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I know that you're probably looking for an alternative to WordPress, but here's what I do at my company. We have an internal WordPress installation where (non-

I know that you're probably looking for an alternative to WordPress, but here's what I do at my company. We have an internal WordPress installation where (non-technical) staff can make posts & pages, use their favorite themes & plugins, etc. Everyone can view the internal site to critique it, make changes, and basically screw around without touching the live site. Once they have the site ready to release, we use a simple plugin (ignore the "outdated" warning): https://wordpress.org/plugins/static-html-output-plugin/ https://wordpress.org/plugins/static-html-output-plugin/ which basically exports the site to a static copy as a zip file containing all of the HTML and other static assets. We made a little deploy script which loads the zip file on our Nginx webserver, moves the old "build" of the site to an archive directory (so we can still retrieve it in case the new site is broken), regex'es the files to change some things (such as wp-content/ URL's) to point to our CDN, etc. Once everyone has QA'ed the site on the internal server, we just run the deploy script and now the new version is live. This has worked out great for us - no one had to learn a new CMS; we can easily change WordPress versions (or, switch to an entirely new WordPress install), add new plugins, and mess around with stuff without breaking the live site. Plus, the site is served entirely as static files from a lightweight machine which runs only Nginx - no PHP, database, or anything else. Note that obviously any "dynamic" features of the site (like comments) won't work, but that doesn't impact us. Our site is in the Alexa top 5000 and we've been using this setup for over a year without any site downtime, broken theme issues due to version updates, scrambling to update due to WP security issues, or any other annoyances that come with using WordPress.

timepiece 12y ago
But you're almost entirely relying on this black-box plugin constituting a systemic risk (critical path) in your process. For me, I'm afraid that this is not 100% reliable solution for me.
- p4bl0 12y ago
  What about using `wget --mirror` (with the set of right command line arguments to adjust it to your needs) on a local dynamic site to obtain a fully functional static copy that you can then upload to any server?
  - rahimnathwani 12y ago
    This, and the plugin option suggested by jasongill above, sound like they would suit my needs. I don't mind hosting wordpress to use as an editor (as performance is not important). I just don't want Wordpress to be in charge of serving the content.
- jasongill 12y ago
  The plugin is open source: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/static-html-output-plugin/ https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/static-html-outpu... And all that it does is simply "spider" the site and save the pages to HTML. You could get the exact same effect using curl or wget, we just use the plugin so that my non-technical employees can effectively click a button, get the zip file, and send it to someone who's got access to do the deployment.
  - timepiece 12y ago
    I see now. Since it's an open source and its basic functionality can be replaced with simple Unix modules, I see no problem with this setup anymore.
maxdeviant 12y ago
Your solution sounds like exactly what I need! Currently upgrading my company's existing website, and was looking into WordPress as a CMS. The security concerns and the resource costs of using WordPress were key detractors, but this sounds like it could be the answer for us as well.

timepiece 12y ago

But you're almost entirely relying on this black-box plugin constituting a systemic risk (critical path) in your process. For me, I'm afraid that this is not 100% reliable solution for me.

p4bl0 12y ago
What about using `wget --mirror` (with the set of right command line arguments to adjust it to your needs) on a local dynamic site to obtain a fully functional static copy that you can then upload to any server?
- rahimnathwani 12y ago
  This, and the plugin option suggested by jasongill above, sound like they would suit my needs. I don't mind hosting wordpress to use as an editor (as performance is not important). I just don't want Wordpress to be in charge of serving the content.
jasongill 12y ago
The plugin is open source: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/static-html-output-plugin/ https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/static-html-outpu... And all that it does is simply "spider" the site and save the pages to HTML. You could get the exact same effect using curl or wget, we just use the plugin so that my non-technical employees can effectively click a button, get the zip file, and send it to someone who's got access to do the deployment.
- timepiece 12y ago
  I see now. Since it's an open source and its basic functionality can be replaced with simple Unix modules, I see no problem with this setup anymore.

maxdeviant 12y ago

Your solution sounds like exactly what I need! Currently upgrading my company's existing website, and was looking into WordPress as a CMS. The security concerns and the resource costs of using WordPress were key detractors, but this sounds like it could be the answer for us as well.