Flat-file website generators (and other website design solutions)

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Posted by MadaboutDana
Nov 1, 2023 at 12:07 PM

Now, you’ll tell me this doesn’t have a great deal to do with outlining – but stop! It does, because static CMSes are often highly compatible with notetakers like Obsidian et al.

So there’s a very nice list of flat-file CMSes (as they’re usually known) right here, for those interested: https://github.com/ahadb/flat-file-cms/blob/master/README.md

For those more interested in web design apps/programs, I’ve recently discovered the delightful RocketCake (for both Windows and Mac!), which – despite its whimsical name – is capable of generating very, very elegant websites that load very quickly. The (German) developer is very responsive to queries/issues, and the software is regularly updated. Even better, the basic version – already pretty capable – is absolutely free, but if you upgrade to the Professional version, you get some nice extra functions. Both version of the software support Master pages, meaning you can set up (multiple) master pages for a given website (including e.g. headers, footers, general background etc.) and then create content pages to fit inside them. It’s really very easy to use, and – get this! – fully responsive from the get-go. It’s the best alternative to the various “simple” web design apps that used to be commonplace I’ve found to date (Apple iWeb? Microsoft Frontpage? Where are you?)

Extras like a search function, “sticky” page elements and basic animations are on the roadmap; the search function should be coming out this week.

Here’s the website: https://www.ambiera.com/rocketcake/index.html

Posted by Amontillado
Nov 1, 2023 at 03:54 PM

Interesting! I also see Mellel’s web site is produced by Pelican, a Python-based static site generator.

If I ever get active in blogging, I need to remember there are alternatives to Wordpress.

Posted by Franz Grieser
Nov 1, 2023 at 04:40 PM

Thanks for the pointer to RocketCake. Can it be used for blogging? I haven’s seen a mention of that on the website.

Posted by MadaboutDana
Nov 1, 2023 at 10:04 PM

@Franz, well, you could, but it’s not optimised/set up for that. It would be easy enough to create a separate folder and master page for blog posts, however – that would work very nicely. Once the search function appears (Nikolaus says it should be out this week!), RocketCake will be much closer to a true blogging platform. It doesn’t have tagging yet, but again, you could emulate that using a folder/master page setup.

I’m certainly thinking seriously of using it for blog posts! It’s worth noting, however, that RocketCake’s own editor isn’t great, especially on Mac (it doesn’t use the standard keyboard shortcuts). Better to write your posts in another app, then transfer them to RocketCake afterwards.

Posted by Franz Grieser
Nov 2, 2023 at 07:02 AM

@Bill: Thanks for the info.

I usually write blog posts in a decent word processor with spell and grammar checking :-)

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