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https://github.com/benschwarz/bonsai

A tiny static web site generator
https://github.com/benschwarz/bonsai

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A tiny static web site generator

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# bonsai



![Build status](https://secure.travis-ci.org/benschwarz/bonsai.png?branch=master "Build status")



Bonsai is a static web site generator, it uses the best tools available for site construction and adheres to best web practices.



## What it does



  * Provides a tiny HTML5, [liquid](http://liquidmarkup.org/) driven template set.

  * Implies a simple structure to get started faster.

  * An inbuilt server for development. No setup required.

  * Tasks to export the site to `output`. Upload the contents of `output`. Job done.

  * Access to page hierarchy through `children`, `siblings`, `ancestors` and `navigation`.

  * Generates `sitemap.xml` ready for search engines to spider your site.

  * Generates `robots.txt` to be friendly to search engines.  

  

## Getting started



  * Install bonsai 



    `gem install bonsai`



  * Run the generator



    `bonsai --plant [NAME]`



Type `bonsai --help` for any help with commands



## Presentation



* Introducing Bonsai - at Melbourne Ruby, January 2010



  * [Video](http://vimeo.com/9537550) (with slides)

  * [Slides](http://www.slideshare.net/benschwarz/introducing-bonsai)



## Development server



Unlike other static generators, bonsai provides you with a built in web server. Once you've generated the necessary files (generator included) you can simply start developing. Type `bonsai --cultivate` in the root of the generated site, a web server (rack, with thin) will start up. 



It will also watch for when you save files - taking care of processing your [sass](http://sass-lang.com/) files - kind of like [autotest](http://www.zenspider.com/ZSS/Products/ZenTest/).



## Production server



This is the cool part. Drop a bonsai generated site under pretty much anything. Apache, Nginx, Lighttpd - I don't care.



The generator will provide you with a .htaccess file that will turn on gzip/deflate compression for static assets as well as set long standing http caching timestamps and etags.



### Deployment

  * Run `bonsai --repot`

  * Upload the contents of `site-root/output` to your production server

    * For example: `rsync -ave ssh ./output/ tinytree.info:/var/www/tinytree.info`

    

## Ruby implementations



Bonsai runs under a number of Ruby implementations, MRI (1.8.7, 1.9.1, 1.9.2, 1.9.3), RBX (1.8 mode), JRuby (1.8 mode, 1.9 mode). Check [travis](http://travis-ci.org/#!/benschwarz/bonsai) to see the specifics. 



## Have you used this for a real job? 



Yes. I built (and content filled) a web site with around 160 pages in 5 days.



When I found something that didn't quite work, was too slow or perhaps not even possible I wrote a spec and implemented it later. Better software from real requirements. (I used every feature I implemented)



## Links



  * [Tilt](http://github.com/rtomayko/tilt)

  * [SASS](http://sass-lang.com/)

  * [YUI CSS/Javascript compressor](http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/compressor/)



## Thanks

  

  * [Anthony Kolber](http://github.com/kolber) for writing, then rewriting [Stacey](http://github.com/kolber/stacey) from scratch. We spent many hours talking about best practice and software UX.

  * [Lincoln Stoll](http://github.com/lstoll) for reminding me to use the tools that I know best

  

## Credits

  * [Rohit Arondekar](http://github.com/rohit)

  * [Justin Ridgewell](git://github.com/somedumbme91)

  * [Ralph von der Heyden](http://github.com/ralph)

  * [David Goodlad](http://github.com/dgoodlad)

  * [Philip Harrison](http://github.com/Harrison)



## Note on Patches/Pull Requests

 

* Fork the project.

* Make your feature addition or bug fix.

* Add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a

  future version unintentionally.

* Commit, do not mess with rakefile, version, or history.

  (if you want to have your own version, that is fine but bump version in a commit by itself I can ignore when I pull)

* Send me a pull request. Bonus points for topic branches.  



## Copyright



Copyright (c) 2010 Ben Schwarz. See LICENSE for details.