Calcify

A tiny static site generator for developers, written in Racket.

Install

Calcify runs with Racket, a popular Scheme dialect and toolkit. Install Racket, if you don't have it, and make sure Racket's /bin directory is included in your $PATH (add it to your bash ~/.profile).

To get Calcify itself:

git clone git@github.com:twfarland/calcify.git
cd calcify
bash install.sh

Now include the /{PATH-TO-CALCIFY}/bin/ in your $PATH variable (in your bash profile). You may need to restart your terminal to gain access to the calcify command.

Using the calcify command

Usage: calcify [options]
                                  
With zero option flags, calcify generates static files in {CURRENT_DIRECTORY}/public 
                                  
Options:
   -v       Print calcify's version
   -h       Display this help message
   -init    Initialize calcify project folders in the current directory
   -dev     Run the project in the current directory locally

Example usage

1: Initialise a project

mkdir calcify-example
cd calcify-example
calcify -init

This builds the following directory structure for your project:

/assets    <- Base static files, these will be copied to /public upon generation
/content   <- Your content .rkt files, from which the html will be generated
/public    <- Where the static files are generated. Serve this with your production webserver
/views     <- Your view .rkt files, where your layouts are defined

1: Create a layout view

Calcify uses simple s-expressions that are transformed to html. Create this file in your Calcify /views directory:

;; layout.rkt:
(html
    (head (title (: title)))
    (body (h1 (: title))
          (menu (li (a (= href /) home))
                (li (a (= href /page2) Page 2)))
          (div (= id main) (: content))))

The head of an s-exp is usually the tag name. s-exps starting with = define tag attributes, and those starting with : define references to data being propagated the view.

2: Create some pages

A content file is a list of keys -> values. Create these files in your Calcify /content directory:

;; home.rkt:
((route    "")
 (view     "layout")
 (title    "Hello from Calcify")
 (content  (article (h3 Article title)
                    (p paragraph 1)
                    (p paragraph 2))))

;; page2.rkt:
((route    "page2")
 (view     "layout")
 (title    "Page 2")
 (content  (article (h3 Article 2 title)
                    (p paragraph 1)
                    (p paragraph 2))))

route defines the path to this page, both when served during development and when generated. view is the filename (without .rkt extension) of the view you want to use for this page. Every other key is optional, dependent on what you want to put in your views

3: Run the development server

calcify -dev

Runs the site on http://localhost:8080, using Racket's webserver. Each request checks the filesystem for changes. As such it is intended as a development convenience only. Try altering your views or content, or adding new ones, then refresh the page. Your changes will be present. Any css/js/images in /assets will be available in this server.

Beware: don't work with files in the /public folder, as these will be overwritten when the site is generated.

4: Generate

When all looks good, you can run:

calcify

This will create html files for the site in the /public folder. Point your production webserver (such as nginx) at this directory.

Make sure your production webserver renders index.html files as expected, i.e. /somepath refers to /somepath/index.html.

For convenience, You may like to run calcify as a Git post-receive hook in in your production environment.

That's it!

Full view syntax

Example content:

((route   "")
 (view    "layout")
 (title   "Some title")
 (parent  (/parent-link "Parent title"))
 (tags    (("link1" "tag1") ("link2" "tag2") ("link3" "tag3"))))

Tags

Attributes use the = form. Symbols and numbers are converted to strings. Children are concatenated with a space. Every other s-exp will use its first item as the tag name:

(br)
(div my div)
(a (= href /) (= class link) home)
(ul (li symbol) (li 1000) (li "some string"))

<br>
<div>my div</div>
<a href="/" class="link">home</a>
<ul><li>symbol</li> <li>1000</li> <li>some string</li></ul>

Notes:

• A tag s-exp must have children for its closing tag to be rendered. Just use a single empty string child for this purpose, i.e: (script (= src /script.js) "")
• Html5 is assumed, there are no self-closing tags
• Where all else fails, you can embed html as strings

References

;; (: property)
(: title) -> "Some title"
(: non-existent) -> ""

;; (: property k1 ... kn)
(: tags 0) -> "tag1"

List comprehensions

;; (-> (list value index) body)
(-> (tags tag i) (a (= href (: tag 0)) (: tag 1)))

<a href="link1">tag1</a> <a href="link2">tag2</a> <a href="link3">tag3</a>

Existence conditionals

These are not full conditionals - they only check for existence. If no 'else' supplied, a blank string is returned.

;; (? exists? then else)
(? parent (a (= href (: parent 0)) (: parent 1)))

<a href="/parent-link">Parent title</a>