In the beginning of the web, there were only static HTML files. Then came the age of the CMS. Now, with the ever increasing capabilities of HTML5-based browsers, we can give the server a rest, put security problems behind us and escape deployment hassles by returning to static HTML(5) documents and shifting the dynamic behavior to the client. Not only does that let you blog out of static hosting sites like GitHub pages, it also means you can put more processing power into the authoring tools.
How do static site generators work? What are the benefits over (server-side) CMSes? How can static be dynamic? How is it different from before?
In this session, you'll be introduced to static site generation, and in particular, Awestruct, a Ruby-based tool for building and publishing static websites. You'll discover how you can leverage a wide range of lightweight markup languages such as Haml, Textile, Markdown and SASS, and view-layer tools like jQuery, Bootstrap and CoffeeScript to keep your source terse and DRY. We'll use Awestruct's extension pipeline to setup a blog, add comments to your site or add analytic tracking scripts to your pages, then build and publish the site to GitHub pages in a single command. The talk will conclude by sharing real-world experience collected by creating several large web sites powered by static site generators.
Just because the pages are static doesn't mean they can't be dynamic too. Get Awestruct and blog like a hacker!
