staticjinjaplus

staticjinjaplus

A sweet spot between staticjinja and a full-blown static site generator.

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Citing staticjinja's documentation, "most static site generators are cumbersome to use". While I fully agree, and while I find staticjinja to be an awesome piece of software, there's still some gaps here and there that needs to be filled in order to be able to generate a static website that will actually be ready for real world usage.

staticjinjaplus try to fill these gaps, while still being built on staticjinja and its philosophy: keep it simple, stupid. Note staticjinjaplus is opinionated: choices have been made to cover some use cases, but not all. This is not your average static site generator.

Features

All of staticjinja's features, plus:

• Simple, file-based configuration to centralize a handful of configuration values
• Generic Markdown support (not your usual "pages" or "articles/blog posts" feature)
• Build improvements
  • Automatically copy static files to output directory
  • Define Jinja and staticjinja initialization parameters in a config file
  • Define webassets bundles to allow CSS/JS concatenation/minification
  • Automatically minify XML (including HTML, RSS and Atom)/JSON output
• Jinja improvements
  • A few new Jinja globals/filters to make your life easier
  • Autoescape is enabled for XML, HTML, RSS and Atom templates
• Serve the generated site through a local HTTP server
  • URL rewrite emulation (for HTML files)
  • Custom HTTP error pages emulation
  • IPv6 loopback address support
  • Serve proper MIME type for RSS and Atom files
• Publish the generated site through rsync over SSH

Planned:

• Rebuild site on assets/static files change
• Generic i18n and l10n support (powered by Babel)

Prerequisites

• Python >= 3.10

Installation

From PyPI:

$ pip install staticjinjaplus

Locally, after cloning/downloading the repo:

$ pip install .

A CLI (staticjinjaplus) will be made available upon installation.

Usage

Templates

You'll want to write your site's Jinja templates first: write them as usual. By default, staticjinjaplus searches for Jinja templates in the templates directory where it is invoked. You can change that by using the TEMPLATES_DIR configuration value.

Remember staticjinjaplus still stick with staticjinja's idiom: one Jinja template equal one rendered file, nothing more, nothing less.

[!WARNING] HTML templates which extension is not .html will not be properly handled by staticjinjaplus for the sake of simplicity. Please use .html only.

staticjinjaplus offers the following additional Jinja facilities.

Globals

Name/signature	Type	Description
config	Dict[str, Any]	Configuration values loaded from config.py (defaults are guaranteed to be provided for built-in values). Only uppercase variables are loaded by staticjinjaplus
absurl(resource: str) -> str	Callable	Build an absolute URL relative to a file located in the OUTPUT_DIR directory. The resource path is prefixed by BASE_URL (see configuration values)
embed(filename: str) -> markupsafe.Markup	Callable	Return the file content of the given file, marked as safe to be rendered by Jinja. filename is relative to the {ASSETS_DIR} directory. Useful to e.g embed SVG icons directly in the generated HTML
collected	List[Dict[str, Any]]	List of all valid template files (as seen by staticjinja) found in the TEMPLATES_DIR directory. Dictionary include source filename, rendered template URL, file extension, and for Markdown (.md) files their parsed metadata.

Usage examples:

{{ config.BASE_URL }}         {# http://localhost:8080/ (by default) #}
{{ config.MY_CUSTOM_CONFIG }} {# Whatever you defined in your config.py (uppercase variables only) #}

{# absurl() doesn't care whether an extension is given or not #}
{{ absurl('/about.html') }} {# http://localhost:8080/about.html #}
{{ absurl('/about') }}      {# http://localhost:8080/about #}
{{ absurl('about') }}       {# http://localhost:8080/about #}

{# absurl() doesn't care about whether a static file is targeted or not #}
{{ absurl('/images/logo.png') }} {# http://localhost:8080/images/logo.png #}
{{ absurl('images/logo.png') }}  {# http://localhost:8080/images/logo.png #}

{{ embed('icons/github.svg') }} {# <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" ... </svg> #}

{{ collected }}
{#
    [
      {'source': 'index.html', 'type': 'html', url': '/'},
      {'source': 'site/about.html', 'type': 'html', 'url': '/site/about.html'},
      {'source': 'categories/index.html', 'type': 'html', 'url': '/categories/'},
      {'source': 'woah.md', 'type': 'md', 'url': '/woah.html', 'meta': { ... }},
      {'source': 'index.md', 'type': 'md', 'url': '/', 'meta': { ... }},
      {'source': 'blog/an-article.md', 'type': 'md', 'url': '/blog/an-article.html', 'meta': { ... }},
      {'source': 'blog/index.md', 'type': 'md', 'url': '/blog/', 'meta': { ... }}
    ]
#}

Filters

Signature	Description
<data: Dict>|tojsonm -> markupsafe.Markup	Serialize the given dictionary to a JSON string. Automatically takes into account the MINIFY_JSON configuration value to minify (or not) the resulting output. Useful for e.g serializing Schema.org's JSON-LD-formatted data
<left: Dict>|dictmerge(right: Dict) -> Dict	Merge two dictionaries. Does not modify existing ones, a new one will be created. Does not merge deeply

Usage examples:

{{ dict(yes=True)|tojsonm }} {# With config['MINIFY_JSON'] == False:
                                 {
                                     "yes": true
                                 }
                             #}

{{ dict(yes=True)|tojsonm }} {# With config['MINIFY_JSON'] == True:
                                 {"yes":true}
                             #}

{{ dict(yes=True)|dictmerge(dict(no=False)) }} {# {"yes": True, "no": False} #}

Markdown

[!WARNING] Markdown templates which extension is not .md will not be properly handled by staticjinjaplus for the sake of simplicity. Please use .md only.

staticjinjaplus has generic support for working with Markdown-formatted files. Write your Markdown files (.md) as usual in the TEMPLATES_DIR directory: they will be rendered to HTML using the appropriate template partial, and saved using the source root pathname to the OUTPUT_DIR directory; i.e. {TEMPLATES_DIR}/blog/awesome.md will be rendered to {OUTPUT_DIR}/blog/awesome.html.

staticjinjaplus do read metadata fields of Markdown files. Supported syntax is documented here. The only reserved metadata field is partial, which tells staticjinjaplus which template partial (relative to the TEMPLATES_DIR directory) to use when rendering the Markdown file. See example below.

It fallbacks to the MARKDOWN_DEFAULT_PARTIAL configuration value if the field was not found. An error will be logged if staticjinjaplus can't determine which template partial to use, and rendering of the Markdown file will be canceled.

This template partial will be given a Markdown-specific variable named markdown containing a dictionary which keys and values are detailed below.

Name	Type	Description
markdown.converted	markupsafe.Markup	The resulting HTML, marked as safe to be rendered by Jinja. Metadata are of course not included in this output
markdown.source	str	The Markdown template filename
markdown.url	str	The rendered Markdown template URL
markdown.meta	Dict[str, str]	Metadata parsed from the source Markdown file. Multiline values have been concatenated using \n without extra spaces

Internal URLs must be written using the rendered version of the templates/assets/static files, i.e. URLs relative to what will be rendered in the OUTPUT_DIR directory. staticjinjaplus will not rewrite any URLs in any manner: you must provide the right ones by yourself. See example below.

See also the collected Jinja global which contain - among others - all Markdown files found in the TEMPLATES_DIR directory (as seen by staticjinja) along their parsed metadata, and more.

Example Markdown file:

partial: blog/_post.html

My awesome blog post. It has internal [links](/blog/my-article.html), and one image:

![](/images/attachment.png)

This image may come from the `STATIC_DIR` directory.

Command line interface

The staticjinjaplus CLI is your main and only way to interact with staticjinjaplus. The following commands are available.

staticjinjaplus build

Build the site by rendering your templates from the TEMPLATES_DIR directory in the OUTPUT_DIR directory.

Options:

• -w, --watch Automatically rebuild the site when templates are modified. This option does not watch for assets or static files changes (yet?)

It will then copy the tree contained in the STATIC_DIR directory in the OUTPUT_DIR, as-is.

staticjinja will be then initialized with the given CONTEXTS and Jinja's JINJA_GLOBALS/JINJA_FILTERS/JINJA_EXTENSIONS, webassets bundles (WEBASSETS_BUNDLES) will be registered, and the actual rendering process is started.

.html, .xml, .rss, .atom and .json template output will be automatically minified, according to the MINIFY_XML and MINIFY_JSON configuration values. .md files will be converted to HTML and rendered using the appropriate template partial, which output will be automatically minified as well if configured so.

staticjinjaplus clean

Delete and recreate the OUTPUT_DIR directory.

staticjinjaplus publish

[!NOTE] This feature requires a Linux-like environment.

Apply configuration values override from environment variables, then successively run staticjinjaplus clean and staticjinjaplus build prior remotely syncing the OUTPUT_DIR directory content using rsync through SSH.

staticjinjaplus serve

Serve the OUTPUT_DIR directory using Python's built-in HTTP server, plus a couple improvements:

• URL rewrite for HTML files is emulated, i.e. both /about.html and /about will work
• Custom HTTP error pages are emulated, if they are found saved as {status code}.html in the output directory
• The server will listen to both IPv4 and IPv6 loopback addresses if possible
• RSS and Atom files will be served using the appropriate MIME type in the Content-Type response header

By default, you can browse your generated site at http://localhost:8080/ or http://[::1]:8080/. Port can be changed by defining the SERVE_PORT configuration value.

Configuration

config.py

Your project's configuration happens in a single config.py file in the root directory (where the staticjinjaplus CLI should be executed). You'll find the available configuration values below.

[!NOTE]

• All paths are relative to the root directory, unless otherwise stated.
• None of these configuration values are required, so is config.py.
• Only uppercase variables are loaded by staticjinjaplus.

Name	Type	Default	Description
SERVE_PORT	int	8080	Listening port of the HTTP server started by staticjinjaplus serve
BASE_URL	str	http://localhost:{SERVE_PORT}/	Protocol and domain name to use to generate meaningful absolute URLs. Set host part to [::1] if you plan to use IPv6
MINIFY_XML	bool	False	Enable XML minification
MINIFY_JSON	bool	False	Enable JSON minification
TEMPLATES_DIR	str	templates	Directory containing the Jinja templates to be processed
OUTPUT_DIR	str	output	Directory where the rendered site will be saved
STATIC_DIR	str	static	Directory containing static files
ASSETS_DIR	str	assets	Directory containing assets, i.e. files that needs prior processing before being able to be used by the rendered site
CONTEXTS	List[Tuple[str, Union[Dict[str, Any], Callable]]]	[]	staticjinja contexts to be used by templates
WEBASSETS_BUNDLES	List[Tuple[str, Tuple[str,...], Dict[str, str]]	[]	webassets bundles to be registered. These are passed to register(). Sources are relative to ASSETS_DIR, destinations to OUTPUT_DIR
JINJA_GLOBALS	Dict[str, Any]	{}	jinja globals to be made available in all templates
JINJA_FILTERS	Dict[str, Callable]	{}	jinja filters to be made available in all templates
JINJA_EXTENSIONS	List[Union[str, jinja2.ext.Extension]]	[]	jinja extensions to load
MARKDOWN_EXTENSIONS	Dict[str, Dict]	{}	Markdown extensions to load and their respective configuration. Keys are passed to extensions; the entire dictionary is passed to extension_configs
MARKDOWN_DEFAULT_PARTIAL	Optional[str]	None	Default template partial to use when rendering Markdown files when the partial metadata is not present
USE_HTML_EXTENSION	bool	True	If your site's links are using URLs without .html extension (URL rewrite), you must set this config value to False. This config value does not alter the behavior of absurl() in any way

Environment variables

Some configuration values may/must be overridden by environment variables of the same name when publishing your site (staticjinjaplus publish command), typically in a deployment environment. You'll find the list below.

Name	Type	Required?	Default	Description
BASE_URL	str	Yes		Protocol and domain name to use to generate meaningful absolute URLs
MINIFY_XML	bool ¹	No, but activation recommended	MINIFY_XML configuration value	Enable XML minification
MINIFY_JSON	bool ¹	No, but activation recommended	MINIFY_JSON configuration value	Enable JSON minification
SSH_USER	str	Yes		SSH username
SSH_HOST	str	Yes		SSH hostname
SSH_PORT	int	No	22	SSH port
SSH_PATH	str	Yes		Absolute path to the deployment directory on the SSH host

¹ Any falsy or truthy string representation of boolean values allowed by marshmallow

Development

Getting source code and installing the package with dev dependencies

1. Clone the repository
2. From the root directory, run: pip install -e .[dev] on Linux or pip install -e ".[dev]" on Windows

Releasing the package

From the root directory, run python setup.py upload. This will build the package, create a git tag and publish on PyPI.

__version__ in staticjinjaplus/__version__.py must be updated beforehand. It should adhere to Semantic Versioning.

An associated GitHub release must be created following the Keep a Changelog format.