4 ms·

Show HN: Harp Platform now available to the public

48 points by sintaxi 13y ago

Touche 13y ago
Looks good. Wish it wasn't tied to Dropbox though. I'd almost definitely use it if I could work out of my own WebDAV server.
- woah 13y ago
  Well, good news for you, you can run the harp server on your own hosting! However, at that point I would just use the static site generator that I am accustomed to (Wintersmith).
  - Touche 13y ago
    Oh, very nice!
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
coderzach 13y ago
Why do the build process (preprocessing) on the server?
- davidascher 13y ago
  so that non-devs can do edits via editing, dropbox syncs, push using web UI, and have the magic happen w/o needing devtools everywhere.
  - coderzach 13y ago
    Not really, they still have to have node, npm, and the harp cli installed to use it locally. And if you're going through the work of doing all that, why not just do the build step on the client.
drivingmissm 13y ago
Should be "boat". Freudian slip! "...and the community gets a bloat load of terrific open source libraries along the way."
PaulHoule 13y ago
"How to be an absolute zero when it comes to SEO"
- thomaslutz 13y ago
  Can you elaborate?
_pmf_ 13y ago
I'm waiting until Dropbox pulls a Twitter-move and disallows third party integration.
- mgrouchy 13y ago
  I don't see how that would make any sense. Why would they do that? To me, it seems like Dropbox wants to sell storage to people, the more things that plug into Dropbox, the more storage they sell. Twitter made a bunch of moves to limit third party integration because they need to control the channel so they can sell ads to be displayed on the platform, and display promoted accounts and tweets.
- kennethormandy 13y ago
  Obviously we don’t want this to happen, and I personally don’t think it will, but the Harp Platform has been built with this possibility in mind. The Harp Platform isn’t built upon Dropbox, we chose to make Dropbox one part of our interface.
taylorlapeyre 13y ago
I still think that the harp product (brand?) is all over the place. From what I've seen, harp is all of these things: - A command line utility for creating a preprocessing-enabled server - A static site generator like jekyll - A "front-end publishing platform" for Dropbox This leads to poor understanding of exactly what "Harp" is and what it helps you accomplish.
- krrishd 13y ago
  It's mainly between HarpJS.com and harp.io, where on HarpJS there's a command line utility that works like a static site generator, and on harp.io it's hosted. I think it works pretty well that way, just like Wordpress has a self-hosted platform as well as a hosted one.
- couchand 13y ago
  Oooh, and also a kind of beer!
- prezjordan 13y ago
  Harp doesn't aim to be a static site generator, quite the opposite I feel. It just allows you to throw (language/technology-agnostic) files in a directory and serve them. Dropbox seems like a good match for this.
- sintaxi 13y ago
  I can understand the confusion. Best to think of it like this, "Harp" is a static web server with built in preprocessing. "Harp Platform" is a service for running Harp apps in production. - "Command line" - happens to be the way you access the web server. - "Generating static assets" is just a feature of the web server. - "Dropbox integration" is just a feature of the platform. Hope that helps clear things up.
cookrn 13y ago
I really, really would love to give this a try but am totally turned off by the requested "read and modify everything" Dropbox permissions. Although the Harp application does a really good job explaining the limitations of the Dropbox permissions API after a denial during the Dropbox authorization step, I'm still not comfortable. I hope it's true that OP is working with Dropbox to improve the situation as stated :)
- silverlight 13y ago
  Same here. Have a new project I'm starting next week that this would be perfect with -- a small site with several collaborators that's not worthy of a full CMS, and everyone involved loves and uses Dropbox already. But Dropbox is my lifeblood -- the most-used tool in my toolbox. I have everything important in there. There is simply no way I can grant access to full thing, even if you promise to "play nice". It's simply too risky. Fix that, and you'll be getting $10/mo. from me in no time.
- fjabre 13y ago
  maybe I'm missing something but why not just signup for another dropbox account and use that one for this instead?
  - silverlight 13y ago
    As far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong, please!) there's no easy way to "switch" Dropbox accounts on your computer, is there?
  - kennethormandy 13y ago
    Yes, this is one option to work around Dropbox’s limited permission options here. You can create another Dropbox account and link that to Harp Platform. Then, share your application folder with your main Dropbox account and match the directory structure (put it inside harp.io/apps/), and continue using the Harp Platform normally.
    - silverlight 13y ago
mcantelon 13y ago
Congrats!

48 points by sintaxi 13y ago

Looks good. Wish it wasn't tied to Dropbox though. I'd almost definitely use it if I could work out of my own WebDAV server.

woah 13y ago
Well, good news for you, you can run the harp server on your own hosting! However, at that point I would just use the static site generator that I am accustomed to (Wintersmith).
- Touche 13y ago
  Oh, very nice!

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

coderzach 13y ago

Why do the build process (preprocessing) on the server?

davidascher 13y ago
so that non-devs can do edits via editing, dropbox syncs, push using web UI, and have the magic happen w/o needing devtools everywhere.
- coderzach 13y ago
  Not really, they still have to have node, npm, and the harp cli installed to use it locally. And if you're going through the work of doing all that, why not just do the build step on the client.

drivingmissm 13y ago

Should be "boat". Freudian slip! "...and the community gets a bloat load of terrific open source libraries along the way."

PaulHoule 13y ago

"How to be an absolute zero when it comes to SEO"

thomaslutz 13y ago
Can you elaborate?

_pmf_ 13y ago

I'm waiting until Dropbox pulls a Twitter-move and disallows third party integration.

mgrouchy 13y ago
I don't see how that would make any sense. Why would they do that? To me, it seems like Dropbox wants to sell storage to people, the more things that plug into Dropbox, the more storage they sell. Twitter made a bunch of moves to limit third party integration because they need to control the channel so they can sell ads to be displayed on the platform, and display promoted accounts and tweets.
kennethormandy 13y ago
Obviously we don’t want this to happen, and I personally don’t think it will, but the Harp Platform has been built with this possibility in mind. The Harp Platform isn’t built upon Dropbox, we chose to make Dropbox one part of our interface.

taylorlapeyre 13y ago

I still think that the harp product (brand?) is all over the place. From what I've seen, harp is all of these things: - A command line utility for creating a preprocessing-enabled server - A static site generator like jekyll - A "front-end publishing platform" for Dropbox This leads to poor understanding of exactly what "Harp" is and what it helps you accomplish.

krrishd 13y ago
It's mainly between HarpJS.com and harp.io, where on HarpJS there's a command line utility that works like a static site generator, and on harp.io it's hosted. I think it works pretty well that way, just like Wordpress has a self-hosted platform as well as a hosted one.
couchand 13y ago
Oooh, and also a kind of beer!
prezjordan 13y ago
Harp doesn't aim to be a static site generator, quite the opposite I feel. It just allows you to throw (language/technology-agnostic) files in a directory and serve them. Dropbox seems like a good match for this.
sintaxi 13y ago
I can understand the confusion. Best to think of it like this, "Harp" is a static web server with built in preprocessing. "Harp Platform" is a service for running Harp apps in production. - "Command line" - happens to be the way you access the web server. - "Generating static assets" is just a feature of the web server. - "Dropbox integration" is just a feature of the platform. Hope that helps clear things up.

cookrn 13y ago

I really, really would love to give this a try but am totally turned off by the requested "read and modify everything" Dropbox permissions. Although the Harp application does a really good job explaining the limitations of the Dropbox permissions API after a denial during the Dropbox authorization step, I'm still not comfortable. I hope it's true that OP is working with Dropbox to improve the situation as stated :)

silverlight 13y ago
Same here. Have a new project I'm starting next week that this would be perfect with -- a small site with several collaborators that's not worthy of a full CMS, and everyone involved loves and uses Dropbox already. But Dropbox is my lifeblood -- the most-used tool in my toolbox. I have everything important in there. There is simply no way I can grant access to full thing, even if you promise to "play nice". It's simply too risky. Fix that, and you'll be getting $10/mo. from me in no time.
fjabre 13y ago
maybe I'm missing something but why not just signup for another dropbox account and use that one for this instead?
- silverlight 13y ago
  As far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong, please!) there's no easy way to "switch" Dropbox accounts on your computer, is there?
- kennethormandy 13y ago
  Yes, this is one option to work around Dropbox’s limited permission options here. You can create another Dropbox account and link that to Harp Platform. Then, share your application folder with your main Dropbox account and match the directory structure (put it inside harp.io/apps/), and continue using the Harp Platform normally.
  - silverlight 13y ago

mcantelon 13y ago

Congrats!