Static-site success: Jekyll against the rest of the world
Dynamic is evil
It's not, really. But bear with me for a moment… WordPress is a wonderful but complex system that’s largely responsible for the blogging revolution of the past decade. Its security track record isn’t the best and you can like its code or not. The fact remains that it is software running on a public-facing server, installed and run by people who shouldn’t touch a server if their life depended on it. WordPress perpetuates this with their “famous 5-minute installation”. In an ideal world, they would recommend people without a clue to simply use their hosted solution, which is fine. But then, we don’t live in an ideal world. Imagine you’re publishing a new post on your site. How often does that content change? Is it really necessary to recreate the final HTML output you deliver to your users every single time someone accesses your site? Query the database, run it through the templating engine, run it through plugins, render HTML, deliver. That’s a lot of work. [pullquote]your static content should be generated statically, delivered to your visitors as is[/pullquote] Most likely, you won’t notice this immediately. But if your site suddenly becomes popular, chances are, it won’t scale very well. It could go down. Of course there’s options for you if you wish to stay dynamic and have that flexibility. You could use caching plugins or even full-fledged web accelerators like Varnish. To me, this is just throwing huge piles of code and applications at the problem. The problem is: your static content should be generated statically, delivered to your visitors as is. That’s dealing with the problem in the right way. Easy for me to say, right? There are downsides:- Statically generated pages usually offer no way of showing any sort of dynamic content.
- If you need comments on your site—a common request, though why you would want that is beyond me—you would have to resort to external providers like Disqus or other commenting platforms. There’s pros and cons to this, I’ll let you decide.
- If you want your visitors to be able to search, you need to implement it yourself on the client-side.
Externally, you could use Google Site Search.
What does Jekyll do?
Look, that’s my Terminal running Jekyll in serve mode. It launches a tiny web server and let’s me live preview all the changes in my site in my browsers of choice. Locally. This is actually quite amazing. The setup for a database-driven CMS solution is usually so cumbersome that most people will work with the live site on a server somewhere else in the world. Bad for you if you don’t have an Internet connection. And do you really want to write your content in a browser? Really? [pullquote]The setup for a database-driven CMS solution is usually so cumbersome that most people will work with the live site on a server somewhere[/pullquote] This setup is so easy that I can always work on a local machine and push my changes to my server. I let my server do the build (just like I could locally, but why not) and refresh what’s currently in my web root…automatically. Whenever an article is done, I just commit my changes via git. It’s actually really simple to set up. And it is oh so flexible. And safe! There’re hundreds of plugins to choose from to do fun stuff with your content during the build process. The end result will always be static pages — nothing to break into.What Jekyll doesn't do
With Jekyll, you start out with nothing. Nothing at all. It actually allows you to generate a very simple blog-ready site with jekyll new, but it’s just something to start from and learn the structure of how a Jekyll site can be built. You should really be interested in starting from scratch. If all you want to do is download a theme and start writing, you should probably go elsewhere. Try Medium, it’s a well-designed service with a great community, made for people who just want to write. Now you can even publish directly to Medium from the best editor in the world. If you think this sounds like loads of fun, go for it. You will not regret it.Serene
So now I'm sitting here with BBEdit and Ulysses, coding and writing. Which is really all I ever wanted. I do it in the environment I desire to be in. It frees me. I’m back to where it all began. I have a text editor and I fill it with words. When I’m done, I save the file and that’s it. I can preview to my heart’s content. And once happy, I will simply commit. You know you want it. Simplify. You don’t want a site that’s not really you. A site filled with social buttons and widgets and gadgets and analytics and tracking cookies and banner ads and pop-up ads and everything else that makes your visitors scream at you from afar. Generated anew every time someone visits your site. Every. Single. Time. Be that person in the middle of the room. Perfectly rooted, smiling contentedly. This article was originally posted at tobyx.com, republished with the author’s permission. Featured image, static website image via Shutterstock.Read Next
LimeWire Developer APIs Herald a New Era of AI Integration
Generative AI is a fascinating technology. Far from the design killer some people feared, it is an empowering and…
By WDD Staff
20 Best New Websites, March 2024
Welcome to our pick of sites for March. This month’s collection tends towards the simple and clean, which goes to show…
Exciting New Tools for Designers, March 2024
The fast-paced world of design never stops turning, and staying ahead of the curve is essential for creatives. As…
Web Tech Trends to Watch in 2024 and Beyond
It hardly seems possible given the radical transformations we’ve seen over the last few decades, but the web design…
By Louise North
6 Best AI Productivity Apps in 2024
There’s no escaping it: if you want to be successful, you need to be productive. The more you work, the more you…
By Simon Sterne
3 Essential Design Trends, February 2024
From atypical typefaces to neutral colors to unusual user patterns, there are plenty of new website design trends to…
Surviving the Leap from College to Real-World Design
So, you’ve finished college and are ready to showcase your design skills to the world. This is a pivotal moment that…
By Simon Sterne
20 Mind-Bending Illusions That Will Make You Question Reality
Mind-bending videos. Divisive Images. Eye-straining visuals. This list of optical illusions has it all. Join us as we…
By Max Walton
15 Best New Fonts, February 2024
Welcome to February’s roundup of the best new fonts for designers. This month’s compilation includes some innovative…
By Ben Moss
The 10 Best WordPress Quiz Plugins in 2024
Whether it’s boosting your organic search visibility or collecting data for targeted email marketing campaigns, a great…
By Robert Reeve
20 Best New Websites, February 2024
It’s almost Valentine’s Day, so this latest collection is a billet-doux celebrating the best of the web this month.
Everything You Need to Know About Image Formats In 2024
Always trying to walk the tightrope between image quality and file size? Looking to branch out from JPGs and PNGs this…
By Robert Reeve