pagd

Overview

Static web site generator, based on well understood MVC_ - Model, View,
Controller - design philosophy. The general idea behind MVC from web
application’s perspective is

… code-block:: text

                                  +--------+
                                  |template|
                                  +--------+
                                      |
                                      V   
       +-------+   +----------+    +------+    +-----+
       |request|-->|controller|--->|action|<---|model|
       +-------+   +----------+    +------+    +-----+
                                      |
                                      V
                                 +---------+
                                 |HTML page|
                                 +---------+
                                      |
                                      V
            goes to the client  +-------------+
          <---------------------|http-response|
                                +-------------+

The general idea being that,

• http request reaches web-application’s controller logic.
• controller resolves request to web-action by parsing request-URL.
• the action-logic gathers necessary context information from database models
  and other sources.
• a html-template is identified, and the final HTML page is generated using
  context information from models and page-layout from one or more template
  files.

pagd follows, more or less, a similar principle to build a web-site from a
collection of files organised as a directory tree. Here is a brief idea on how
it is done

… code-block:: text

   +------+    +---------+      +-------------+
   |layout|--->|generator|<---->|page-iterator| 
   +------+    +---------+      +-------------+
                    |                  ^
                    |                  |          +------------+
                    V                  +<---------|page-context|
               +---------+             |          +------------+
               |Html-page|             |       
               +---------+             |          +-------------+
                    |                  +<---------|page-template|
                    |                  |          +-------------+
                    V            +------------+
               +--------+        |page-content|
               |web-site|        +------------+
               +--------+      

Features

• generates static output, hence can be hosted anywhere.

• pluggable layouts.

  • I am currently using pagd.myblog layout for publishing my blog articles.
  • It is possible to create any number of layout either as part of pagd
    tool or as separate package.
  • although layouts are encouraged to follow the Model-View-Controller
    concept explained above, it is up to the layout-plugin to define a structure
    and meaning of layout’s source directory-tree.

• everything that needs to get done by pagd is done through pagd command
  line interface.

• command line interface comes with simple sub-commands like,

  • create, to create a new layout.
  • gen, to generate static web site from a source layout.

• sub-commands are plugins and can be extended by implementing
  pagd.interfaces.ICommand interface.

• to use pagd as python library, refer to script.py module under pagd
  package.

• web-site templates can be designed using tayra template_.

  • experimental feature is available for mako and jinja2. If you face problems
    with these templates, kindly let me know.

• reStructuredText directives,

  • code syntax highlighting.
  • play youtube video within page content.
  • display collection of images as gallery, uses magnific-popup_ jquery
    plugin. Magnific-popop is a well documented jquery plugin, it is possible
    to change its CSS file and/or pagd template script to customize it in
    many ways.
  • to embed github gist, entire gist or individual file in a gist.

• pagd.myblog layout is loaded with batteries.

  • write blog articles in reStructured text, markdown, plain-text, html or
    even as tayra-templates.
  • template your site using tayra templates.
  • configure site generation using JSON file.
  • add context to individual pages are all pages under a sub-directory
    through one or more JSON files.
  • use google-webfonts_ by configuring CSS links using config.json attribute
    google_webfonts.
  • integration with disqus commenting system. Comments will be stored in
    disqus’ server.
  • integration with git, mercurial repository to gather file’s meta-data like
    page’s author, email, created-time, last-modified-time etc…, this is
    entirely optional.
  • social sharing with twitter, facebook, hackernews, google+, reddit,
    linkedin etc…
  • includes jquery, template can be customized with jquery plugins.
  • learn more - pagd.myblog_.

• only part that cannot be configured, customized or entirely replaced, is
  the name of the tool 😉

• License: GPLv3 license_

• Requires: Linux/OS-X, Python-3.x, Pluggdapps.

  • To interpret markdown text, python-markdown_ needs to be installed.
  • To interpret rst text, docutils_ needs to be installed.
  • To interpret raw-html, python-lxml_ needs to be installed.
  • If you need source code highlighting in your rst text, pygments_ and
    docutils_ needs to be installed.
  • To template with jinja2 or mako corresponding packages need to be
    installed.

• Status: Core design stable. Not expected to change.

Refer to glossary_ and documentation for default layout pagd.myblog_.

Related links

• package documentation_.
• changelog_.
• todo_.
• mailing-list_ - if you have any problem just ask !!

pagd is under development - you can hack the code, contribute back with
github <https://github.com/prataprc/pagd>_. Note that the original
repository is maintained with mercurial and uses hg-git plugin to publish it
on github.

… _MVC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller
… _GPLv3 license: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/
… _python-markdown: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/Markdown
… _docutils: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/docutils
… _pygments: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pygments
… _python-lxml: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/lxml
… _google-webfonts: http://www.google.com/fonts
… _magnific-popup: https://github.com/dimsemenov/Magnific-Popup

… _tayra template: http://pythonhosted.org/tayra
… _pagd.myblog: http://pythonhosted.org/pagd/myblog.html
… _glossary: http://pythonhosted.org/pagd/glossary.html
… _package documentation: http://pythonhosted.org/pagd
… _changelog: http://pythonhosted.org/pagd/CHANGELOG.html
… _todo: http://pythonhosted.org/pagd/TODO.html
… _mailing-list: http://groups.google.com/group/pluggdapps