Pynini
Pynini is a fast, simple and standalone "flat" or "static" HTML generator.
Note: Pynini works but is still alpha.
Installation
virtualenv mypy # Doesn't have to be "mypy"; can be anything.
. mypy/bin/activate # Start using the new virtual python.
pip install pynini # Install pynini and dependencies locally.Basic Usage: Hello, World
For ready-to-run samples, see samples/basic and samples/variables.
Create working directories:
mkdir demo # Any name you like
cd !$ # cd into it...
mkdir src src/layouts src/pages
Create a layout file like src/layouts/main.html (it can be called anything but
by convention is in that directory):
<html>
<head>
<title>{% block title %}{# title will go here #}{% endblock title %}</title>
</head>
<body>
{% block body %}
{# content will go here... #}
{% endblock body %}
</body>
</html>Add a page file like src/pages/index.html:
{% extends "layouts/main.html" %}
{% block title %}Basic Sample{% endblock %}
{% block body %}
Hello, World
{% endblock body %}Run the formatter:
$ pynini # or if inside the pynini src: ../../bin/pynini
See the result in dist/index.html
<html>
<head>
<title>Basic Sample</title>
</head>
<body>
Hello, World
</body>
</html>Background
Static sites are useful over dynamically generated sites for a number of reasons, like:
- they're fast to load
- they're easily cached
- they can be pushed to any hosting service, include S3
- they're easily synchronised with tools like
rsyncandlftp
There is a trend in modern web applications away from dynamically generated server-side pages and toward a mix of static server-side HTML content, server APIs and dynamic client-side HTML templating such as React and Angular.
Pynini is inspired by Zurb Foundation's Panini and Frozen Flask.
We've sought to take the best elements of both, remove elements we didn't like, and add in our own - hopefully useful and modern - ideas.
Use Pynini in conjection with tools like webpack to assemble the entire site
and tools like rsync and lftp to push changes to a hosting server.
Principles
-
convention over configuration and code.
The suggested directory layout:
src/ layouts/ pages/ partials/ dist/ # automatically createdPage data is provided by naming conventions, so the file
foo.htmlcan have data provided byfoo.yml(orfoo.json). -
no code required.
-
predefined variables
pageandroot.
Pynini differs from Panini:
-
It's a standalone tool so there is no dependency on gulp (or npm)
-
It uses jinja2 templates not Handlebars.
-
Data is kept separate from HTML, unlike Panini which bundles data into the template.
-
It's built with Python not JavaScript, in case that matters to anyone.
The "frozen flask" project is another inspiration, but from that I didn't like having to have any code. Pynini uses data to fill in variables as well as generate pages.
Variables, Data and Page Generation
Pages can refer to variables defined in data files, and pages can be generated from data.
Data is matched by filename. Consider an example template about.html:
{% extends "layouts/main.html" %}
{% block body %}
<h1>About</h1>
<ul class="staff">
{% for person in staff %}
<li>{{person.first}} {{person.last}}
<img alt="image of {{person.first}} {{person.last}}" src="{{person.img}}">
</li>
{% endfor %}
</ul>
{% endblock body %}Data like staff must be specified in a file named about.yml: (Other formats like
JSON are intended to be supported. File an issue if this is a priority.)
staff:
- first: Andrew
last: Olson
img: https://randomuser.me/api/portraits/men/78.jpg
- first: Adam
last: Willis
img: https://randomuser.me/api/portraits/men/91.jpgPages can be generated. Documentation on that is not yet written. To see an example
look in samples/variables, particularly src/pages/products/item.html.
