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Ask HN: Need feedback on a project where one file (blog.json) can build a site
So the entire project is WIP, because like the title, I'm not sure if there is any value in it. Perhaps, but I'd love to hear about any ideas others might have.
I did write a WIP blog post, hosted on generated blog from a single blog.json file which you can read here -> https://ajaxdavis.com/post/Introducing-JSON-Blog/
But I will try summarise in this post also the why.
I've always sucked at maintaining my blogs, but always have kept my content in various places e.g. dropbox, drive, gist, repos etc
And I've always wanted something simple, might not appeal to most (this project tries to allow for the bells and whistles though), so I had the idea that a single file should or could be able to generate an entire static website for a blog.
To support differentiation of themes and functionality I made up this idea of a `generator` much like a `theme` in WordPress or any alternatives.
My WIP boilerplate generator can be viewed at https://github.com/jsonblog/jsonblog-generator-boilerplate
The idea is that you pass a map/object/dict to a function that returns an array of files that has the properties of {name: 'blah.html', contents: '<h1>ghost are real</h1>'}.
From that output, you are perfectly able to generate it on the file system, and then host it on the interwebs where ever you would like.
It's meant to be an open source project, and just for fun cause 2020 is so and so.
I've setup an org to maintain the repos -> https://github.com/jsonblog
And a WIP homepage https://jsonblog.org
Be ruthless or kind, all feedback would be much appreciated.
- sylvain_kerkour 6y agoI find the idea pretty cool, the problem with the current generation of static site generators is that they are often design by devs for devs so the editing experience is seriously lacking (a code editor IS NOT a word processor...). The value I see in your project is that I can decouple the editor, from the hosting. So I can edit my posts in whatever editor I prefer, and then host it on my favorite static hosting platform.
- thomasfromcdnjs 6y agoYeah, very valid points. It is also attempting to decouple the "blog" from the static site generator. Such that, you can have a portable "blog" that you could take to Ghost, Wordpress etc If you mind me asking, what are your pros/cons with blog/personal site building/hosting?