Update: Librarian now has its own documentation website, built with Librarian :) check it out: https://librarianphp.dev
Disclaimer: as a DigitalOcean employee, I am not entitled to win any prizes in this hackaton, but I was encouraged to participate as an exercise and to provide a sample PHP application that can help others get inspired :)
What I built
A headless CMS that can be used as a personal portfolio of your DEV content.
Category Submission:
Personal Site/Portfolio
App Link
https://librarian-iz6yi.ondigitalocean.app/
Screenshots
Description
Librarian is a minimalist file-based, headless CMS written in PHP, on top of minicli.
Link to Source Code
https://github.com/minicli/librarian
Permissive License
MIT
Background
Last year, I wanted a simple website to show all my DEV posts in a more "branded", personal way. So I started working on this application, but I never really finished it.
As the year started, I decided to finally get this application finished and submit it to the DigitalOcean + DEV hackaton as an exercise.
The great thing about this project is that it is very small, it uses only a small $5 instance and doesn't require databases or other components. You can quickly spin up a sample app using the Deploy to DO button below, but for a more serious usage you should fork the project on GitHub so you're able to customize the templates to your own liking.
How I built it
This project uses PHP to parse markdown files based on pre-defined directory structure conventions. It is built on top of a dependency-free CLI library I built called Minicli.
Although I have created a good starting point last year, there were a lot of things missing, so this time around I included an RSS feed, fixed dozens of bugs, improved the layout, and made sure it is deployable to App Platform.
I learned a lot about BulmaCSS while working in the updated front end, and also learned more about the App Spec format and the "Deploy to DO" button. My favorite thing is that I can now quickly spin up small project documentation sites and content-focused, segmented sites for only $5 a month using this app.
Additional Resources/Info
I will be updating the project repository with more docs soon.
The following video shows the whole process of deploying the sample app using the DO button and importing DEV posts to the new blog.
Top comments (5)
this is really great as this is really reflect your job as a technical writer so you build a blog to showcase your technical writing skill this is beautiful
A minimalist, file-based, headless PHP CMS is a fantastic addition to the dev community, especially for those looking to showcase their DEV content in a personalized way.
Great stuff. May I add a link to Brave CMS?
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