Setting up a website - ERE style

Fixing and making things, what tools to get and what skills to learn, ...
loutfard
Posts: 326
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2023 6:14 pm

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by loutfard »

Have you looked at static site generators?

macg
Posts: 174
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:48 pm
Location: USA-FL

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by macg »

I'll have to think about some of this, so I'll only partially answer for now....

SFTP- I still find command line, batch files/ shell scripts to be the easiest. I'm not sure what OS you are using, but regardless you can find a command line version. And then you can just create some sort of batch or shell script that has the commands that you run every time to upload the files. You could either make it specific files, directory structures, whatever is easiest. I do this type of stuff for work or home, just for consistency. FileZilla is fine, but anytime I can automate something so I'm not using a GUI, I do...

Editor- I'm still in a bad head space on this topic lol. For the past five or so years I have used Atom, which was spectacular in my opinion. Unfortunately, Microsoft bought it, and basically discontinued it. Or at least, no more updates will be coming. So I've switched to VS code, which is good, but a lot more bloated than I want. Vim was mentioned, and that's fine, but it's very particular and not very intuitive in my opinion. It's very popular in the unix/linux "command-line mentality" groups, I just find it too cumbersome for me. If I find any editors out there that make me happy again lol, I'll be sure to let you know.


Splitting pages into separate sections- I think this is a good option for what you're talking about. I've recently had to learn the Python flask web framework, and we utilize this theory for some of our pages. For example, a separate HTML template that gets generated, one for the left section, one for the center panel, and one for the right filter bar.

macg
Posts: 174
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:48 pm
Location: USA-FL

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by macg »

jacob wrote:
Wed May 31, 2023 5:12 pm
Back in prehistoric times, awk and perl were popular choices for automagic line editing.
Aww I miss using Perl for scripting purposes, it was so good. Python's all the rage now, and it's great, don't get me wrong, but Perl was my jam :D

User avatar
mountainFrugal
Posts: 1125
Joined: Fri May 07, 2021 2:26 pm

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by mountainFrugal »

Static site generators generally take markdown based text files and convert them into html/css/structure. The content is relatively easy to maintain in this format. You can pick from various themes to organize your website. They also have communities behind them that can help with features like auto-resizing for mobile/desktop or updating vulnerabilities. This is a happy medium between hard coding everything, keeping your content in a format that is easy to move, and having some simple features (or complex if you want).
https://getpelican.com/ - python based
https://gohugo.io/ - least new-user friendly
https://jekyllrb.com/ - github pages runs off this
https://quarto.org/docs/websites/ - a more language agnostic way to make websites, docs, presentations...

luxagraf
Posts: 215
Joined: Tue Nov 26, 2013 4:32 pm
Contact:

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by luxagraf »

FWIW, as someone who has been hosting their own site for 20 years now, I do what Jacob linked to at the beginning of this thread, flat HTML files served by Nginx. Super simple. Can be hosted just about anywhere (I've used AWS servers, and just about every VPS provider listed on LowEndTalk.com). That was as low tech a solution as I could come up with then or now.

The catch I have is that I generate those files using a CMS I wrote myself about 10 years ago, but I designed it so I could run it locally if I wanted and then just scp the files to the server. If I did that, I'd lose the ability for people to comment, but that's about it. My CMS also outputs everything as .txt files as a kind of back up.

I like Sivers approach to some stuff there. I use NextCloud for self-hosted calendars, file, sync, and notes. But Nextcloud is probably overkill for what I am doing, I might have to experiment with some more low-tech methods.

tylerrr
Posts: 679
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 3:32 am
Location: Boston

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by tylerrr »

@loutfard, I have , yes....they are "ok".

@macg, yes, let me know if you find good minimalist editor.
Like , how can we do a quick spell check, but also make sure our HTML tags are good to go?
I hate how bloated VS Code is....
I'm seriously thinking of just using BBedit or Notepad.
I love the idea of using a simple command line script to execute my ftp uploads each time i make a new page or change pages.
I don't like having to look for all the files I changed and the "click" to upload them with Filezilla and not forget some of the pages.

I have a MAC OS.

@mountainFrugal, I will look.

@luxagraf, I'm a huge Sivers fan and think a lot like him.
I currently use Siteground for my hosting.
Your Nginx might be better.

User avatar
Slevin
Posts: 626
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2015 7:44 pm
Location: Sonoma County

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by Slevin »

@tylerrr, it does sound like you want notepad++ or sublime. No hate, they are good minimalist (less bloated) editors.

loutfard
Posts: 326
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2023 6:14 pm

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by loutfard »

On an ssh accessible server, you could do direct edits using vim. I guess sublime text editor could also do that.

Scott 2
Posts: 2824
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by Scott 2 »

Add a vote for Notepad++

Though, coming from Visual Studio Enterprise, seeing VS Code lambasted as bloated cracks me up. It was the minimalist solution!

macg
Posts: 174
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:48 pm
Location: USA-FL

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by macg »

Scott 2 wrote:
Fri Jun 02, 2023 5:30 am
Add a vote for Notepad++

Though, coming from Visual Studio Enterprise, seeing VS Code lambasted as bloated cracks me up. It was the minimalist solution!
Ha! Well, it's all a matter of perspective I guess lol.. Coming from VS Enterprise, VS Code definitely seems minimalist. Coming from something like Atom, VS Code seems bloated :lol:

I know many people who use notepad++ and think it's great. I tried it very early in my career and it did not have what I needed, but that was many (many many) years ago, and have not tried it since.

tylerrr
Posts: 679
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 3:32 am
Location: Boston

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by tylerrr »

Nice! I'll give Notepad++ a try!

Do any of you use BBEdit?

User avatar
Ego
Posts: 6359
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:42 am

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by Ego »

mountainFrugal wrote:
Mon Jan 09, 2023 7:33 pm
Google now has free basic hosting with some fairly slick and very simply drag and drop designs if you buy a domain through them: https://domains.google/
I own several domains that I use for email with no website. Emails point to Protonmail. I host them with Google Domains and now need to transfer them somewhere new as Google recently sold Google Domains to Squarespace.

Priorities are
1) the host will be around forever so I will not need to transfer this again soon.
2) it will just work without much effort
3) cost

Thoughts on hosts?

ducknald_don
Posts: 321
Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2020 12:31 pm
Location: Oxford, UK

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by ducknald_don »

Another vote for using a static site generator. They will merge your content with a template for the headers and footers which avoids duplication and makes updates easier. I've been using Jekyll for years but there are a ton of others out there. I'll use rsync rather than scp or sftp to upload as I have a fairly large site and only want to upload changed files rather than the whole thing.

For hosting I use Linode and have used Digital Ocean in the past. There isn't much to choose between the two but you do need the be able to find your way around the command line on Linux for both.

jacob
Site Admin
Posts: 15906
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:38 pm
Location: USA, Zone 5b, Koppen Dfa, Elev. 620ft, Walkscore 77
Contact:

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by jacob »

Ego wrote:
Sun Oct 22, 2023 5:12 am
1) the host will be around forever so I will not need to transfer this again soon.
Being the internet, nothing is forever, so I suggest prioritizing "making it easy to leave" over "making it easy to set up" or other concerns.

Scott 2
Posts: 2824
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by Scott 2 »

Ego wrote:
Sun Oct 22, 2023 5:12 am
I own several domains that I use for email with no website. Emails point to Protonmail.
Do you need web hosting, if you are only using the domains for email? IIRC your domain registrar typically manages the DNS records, which would direct to your email:

https://proton.me/support/custom-domain

I'm using a domain registrar I picked almost 25 years ago. Absent sign up bonuses, prices are similar across the board.

In other words, I'd probably just give square space the $20 a year for domain registration. Millions of small business rely upon them.

The cloudflare registrar is cheaper, but only by $10/yr. They're often used by corporations and probably not going anywhere:

https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/

Transferring a domain between registrars is annoying. Eventually cloudflare will probably raise to market prices anyways.

delay
Posts: 182
Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2022 9:21 am
Location: Netherlands, EU

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by delay »

Scott 2 wrote:
Sun Oct 22, 2023 7:58 am
IIRC your domain registrar typically manages the DNS records
It's quite common that a hosting company has DNS servers but a domain registrar does not. Such a registrar registers any third party name servers with the domain authority.

For example if you host mysite.com at Linode, you'd tell your registrar about Linode's DNS server, ns1.linode.com. The registrar will ask Verisign (who administer the .com top level domain) to point mysite.com at ns1.linode.com.

User avatar
Ego
Posts: 6359
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:42 am

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by Ego »

jacob wrote:
Sun Oct 22, 2023 7:03 am
Being the internet, nothing is forever, so I suggest prioritizing "making it easy to leave" over "making it easy to set up" or other concerns.
Yeah, I figured Google had the best chance of being around for a long time. I didn't expect them to offload their domain business. Oh well.
Scott 2 wrote:
Sun Oct 22, 2023 7:58 am
I'm using a domain registrar I picked almost 25 years ago. Absent sign up bonuses, prices are similar across the board.

In other words, I'd probably just give square space the $20 a year for domain registration. Millions of small business rely upon them.
Yes, just email. For some reason, I assumed they would be much more expensive. My hope is the transition goes smoothly and I do not have to setup anything at all. If that's the case, I would be glad to pay $20 a year.

Scott 2
Posts: 2824
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by Scott 2 »

If they do get greedy with the renewal fee, transferring your domain to a new registar takes a couple days on the high end. It can be as fast as a few hours.

My guess is they'll upsell some features you can decline, but have reasonable pricing for the domain. They know it's easy to leave. Looking at the size of the acquisition (180MM), I'd expect it to be seamless.

User avatar
mountainFrugal
Posts: 1125
Joined: Fri May 07, 2021 2:26 pm

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by mountainFrugal »

I am in the same boat @ego. Trying to decide. Google sites was slick for buying a domain and just getting something up there. I hate the up-selling that squarespace does, but I might just park there for the time being and see with the few sites I got through google sites. I had already renewed with google so we shall see. I have a number of static sites as well, but the mobile ready quick updates of the google site was perfect for an image heavy website.

User avatar
mountainFrugal
Posts: 1125
Joined: Fri May 07, 2021 2:26 pm

Re: Setting up a website - ERE style

Post by mountainFrugal »

worth a look through for some inspiration: https://1mb.club/

Will an EREr' move up to the top ranks? ;)

Post Reply