steve.blog

Phew! It's amazing what you learn when you say things like "I can jump over that stream" or "I'm going to add live a live preview server to this app". You kinda have to deliver if you feel it's a good idea. While the former isn't, the later definitely is, so after a week or so of learning about mongrel handlers, previewing is now in StaticMatic. To install, just run:

gem install staticmatic

Here's how it works:

Once you've set up your site directory:

staticmatic setup /path/to/directory

You simply run the preview command:

staticmatic preview /path/to/directory

It'll fire up a server on port 3000 and you'll be able to view the site on http://localhost:3000/. Any changes you make to your haml & sass will be reflected straight away.

If you have any images or other assets, simply put them in the 'site' directory of your staticmatic base directory. The server will look there for anything that isn't '.html' or '.css'.

The preview server is the main feature addition, but there has also been a major overhaul of the code. Test coverage is still not brilliant, but I'm hoping to sort this out next. As always, be aware that this is very much in development so let me know if you get any bugs or issues.

Other things I'll be working on next are sorting out the overall admin of the project as I'm clearly a rubyforge newbie. Thankfully, I have a few people keen to help me out in that regard :0)

In terms of features, I feel like we're almost there in terms of core functionality. The main thing to deal with next is multiple layouts and configuration. I've started laying the foundations of this though so it should be ready v.soon.

Also on the agenda is getting an official site up and running. My design skills are sporadic at best so any ideas would much appreciated.

Oh and I've also set up a google group here so feel free to come along and get the posts going.