7 ms·

HubPress.io: A web application to build your blog on GitHub

169 points by type0 10y ago

sarreph 10y ago
Great idea to leverage GitHub pages! Not sure if this has been done before but this is certainly a lucrative SaaS opportunity due to the non-existent marginal cost of creating a GitHub site. -- IF OP is the author (or the author sees this) Couple of nitpicks about your landing page: - Syntax / typo: "no server's rent" --> "no server costs to pay" or similar - Please do your visitors a favour and add controls to your YouTube embed. It might seem 'aesthetically pleasing' to have a sleek video but it's an explanatory film that a user A) might want to full-screen (lots of small text) and B) might want to be skip around in Would also consider changing 'About Us' to a marketing-style header pushing the product itself (as it's not really an 'About Us' anyway) as well as an explanatory line or two that explains the product properly and succinctly, as icons alone don't really suffice IMO. Other than that, great concept — and great start!
- ekzy 10y ago
  Agreed about the youtube video. It is a bit frustrating not to be able to move forward, especially because the typing speed is quite slow :D A few blog examples made with hubpress on the landing page would be great too.
  - Anthonny 10y ago
    Yes the youtube video is really frustrating and i will change that. Thank you for the suggestion about adding blog example ;)
- lips 10y ago
  Agreed. Workaround: Click video for focus, either click again or press space to play. Use left/right arrow keys for 5s jumps, < and > to adjust speed. I use these commands about every 30 minutes.
  - Anthonny 10y ago
    Thank you, i will fix this video soon
- Anthonny 10y ago
  Thank you so much for all your advices, i will apply them asap :)
- rmelly 10y ago
  Not sure if this has been done before Seems similar to TinyPress: https://tinypress.co/ https://tinypress.co/
soumyaray 10y ago
Genuine question: Is there any attraction of this tool for folks who already know how to use a static site generator (SSG)? I'm guessing most people who understand how to use git could catch onto an SSG overnight. (I should add that this is an impressive concept and I'm just begging for a reason to use it).
- delluminatus 10y ago
  Whether or not you use an SSG, I find the biggest hurdle is getting/making a good theme for your blog. It looks like this comes theme-included, which is actually a pretty big deal if you want to get up and running fast.
  - WorldMaker 10y ago
    Yeah, Hubpress, Octopress, Jekyll Bootstrap, and at least one other I can't quite recall, are all the idea of having a preconfigured blog theme ready to go instead of having to build one from scratch (or stick with the very plain Jekyll default). They'll sometimes do things like pre-configure useful Jekyll plugins and provide additional scaffolding tools (this used to be a particularly big deal of Octopress, IIRC, for the versions of Jekyll before it added its own scaffolding system). It's a nice to have to get started quickly when you don't want to custom build a theme or you want someone else to figure out a lot of the basic configuration.
  - Anthonny 10y ago
    Yes, HubPress is theme-included and the theme engine is the Ghost.io one. As Ghost is MIT, my idea was to use the same engine, so it's easy to build a new theme or add an existing ghost theme in HubPress
- Tobold 10y ago
  If understood this right (I didn't take a close look at the 3MB Javascript), this is SSG running in the browser, from the static site. So you don't have to run anything (except a browser) on your local machine (not even git).
- wodenokoto 10y ago
sanderp 10y ago
I really like the idea, it looks like an easy way to get a simple blog started. Looks great as well! I do have one concern: I'm assuming that the repo driving the blog is public, which means that all unpublished posts are still visible on Github, right?
- opmac 10y ago
  Correct, if they're pushed.
- sarreph 10y ago
  You can run a GitHub Pages site/blog from a private repo. Obviously, you need a paid GitHub subscription to do this, but it is possible (with relatively low cost).
krionicle 10y ago
Are we aware of any efforts to decentralize git so that blogs made with it can't be silenced at one point of failure?
- WorldMaker 10y ago
  Well, this is a decent start: $ git remote add newbloghost http://somethingnotgithub.com/example/path.to.git $ git push --set-upstream newbloghost gh-pages
- baus 10y ago
  I think you are missing the point of git.
  - wodenokoto 10y ago
    I think parent meant github.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
- danso 10y ago
  Jekyll is open source and it can be run on any server (I always use it locally) and its output is just static HTML, which means it can be served from anywhere.
  - Spivak 10y ago
    You might want to check out using CI to build your site. It's really satisfying to watch the commit -> push -> build -> deploy cycle.
- Spivak 10y ago
  How decentralized are we talking? Because there are more shared hosting providers, VPS providers, and domain registrars than I can shake a stick at. If you don't want to depend on GitHub, there's nothing stopping you. I host my site on a VPS and couldn't be happier.
goincremental 10y ago
This looks interesting
pwenzel 10y ago
HubPress looks super useful. How does it handle other non-blog-ish content Jekyll supports, like data files and collections? I've used Prose.io as well, which has a nice UI and serves a similar purpose. I like that HubPress can just be run from your domain though.
Dzugaru 10y ago
HubPress app.js can do what it pleases with my github password, am I right? And I couldn't find non-minified sources easily. P.S. found sources at dev.hubpress.io on another branch
- Anthonny 10y ago
  All the sources are on the repository dev.hubpress.io on the branch development. Each commit build the minified version on the branch master and gh-pages. If you want to see how work authentication, you can also have a look to the repository hubpress-plugin-github
wodenokoto 10y ago
I forked the repo, followed the setup instructions and now what? There's a "writers guide" that claims it will help me write my first post, but it is just an overview of the AsciiDoc format, and tells you nothing about how to save new posts to your blog.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- Anthonny 10y ago
  Hi, I'm Anthonny, the creator of HubPress, give me the url of your github account to check if all is allright. You just have to go to this url: <url_of_your_github_pages_site>/hubpress, log in and then you can start to write Feel free to join our slack if you need support or if you just want to talk :) https://hubpressio-slack.herokuapp.com/ https://hubpressio-slack.herokuapp.com/
The_Hoff 10y ago
This seems great. When I created (and failed to keep up with) a Jekyll blog on GitHub last year, I had fun learning the in's and out's of the generator on my own, but I predict this will foster even more of an appreciation for GitHub Pages by giving users a way to spend more time customizing and tweaking than building a foundation from the ground up.
abyd 10y ago
Do you plan to use ssl?
leeny 10y ago
Your logo looks almost identical to HackerRank's. I work in the eng recruiting space, so not everyone might think so. But still.
anonymousDan 10y ago
Could I run this off a locally hosted gitlab repo too somehow?
- jayjohnson 10y ago
  Not the same as HubPress (which looks like something I wish I knew about), but just a month ago I wanted to run an SSG locally (that wasn't using jekyll) so I built this one for deploying nginx + sphinx using docker. It auto-converts rst markup files into bootstrap + bootswatch html-themed posts (and has a search engine in it). http://jaypjohnson.com/2016-06-25-host-a-technical-blog-with-docker.html http://jaypjohnson.com/2016-06-25-host-a-technical-blog-with...
- Anthonny 10y ago
  I am working on a gitlab plugin, i hope to publish it soon
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
Anthonny 10y ago
Thank you so much type0 for this thread
sebastianconcpt 10y ago
Looks fantastic! I was trying it but the login isn't working for me. Check demo here: https://gist.github.com/sebastianconcept/caf92590d15b073993f79c93900beb6b https://gist.github.com/sebastianconcept/caf92590d15b073993f...
- Anthonny 10y ago
  There is a typo in your config.json, i made a comment on the commit
  - sebastianconcpt 10y ago
    Thank you Anthony! Thinking in adopting it! :D
marcammann 10y ago
Funny enough, I've been using "write a blog based on Gists on Github for a certain user" as a take-home test for the past 3 years when hiring JS developers. Now I have to watch out for copy cats..

169 points by type0 10y ago

Great idea to leverage GitHub pages! Not sure if this has been done before but this is certainly a lucrative SaaS opportunity due to the non-existent marginal cost of creating a GitHub site. -- IF OP is the author (or the author sees this) Couple of nitpicks about your landing page: - Syntax / typo: "no server's rent" --> "no server costs to pay" or similar - Please do your visitors a favour and add controls to your YouTube embed. It might seem 'aesthetically pleasing' to have a sleek video but it's an explanatory film that a user A) might want to full-screen (lots of small text) and B) might want to be skip around in Would also consider changing 'About Us' to a marketing-style header pushing the product itself (as it's not really an 'About Us' anyway) as well as an explanatory line or two that explains the product properly and succinctly, as icons alone don't really suffice IMO. Other than that, great concept — and great start!

ekzy 10y ago
Agreed about the youtube video. It is a bit frustrating not to be able to move forward, especially because the typing speed is quite slow :D A few blog examples made with hubpress on the landing page would be great too.
- Anthonny 10y ago
  Yes the youtube video is really frustrating and i will change that. Thank you for the suggestion about adding blog example ;)
lips 10y ago
Agreed. Workaround: Click video for focus, either click again or press space to play. Use left/right arrow keys for 5s jumps, < and > to adjust speed. I use these commands about every 30 minutes.
- Anthonny 10y ago
  Thank you, i will fix this video soon
Anthonny 10y ago
Thank you so much for all your advices, i will apply them asap :)
rmelly 10y ago
Not sure if this has been done before Seems similar to TinyPress: https://tinypress.co/ https://tinypress.co/

soumyaray 10y ago

Genuine question: Is there any attraction of this tool for folks who already know how to use a static site generator (SSG)? I'm guessing most people who understand how to use git could catch onto an SSG overnight. (I should add that this is an impressive concept and I'm just begging for a reason to use it).

delluminatus 10y ago
Whether or not you use an SSG, I find the biggest hurdle is getting/making a good theme for your blog. It looks like this comes theme-included, which is actually a pretty big deal if you want to get up and running fast.
- WorldMaker 10y ago
  Yeah, Hubpress, Octopress, Jekyll Bootstrap, and at least one other I can't quite recall, are all the idea of having a preconfigured blog theme ready to go instead of having to build one from scratch (or stick with the very plain Jekyll default). They'll sometimes do things like pre-configure useful Jekyll plugins and provide additional scaffolding tools (this used to be a particularly big deal of Octopress, IIRC, for the versions of Jekyll before it added its own scaffolding system). It's a nice to have to get started quickly when you don't want to custom build a theme or you want someone else to figure out a lot of the basic configuration.
- Anthonny 10y ago
  Yes, HubPress is theme-included and the theme engine is the Ghost.io one. As Ghost is MIT, my idea was to use the same engine, so it's easy to build a new theme or add an existing ghost theme in HubPress
Tobold 10y ago
If understood this right (I didn't take a close look at the 3MB Javascript), this is SSG running in the browser, from the static site. So you don't have to run anything (except a browser) on your local machine (not even git).
wodenokoto 10y ago

sanderp 10y ago

I really like the idea, it looks like an easy way to get a simple blog started. Looks great as well! I do have one concern: I'm assuming that the repo driving the blog is public, which means that all unpublished posts are still visible on Github, right?

opmac 10y ago
Correct, if they're pushed.
sarreph 10y ago
You can run a GitHub Pages site/blog from a private repo. Obviously, you need a paid GitHub subscription to do this, but it is possible (with relatively low cost).

krionicle 10y ago

Are we aware of any efforts to decentralize git so that blogs made with it can't be silenced at one point of failure?

WorldMaker 10y ago
Well, this is a decent start: $ git remote add newbloghost http://somethingnotgithub.com/example/path.to.git $ git push --set-upstream newbloghost gh-pages
baus 10y ago
I think you are missing the point of git.
- wodenokoto 10y ago
  I think parent meant github.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
danso 10y ago
Jekyll is open source and it can be run on any server (I always use it locally) and its output is just static HTML, which means it can be served from anywhere.
- Spivak 10y ago
  You might want to check out using CI to build your site. It's really satisfying to watch the commit -> push -> build -> deploy cycle.
Spivak 10y ago
How decentralized are we talking? Because there are more shared hosting providers, VPS providers, and domain registrars than I can shake a stick at. If you don't want to depend on GitHub, there's nothing stopping you. I host my site on a VPS and couldn't be happier.

goincremental 10y ago

This looks interesting

pwenzel 10y ago

HubPress looks super useful. How does it handle other non-blog-ish content Jekyll supports, like data files and collections? I've used Prose.io as well, which has a nice UI and serves a similar purpose. I like that HubPress can just be run from your domain though.

Dzugaru 10y ago

HubPress app.js can do what it pleases with my github password, am I right? And I couldn't find non-minified sources easily. P.S. found sources at dev.hubpress.io on another branch

Anthonny 10y ago
All the sources are on the repository dev.hubpress.io on the branch development. Each commit build the minified version on the branch master and gh-pages. If you want to see how work authentication, you can also have a look to the repository hubpress-plugin-github

wodenokoto 10y ago

I forked the repo, followed the setup instructions and now what? There's a "writers guide" that claims it will help me write my first post, but it is just an overview of the AsciiDoc format, and tells you nothing about how to save new posts to your blog.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
Anthonny 10y ago
Hi, I'm Anthonny, the creator of HubPress, give me the url of your github account to check if all is allright. You just have to go to this url: <url_of_your_github_pages_site>/hubpress, log in and then you can start to write Feel free to join our slack if you need support or if you just want to talk :) https://hubpressio-slack.herokuapp.com/ https://hubpressio-slack.herokuapp.com/

The_Hoff 10y ago

This seems great. When I created (and failed to keep up with) a Jekyll blog on GitHub last year, I had fun learning the in's and out's of the generator on my own, but I predict this will foster even more of an appreciation for GitHub Pages by giving users a way to spend more time customizing and tweaking than building a foundation from the ground up.

abyd 10y ago

Do you plan to use ssl?

leeny 10y ago

Your logo looks almost identical to HackerRank's. I work in the eng recruiting space, so not everyone might think so. But still.

anonymousDan 10y ago

Could I run this off a locally hosted gitlab repo too somehow?

jayjohnson 10y ago
Not the same as HubPress (which looks like something I wish I knew about), but just a month ago I wanted to run an SSG locally (that wasn't using jekyll) so I built this one for deploying nginx + sphinx using docker. It auto-converts rst markup files into bootstrap + bootswatch html-themed posts (and has a search engine in it). http://jaypjohnson.com/2016-06-25-host-a-technical-blog-with-docker.html http://jaypjohnson.com/2016-06-25-host-a-technical-blog-with...
Anthonny 10y ago
I am working on a gitlab plugin, i hope to publish it soon
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

Anthonny 10y ago

Thank you so much type0 for this thread

sebastianconcpt 10y ago

Looks fantastic! I was trying it but the login isn't working for me. Check demo here: https://gist.github.com/sebastianconcept/caf92590d15b073993f79c93900beb6b https://gist.github.com/sebastianconcept/caf92590d15b073993f...

Anthonny 10y ago
There is a typo in your config.json, i made a comment on the commit
- sebastianconcpt 10y ago
  Thank you Anthony! Thinking in adopting it! :D

marcammann 10y ago

Funny enough, I've been using "write a blog based on Gists on Github for a certain user" as a take-home test for the past 3 years when hiring JS developers. Now I have to watch out for copy cats..