hypermedia static blog generator

what is this?

building a blog using the "islands" design pattern. an sqlite database driven backend that generates a static ｈｙｐｅｒｍｅｄｉａ powered modern website.

how does it work?

the scripts loops through the database creating both fully rendered html documents and dom snippets for every page on the site. nginx reads requests and will serve one or the other based on the existence of the hx-request header. hx-boost is employed to automatically hoist all anchor tags to ajax requests, making the magic happen. the response documents contain <title> tags which htmx recognizes and applies to the page for better UX & SEO.

screenshots

rendered post

backend post editor

editor metadata tagging

backend category editing

building

all build commands are run using bun.

• bun install will pull down all the required dependencies.
• bun edit runs the backend server for wysiwyg database management.
• bun run init builds the dist folder structure and moves files into place for the rendered site.
• bun htmx will run the typescript to actually generate the site's html assets.
• bun css runs the postcss scripts to generate & optimize the site's styling using tailwindscss.
• bun start runs init, htmx, and css.

data

the site's content is generated from a 4 table sqlite database containing: posts, categories, tags, and a relational metadata table that correlates them. database logic exists in: src/models.

templates

html/mustache templates live in: src/views

the main stylesheet is here: src/ui/theme.css. i know i'm using tailwinds "wrong" get outta here.

domains

there are 2 files which define the global domains used. one is for the backend editor the other the blog itself. they default to //localhost for http fallback support.

backend editor

g the web based wysiwyg editor can be accessed by running bun edit. the editor supports adding, editing, and removing posts and their meta data, as well as the categories and tags themselves. the default port and hostname (localhost:8999) can be changed in: src/server.ts.

web server

nginx sample configs are available in the nginx directory . the only real "magic" is appending to the root directory on the existence of the hx-request header in the sites-available example.

status

demo build at https://xero.0w.nz

core features are working. actual posts need a bit more formatting. the admin backend works great, test it out locally! project is under active dev, so the demo site may be broken at any time.

todo & ideas

• database house keeping
  • post cleanup (blockquotes, code, image urls, etc)
• nginx alternatives (e.g. caddy)
  • nginx hx-header "root rewrite" vs inline hx-get to slug urls perf testing
• idk, maybe actual blogging? •͡˘㇁•͡

background

(i was thinking about calling this project TNTHUMBS b/c it's built using: typescript nginx tailwindcss htmx unix mustache bun sqlite)

please note, i'm doing this project to learn some of these technologies, so i'm undoubtedly doing it wrong in a lot of places. suggestions & pr's are always welcome.

references

• https://bun.sh/docs
• https://bun.sh/docs/api/sqlite
• https://tailwindcss.com/docs
• https://tailwindcomponents.com/cheatsheet
• https://htmx.org/docs
• https://htmx.org/api
• https://htmx.org/attributes/hx-push-url
• https://www.nerdfonts.com/cheat-sheet
• https://github.com/janl/mustache.js
• http://mustache.github.io/mustache.5.html

license

all files in this repo, including my blog's content, are released CC0 / kopimi! in the spirit of freedom of information, i encourage you to fork, modify, change, share, or do whatever you like with this project! ^c^v