rib-0.8.0.0: README.md
# rib
[](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_License)
[](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/rib)
[](https://builtwithnix.org)
[](https://funprog.zulipchat.com/#narrow/stream/218047-Rib)
Rib is a Haskell **static site generator** that aims to reuse existing libraries instead of reinventing the wheel.
How does it compare to the popular static site generator Hakyll?
- Uses the [Shake](https://shakebuild.com/) build system at its core.
- Write HTML ([Lucid](https://chrisdone.com/posts/lucid2/)) & CSS ([Clay](http://fvisser.nl/clay/)) in Haskell.
- Built-in support for [Pandoc](https://pandoc.org/) and [MMark](https://github.com/mmark-md/mmark).
- Remain as simple as possible to use (see example below)
- Nix-based environment for reproducibility
- `ghcid` and fsnotify for "hot reload"
Rib prioritizes the use of *existing* tools over reinventing them, and enables
the user to compose them as they wish instead of having to write code to fit a
custom framework.
**Table of Contents**
- [Quick Preview](#quick-preview)
- [Getting Started](#getting-started)
- [Concepts](#concepts)
- [Directory structure](#directory-structure)
- [Run the site](#run-the-site)
- [How Rib works](#how-rib-works)
- [Editing workflow](#editing-workflow)
- [What's next?](#whats-next)
- [Examples](#examples)
## Quick Preview
Here is how your code may look like if you were to generate your static site
using Rib:
```haskell
-- | Route corresponding to each generated static page.
--
-- The `a` parameter specifies the data (typically Markdown document) used to
-- generate the final page text.
data Route a where
Route_Index :: Route [(Route Pandoc, Pandoc)]
Route_Article :: Path Rel File -> Route Pandoc
-- | The `IsRoute` instance allows us to determine the target .html path for
-- each route. This affects what `routeUrl` will return.
instance IsRoute Route where
routeFile = \case
Route_Index ->
pure [relfile|index.html|]
Route_Article srcPath ->
fmap ([reldir|article|] </>) $
replaceExtension ".html" srcPath
-- | Main entry point to our generator.
--
-- `Rib.run` handles CLI arguments, and takes three parameters here.
--
-- 1. Directory `content`, from which static files will be read.
-- 2. Directory `dest`, under which target files will be generated.
-- 3. Shake action to run.
--
-- In the shake action you would expect to use the utility functions
-- provided by Rib to do the actual generation of your static site.
main :: IO ()
main = withUtf8 $ do
Rib.run [reldir|content|] [reldir|dest|] generateSite
-- | Shake action for generating the static site
generateSite :: Action ()
generateSite = do
-- Copy over the static files
Rib.buildStaticFiles [[relfile|static/**|]]
let writeHtmlRoute :: Route a -> a -> Action ()
writeHtmlRoute r = Rib.writeRoute r . Lucid.renderText . renderPage r
-- Build individual sources, generating .html for each.
articles <-
Rib.forEvery [[relfile|*.md|]] $ \srcPath -> do
let r = Route_Article srcPath
doc <- Pandoc.parse Pandoc.readMarkdown srcPath
writeHtmlRoute r doc
pure (r, doc)
writeHtmlRoute Route_Index articles
-- | Define your site HTML here
renderPage :: Route a -> a -> Html ()
renderPage route val = html_ [lang_ "en"] $ do
head_ $ do
meta_ [httpEquiv_ "Content-Type", content_ "text/html; charset=utf-8"]
title_ routeTitle
style_ [type_ "text/css"] $ C.render pageStyle
body_ $ do
div_ [class_ "header"] $
a_ [href_ "/"] "Back to Home"
h1_ routeTitle
case route of
Route_Index ->
div_ $ forM_ val $ \(r, src) ->
li_ [class_ "pages"] $ do
let meta = getMeta src
b_ $ a_ [href_ (Rib.routeUrl r)] $ toHtml $ title meta
renderMarkdown `mapM_` description meta
Route_Article _ ->
article_ $
Pandoc.render val
where
routeTitle :: Html ()
routeTitle = case route of
Route_Index -> "Rib sample site"
Route_Article _ -> toHtml $ title $ getMeta val
renderMarkdown :: Text -> Html ()
renderMarkdown =
Pandoc.render . Pandoc.parsePure Pandoc.readMarkdown
-- | Define your site CSS here
pageStyle :: Css
pageStyle = C.body ? do
C.margin (em 4) (pc 20) (em 1) (pc 20)
".header" ? do
C.marginBottom $ em 2
"li.pages" ? do
C.listStyleType C.none
C.marginTop $ em 1
"b" ? C.fontSize (em 1.2)
"p" ? sym C.margin (px 0)
-- | Metadata in our markdown sources
data SrcMeta
= SrcMeta
{ title :: Text,
-- | Description is optional, hence `Maybe`
description :: Maybe Text
}
deriving (Show, Eq, Generic, FromJSON)
```
(View full [`Main.hs`](https://github.com/srid/rib-sample/blob/master/src/Main.hs) at rib-sample)
## Getting Started
The easiest way to get started with [Rib](/) is to [use the
template](https://help.github.com/en/articles/creating-a-repository-from-a-template)
repository, [**rib-sample**](https://github.com/srid/rib-sample), from Github.
## Concepts
### Directory structure
Let's look at what's in the template repository:
```shell
$ git clone https://github.com/srid/rib-sample.git mysite
...
$ cd mysite
$ ls -F
content/ default.nix Main.hs README.md rib-sample.cabal
```
The three key items here are:
1. `Main.hs`: Haskell source containing the DSL of the HTML/CSS of your site.
1. `content/`: The source content (eg: Markdown sources and static files)
1. `dest/`: The target directory, excluded from the git repository, will contain
_generated_ content (i.e., the HTML files, and copied over static content)
The template repository comes with a few sample posts under `content/`, and a basic
HTML layout and CSS style defined in `Main.hs`.
### Run the site
Now let's run them all.
Clone the sample repository locally, install [Nix](https://nixos.org/nix/) (as
described in its README) and run your site as follows:
```shell
nix-shell --run 'ghcid -T ":main serve"'
```
(Note that even though the author recommends it Nix is strictly not required; you may
simply run `ghcid -T ":main serve"` instead of the above command if you do not wish to
use Nix.)
Running this command gives you a local HTTP server at http://127.0.0.1:8080
(serving the generated files) that automatically reloads when either the content
(`content/`) or the HTML/CSS/build-actions (`Main.hs`) changes. Hot reload, in other
words.
### How Rib works
How does the aforementioned nix-shell command work?
1. `nix-shell` will run the given command in a shell environment with all of our
dependencies (notably the Haskell ones including the `rib` library itself)
installed.
1. [`ghcid`](https://github.com/ndmitchell/ghcid) will compile your `Main.hs`
and run its `main` function.
1. `Main.hs:main` in turn calls `Rib.App.run` which takes as argument your custom
Shake action that will build the static site.
1. `Rib.App.run`: this parses the CLI arguments and runs the rib CLI "app" which
can be run in one of a few modes --- generating static files, watching the
`content/` directory for changes, starting HTTP server for the `dest/` directory.
The "serve" subcommand will run the Shake build action passed as argument on
every file change and spin up a HTTP server.
Run that command, and visit http://127.0.0.1:8080 to view your site.
### Editing workflow
Now try making some changes to the content, say `content/first-post.md`. You should
see it reflected when you refresh the page. Or change the HTML or CSS of your
site in `Main.hs`; this will trigger `ghcid` to rebuild the Haskell source and
restart the server.
### What's next?
Great, by now you should have your static site generator ready and running!
Rib recommends writing your Shake actions in the style of being
[forward-defined](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/shake-0.18.3/docs/Development-Shake-Forward.html)
which adds to the simplicity of the entire thing.
## Examples
* [rib-sample](https://github.com/srid/rib-sample): Use this to get started with
your own site.
* [zulip-archive](https://github.com/srid/zulip-archive): Zulip chat archive viewer ([running here](https://funprog.srid.ca/)).
* [open-editions.org](https://github.com/open-editions/open-editions.org) ([running here](https://open-editions.org/)).
* Rib powers the Zettelkasten system [neuron](https://github.com/srid/neuron#neuron)
* Example: [www.srid.ca](https://www.srid.ca/)
* Example: [neuron.srid.ca](https://neuron.srid.ca/)
* Example: [haskell.srid.ca](https://haskell.srid.ca/)