# Almoststatic
**Almoststatic** is a static sites and web pages generator engine written in
[Python](https://python.org) which uses the
[Jinja2 template system](https://jinja.palletsprojects.com) to render pages.
It can be integrated with [Flask](https://flask.palletsprojects.com) apps to
serve static contents on dynamic sites or used only for static sites development.
Pages are declared in [yaml](https://yaml.org/) files and rendered with Jinja2
template files, the html contents can be written in [markdown](https://www.markdownguide.org/)
markup language or in plain html. "content" folder contains all data needed to
do the job, the "config.yaml" is used to share global parameters and to setup
configuration.
It is roughly inspired by [hugo](https://gohugo.io/) static site generator,
but it differs in many ways.
# Why Almoststatic?
There are many static site generators such as [Next.js](https://nextjs.org/),
[Hugo](https://gohugo.io/) or [Jekyll](https://jekyllrb.com/), but you can
prefer Almostatic because:
- **It's perfect for pythonist.** It uses Jinja2 and Flask which are widely
used by python community, so you don\'t need to learn other programming
languages or template engines.
- **It's easy!** In fact the rules are very few and this mean few things to
learn and great flexibility.
- **It's versatile.** It's engine has a powerful recursive system for embedding
and including contents. This helps you to build rich contents and also to
split them in small pieces called *"widgets"* easier to maintain.
- **It has blog capabilities.** Contain functions used to query metadata info
useful to organize blog pages by categories and tags.
- **You can deliver static and dynamic contents at same time.** With Flask you
can build your dynamic content and let Almoststatic to render the rest of
page or the whole page, if it is full static.
- **Write static sites.** Static sites are composed only by text files and media
contents. They are easy to deliver on the web, are secure by design, require
less maintenance and resources and are faster. If you have no need for dynamic
contents, with **Almoststatic** you can write all pages as static.
- **Not only for pythonists.** Basic knowledge of python is needed, but once
your developer environment is ready, Almoststatic lets you to focus on
writing yaml and karkdown\'s contents and to create your own widgets in html
and Jinja2.
# Quick start
The simplest way to see if **Almoststatic** is what you're looking for, is to
try the sample provided with source code package and explore the source code.
The following tutorial is tested on Linux Ubuntu, but it's easy to port on
other platforms such other Linux distros, Windows or Mac.
You need git and python3, install them with:
```bash
$ sudo apt install git python3
```
Last linux's releases comes with python3 already installed and you have only to
check if your version is 3.6 or higher:
```bash
$ python3 --version
```
Now clone Almoststatic with git and enter into the directory:
```bash
$ git clone https://gitlab.com/claudio.driussi/almoststatic.git
$ cd almoststatic
```
It's common in python using virtualenv for development, to do so and to install
Almoststatic, write:
```bash
$ python3 -m venv myvenv
$ source myvenv/bin/activate
$ pip install almoststatic
$ pip install pyftpsync
```
Done! Now you can try the sample, cd into sample directory and run flaskapp.py:
```bash
$ cd sample/
$ python flaskapp.py
```
A local host Flask App instance server is executed and you can test
Almoststatic features.
Open your browser and copy and paste the following URL: `http://127.0.0.1:5000/`
or `localhost:5000`
You will be redirected to the static site showing some widgets and feature
of Almostatic, you can navigate to see some examples.
You can always exit from server pressing CTRL-C on your terminal.
To build static site run:
```bash
$ python write_static.py
$ ls -l ../_static_site/
```
As you can see, your pages are written as *.html files, but this is not enough
to get a really static site, to do this you have to tune writing parameters and
copy media files on appropriate location. When you are done the site can be
published as static site.
If you wish, you can run tests:
```bash
$ cd ../test
$ python as_test.py
```
This do some tests and write a simpler static site.
Now if you decide that **Almoststatic** is right for you, you can dig into
source code of sample and tests and read the documentation at:
[https://almoststatic.readthedocs.io](https://almoststatic.readthedocs.io)
# Status of project
Almoststatic is in beta but it is almost ready to become stable. It should
produce right results, but it need some further tests before become stable.
Almoststatic is a young project, so at the moment there are no themes ready to
use but we are developing a theme with some beautiful widgets ready to production.
See [Fullstep theme](https://gitlab.com/almoststatic-themes/fullstep) and
follow the tutorial.
# Donate
If you appreciate Almoststatic, you can make a donation via PayPal
[![paypal](https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif)](https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=JYJ6EMFY7YWJQ)