steve.blog

StaticMatic is currently going through a major over-haul. There are loads of great features in the works as well as changes to the way to core works.

The major change is that StaticMatic 2 will now use ActionPack. This means we get loads of great new features:

• Any templating language you like
• Access to all ActionView helpers

On top of this we also now have:

• Rake tasks for commands
• Better error handling
• 'Modified Date' sensitive building of static files - StaticMatic now only builds files you've modified

We're also now hanging out with cool kids on github: http://github.com/stevebartholomew/staticmatic/tree/master.

Call to Arms

Now, we need your help. StaticMatic 2 is not yet feature complete. There is still a lot of work to do with getting all the current features in as well as working up the new stuff.

What we need is for you to try out the new features on your existing StaticMatic sites. The great thing is, you can run the new version without conflicting with the current one:

1. Download the edge version into your site's root directory:

   ~/Sites/mygreatsite $ git clone git://github.com/stevebartholomew/staticmatic.git

2. Create a Rakefile in your site's root containing this:

   require 'rake' require 'staticmatic/lib/tasks/staticmatic'

That's it. You can use the new StaticMatic commands:

rake preview
rake build

Or you can use your Gem version:

staticmatic preview .
staticmatic build .

The main thing that needs testing is integration into ActionView - try out the helpers, see what happens. There's a fair few hoops to jump through to make ActionView happy being separated from ActionController so it can play up!

New to StaticMatic?

If you're new to StaticMatic, you can try out the new version by installing the current one and creating a new site:

sudo gem install staticmatic
staticmatic setup mygreatsite

and following the instructions above.

Be Gentle!

There's a fair way to go before we're ready for a release, but hopefully you can still have fun trying out the new features. Join us over at the Google Group for more discussion.