nabu

Danger! This code isn't even alpha

Nabu {version}

Nabu is an simple, node.js powered, static site generator heavily inspired by Jekyll.

The goals of this tool are:

• To make the technical distance between your content and templates as small and transparent as possible
• To be completely modular, with each module doing as small and specific a task as possible
• To provide a testing ground to explore the ideas and principles of a true next generation of CMSs

Understanding the different pieces of nabu and how it all works together

A website built with nabu is a result of a lot of small pieces working together. If you're new to nabu, it's hard to build a big picture view of all that's going on. Hopefully this will help!

• The nabu-cli is a simple tool that loads the locally installed (ie: the current folder) version of nabu. Apart from telling nabu what to do, it also gives you tools to easily create a new nabu site
• nabu is the core library. It's responsible for loading files, reading the config, setting up nabu plugins into the render pipeline and providing methods that most plugins will use
• Nabu plugins are tiny encapsulated pieces of code that interpret and transform content (think: blog, calendar, pagination, categories, etc). You specify the plugins your site needs in the nabu _config.json file. nabu runs through this list in serial, each plugin building off the work of the previous. Plugins are installed using npm. See the Plugins section for more detail
• The _config.json ...
• Files & folderd prefixed with _, like the aforementioned _config.json, are files specifically for nabu to reference or transform during site generation. For example, _posts contain markdown files consumed by the nabu-blog. You may already be familiar with this pattern from Jekyll.

Making your first site with nabu

Installation

To use nabu, you first need the nabu-cli module globally installed:

npm install -g nabu-cli

Initializing your site's project folder

After the cli is installed, it's time to create the foundation your site will be built on top of:

mkdir my-blog && cd my-blog
nabu init

The init command will

• Ask you a couple questions about how you would like your site setup
• Generate your site file structure, including your package.json and _config.json
• Install any default packages from npm
• Initialize a git repo and make your first commit
• Generate the site, start up a local web server and open a browser showing you the default state of affairs

Nabu Plugins