of the cloud, and secrets (both the tech term and the literal result of privacy) are heading the way of the dodo. Gitpod allows me to import everything you see in the Github repository and work in a fresh environment custom built to develop the exact repository it is launched from. Also, recently became open source, which is a huge turn-on.
Third, Hugo -
Without going into too much detail (a lot of which gets over my head) Hugo is an excellent toolkit for turning code, text and images into a website that behaves the way I tell it to. It is a perfect tool for standalone development or as a publishing front end for a content management system. Basically, it can make a flat site that exists as is, or it can be iterated to produce new versions of the site as needed. In an ugly hack, it could even serve a site with the built in test server. It’s a powerful suite of tools that makes pretty sites easier than ever.
Last, for this post anyway, Forestry -
Forestry is pretty new to me, but it’s actually the tool I’m using to write this right now, as all of the usual publishing steps will be handled from github’s actions api as soon as I save this post. Basically, with automation in the tools already described, I am able to write in a prettified Facebook-esque interface designed specifically for publishing content to static, self-constructing sites like mine. It had some kinks in setup, but is working smoothly now and will probably be in my toolkit for some time to come.
I’ll try and tell you more about the tools and how I’m using them in other posts.
See you soon…
