4 ms·

This is great! The whole "Git is eating the database world" trend is picking up steam. MDN/Yari, mentioned recently on here was another similar one https://gi

by breck 6y ago

This is great! The whole "Git is eating the database world" trend is picking up steam. MDN/Yari, mentioned recently on here was another similar one https://github.com/mdn/yari https://github.com/mdn/yari I am planning on doing something similar to Offbase with Dub (https://github.com/treenotation/dumbdown/tree/master/dub https://github.com/treenotation/dumbdown/tree/master/dub). Each post will be written in Dumbdown, but then also a whole "blog" (posts, settings, pages, etc), you will be able to view/edit in a single textarea, and copy/paste the whole thing. So you should be able to write a whole site in the client side JS app, use local storage for persistence, and then copy/paste either the raw Tree Notation files to import/export the site, or just the compiled HTML. Then just need a one click "write this site to a Git repo", and then GitHub/GitLab/etc can handle long term persistence, version control, and site hosting. Happy to talk more to the authors off offbase if it would help. I think there could be some synergy here.

skogard 6y ago
Thank you, in the video I intentionally positioned Offbase as a "static site generator" and a "blogging engine" just to focus the minimal viable product and avoid confusion, but the actual platform I'm working toward releasing is really a generic shell that can run anything, the blogging package will be the one thing I will focus on building myself, but since it will be a completely open platform where you can download any git repository into the browser, anyone should be able to build their own package. For example you can build a documentation engine package, or an image editor package. And going further, even the static site generator logic itself is nothing more than a single use case where it simply runs a template logic and writes to the virtual file system, while using the service worker to render the files in realtime, for example. You can think of Offbase as something like Electron, but in a browser. This means a lot of things that you used to need a server for, you can build with Offbase purely inside the browser. Which means, I think Offbase may fit right in with what you're trying to build, it should handle a lot of headaches you might otherwise have. Will try to get this rolled out public as soon as I can, it's almost there, just trying to deal with some last mile problems and documentation.
- warkdarrior 6y ago
  > You can think of Offbase as something like Electron, but in a browser. Uhh, the messaging is now even more confused. Electron is a framework for creating native applications with web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. The browser is a framework for creating web-based applications with web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. So what does it mean "Electron in a browser"?
  - skogard 6y ago
    It lets you write to files. Except that these are files that exist in a self contained virtual file system in the browser. You can do things like fs.writeFile() or fs.readFile() (like electron, but without needing a desktop app, but directly inside the browser), and push that entire file system to a remote git repository, or pull from one.
    - Fractal_HQ 6y ago
      Where can I go to learn how to do this? It's an awesome concept. Are there any resources you can point me to?

by breck 6y ago

skogard 6y ago

Thank you, in the video I intentionally positioned Offbase as a "static site generator" and a "blogging engine" just to focus the minimal viable product and avoid confusion, but the actual platform I'm working toward releasing is really a generic shell that can run anything, the blogging package will be the one thing I will focus on building myself, but since it will be a completely open platform where you can download any git repository into the browser, anyone should be able to build their own package. For example you can build a documentation engine package, or an image editor package. And going further, even the static site generator logic itself is nothing more than a single use case where it simply runs a template logic and writes to the virtual file system, while using the service worker to render the files in realtime, for example. You can think of Offbase as something like Electron, but in a browser. This means a lot of things that you used to need a server for, you can build with Offbase purely inside the browser. Which means, I think Offbase may fit right in with what you're trying to build, it should handle a lot of headaches you might otherwise have. Will try to get this rolled out public as soon as I can, it's almost there, just trying to deal with some last mile problems and documentation.

warkdarrior 6y ago
> You can think of Offbase as something like Electron, but in a browser. Uhh, the messaging is now even more confused. Electron is a framework for creating native applications with web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. The browser is a framework for creating web-based applications with web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. So what does it mean "Electron in a browser"?
- skogard 6y ago
  It lets you write to files. Except that these are files that exist in a self contained virtual file system in the browser. You can do things like fs.writeFile() or fs.readFile() (like electron, but without needing a desktop app, but directly inside the browser), and push that entire file system to a remote git repository, or pull from one.
  - Fractal_HQ 6y ago
    Where can I go to learn how to do this? It's an awesome concept. Are there any resources you can point me to?