gistfile1.md

Stasis

A Clojure library of tools for developing static web sites.

Another static site framework? Why?

Well, that's exactly it. I didn't want to use a framework. I don't like the restrained feeling I get when using them. I prefer coding things over messing around with configuration files.

I want to

• code my own pages
• set up my own configuration
• choose my own templating library
• create my own damn stylesheets

Statis offers a few functions that are pretty useful when creating static web sites.

No more. There are no batteries included.

If you want a framework that makes it really quick and easy to create a blog, you should take a look at these:

• misaki is a Jekyll inspired static site generator in Clojure.
• Madness is a static site generator, based on Enlive and Bootstrap.
• Static is a simple static site generator written in Clojure.
• Ecstatic creates static web pages and blog posts from Hiccup templates and Markdown.
• incise is an extensible static site generator written in Clojure.

They generally come with a folder where you put your blog posts in some templating language, and a set of configuration options about how to set up your blog. They often generate code for you to tweak.

Usage

The core of Stasis is two functions: serve-pages and export-pages. Both take a map from path to contents:

(def pages {"/index.html" "<h1>Welcome!</h1>"})

The basic use case is to serve these live on a local server while developing - and then exporting them as static pages to deploy on some server.

Serving live pages locally

Stasis can create a Ring handler to serve your pages.

(ns example
  (:require [stasis.core :as stasis]))

(def app (stasis/serve-pages pages))

Like with any Ring app, you point to your app in project.clj:

:ring {:handler example/app}

and start it with lein ring server-headless.

Exporting the pages

To export, just give Stasis some pages and a target directory:

(defn export []
  (stasis/export-pages pages target-dir))

When you've got this function, you can create an alias for leiningen:

:aliases {"build-site" ["run" "-m" "example/export"]}

and run lein build-site on the command line. No need for a lein plugin.

Example apps?

The static page that prompted me to write Stasis is currently closed source, but I'm in the process of turning my 4 other static sites over. The simplest, and first to be done, is:

• whattheemacsd.com (source)

  Uses Enlive for templating, and Optimus for frontend optimization.

I'm also working on the Emacs Rocks! webpage, where I'll use hiccup instead of Enlive.

Is it stable?

It's still on a 0.x release, but I feel the API has jelled enough now to open source it. I don't expect any major changes at this point. I'll likely push it to 1.0 at the end of the month.

Again, why not use one of the existing frameworks?

I think the existing frameworks are great if they fit your style. Stasis imposes no styles. There are very few decisions made for you - no markdown vs asciidoc, no enlive vs hiccup. No configuration options. You have to make them.

So, yeah ... I think Stasis would be a great starting point if you want to create the 6th static site framework to go in that list at the top. :-)