Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Static Blogging Engine: Initial High Level Thoughts

At some point I want to write a static blogging engine for a this site in Swift – dipping my toes into the non-iOS world of Swift.

What might the basic architecture of this look like?

Data Input

First thing to think about is how to get writing into it. One thought is to have the server act as a Git repository; I create/edit/delete a post, commit it locally and then push it to the repo where a post commit hook would trigger the generator to rerun.

That’s one option - the iPhone would require a Git client which doesn’t seem like the best writing environment (I could copy and paste from a dedicated writing app but that adds a step to the process).

Another option would be to create an API for just myself to use which would allow me to upload/edit/read posts. More complex and would require some custom apps to write in. Maybe at some point but the first option seems best for now.

The Generator

So I have some files and a way to trigger an update. The input to the generator is going to be something like this:

Input
  Posts
    Drafts
    Published
  Pages
    Drafts
    Published
  Templates
  Assets
    Images
    SASS

The generator takes all this and spits out a folder containing the site. Templates would written using something like Handlebars or Mustache. SASS would get compiled to CSS. Drafts would either be ignored or served at a non-public location.

Serving the Site

The output gets moved to the location my HTTP server is serving from. Optionally, it could move it a CDN and have it hosted there. At this point it would be just a folder full of html and assets.