Today, I am super excited to release my dev-friendlyĀ starter toolkitĀ pudl
. In this post, I am going to share what is pudl
, what is the motivation & philosophy behind building this dev-tooling, and the story of how I got started till its launch. Letās start with intro firstā¦
š¶Ā Introducing pudl
pudl is a JavaScript-based static site generator for quick prototypingĀ of awesome little static demos while teaching/presenting.Ā Packed inside pudl you'll find workflows forĀ Gulp,Ā Sass, andĀ PugĀ to get you started. It is aimedĀ at both beginners and professionals who are looking forward to getting a solid start for any static site. So basically, pudlĀ is aĀ simple implementation of Gulp which helps to perform theĀ following tasks:
- ā”ļø UseĀ PugĀ to generate HTML files
- šÆ HandlesĀ Sass to CSS conversion
- š„ Live reloads the browser with BrowserSync
- š Watch files for changes
š© How It All Began?
For the past 9 years, I have been working with WordPress and during all this time I have transitioned myself through different roles like from Content Strategist to Program ManagerĀ and to an aspiring Developer. But particularly for the last 2 years since I got married to the incredible Ahmad Awais ā who's a huge open-source developer advocateĀ I have been handling the pre-development workflows for his projects. During all this time I encountered a pretty monotonous work routine which included configuring tools whichĀ renderedĀ pug
to html
, sass
to css
andĀ integrateĀ live reload with BrowserSync. Moreover, I realized that at least 20% of my time would go into this process every time I got started with any new project. So, to stop me from reinventing the wheel daily andĀ follow the DRY (Donāt Repeat Yourself) philosophy, I decided to build a site generator with just the right features I need. When I got started, I only wanted it to cater my web-dev workflow needs. As I went ahead developing it, I realized that it could serve the purpose of several other developers as well. So, here I present pudl which is aĀ simple implementation of Gulp for performing theĀ following tasks:
- ā Pug to HTML conversion
- ā Sass to CSS conversion
- ā Watch files for changes
- ā Error handling and notify messages.
š„Ā Getting Started
Getting started with pudl is way too easy. In just 4 simple steps you can Ā§set up a basic web architecture for your development projects. And the best thing is that you don't have to repeatedly.
ā Step #0:Ā Install Node & NPM Package Manager
In case you are an absolute beginner to the world ofĀ Node.js
, JavaScript, andĀ npm
Ā packages ā all you need to do is go to the Node's siteĀ download + installĀ Node on your system. This will install bothĀ Node.js
Ā andĀ npm
, i.e., node package manager ā the command line interface of Node.js. You can verify the install by opening your terminal app and typing...
ā Step #1:Ā Download the Required Files
DownloadĀ gulpfile.js
,Ā package.json
,Ā .gitignore
Ā andĀ config.js
Ā files inside the root folder of your project. You can also use your terminal to browse your desired folder and run the following command which will download all the required files for you via cURL.
ā Step #2:Ā Editing the Project Variables
The next step is to change the project variables in theĀ config.js
Ā file according to your folder structure.
ā Step #3: Installing Node Dependencies
The next step is that in your root folder install the Node dependencies. In the terminal run this command and wait for it to download all theĀ node.js
Ā dependencies. It's a one-time process and can take about 5 minutes depending on the speed of your internet connection.
ā Step #4: RunĀ npm start
Finally, run the following command to get up and running with pudl.
NowĀ gulp
Ā will start watching yourĀ pug
Ā andĀ sass
Ā files for any changes and provides you with a link through which you can access your site locally.
š pudl
Folder Structure
Letās now run through the most important parts of the pudl
project.
āļøĀ dist
Instead of several tiers, I preferred compiling all the key files into one single folder and that is the dist
folder. The overall folder architecture is pretty much simple and easy to comprehend since the two primary files which pique your interest is the gulpfile.js
and config.js
.Ā The remaining files are the package.json
and .gitignore
. Let's quickly study the contents of gulpfile.js
and config.js
.
āļøĀ gulpfile.js
Ā File
TheĀ gulpfile.js
Ā is built in such a way that it can be used with any dev project. It consists of the following portions:
- Configuration & Load Plugins: Handles project configuration for gulp tasks and load gulp plugins for it.
- TaskĀ
view
:Ā Compiles Pug into HTML, Error Handling and Notifies for the success message. - TaskĀ
styles
:Ā Compiles Sass into CSS, Error Handling and Notifies for the success message. - TaskĀ
bsync
: Injects changes and automatically open the browser with BrowserSync live server. - WatchĀ
default
Ā Task:Ā Watch for file changes and run specific tasks.
Here is the complete source code of theĀ gulpfile.js
Ā file:
āļøĀ config.js
Ā File
TheĀ config.js
Ā has all the settings for project configuration. When you are integrating pudl
in your development workflow editing of these project variables is a must thing to do because the folder architecture may vary from one project to another. However, I have tried to name these project variables in a way which are used quite consistently. Here is the complete source code of theĀ config.js
Ā file.
ā
Running pudl
If you have been following this post thoroughly then by now I am sure you've understood the basic setup and working of pudl. So, before I end this piece let me show you how it works in a real-time environment.
ā Step #1
I created a simple testing project called demo-with-pudl
in which I directly ran the curl command which I have mentioned in the getting started steps. [/wt_extendImage] This command will download theĀ gulpfile.js
,Ā package.json
,Ā .gitignore
Ā andĀ config.js
Ā files inside this root folder. Likewise, I edited my project variables in theĀ config.js
Ā file and my folder architecture looks something like this: [wt_extendImage]
ā Step #2
Now I will install the node dependencies by running theĀ npm install
Ā command in my terminal. This adds a new folder for node modules in the root folder.
ā Step #3
Now it's the final part of the setup where you will run pudl to see how gulp handles all the described tasks for you. Simply type the command npm start
and hit Enter in your terminal. You are notified by a successful completion of views and styles which means both pug and sass are being rendered perfectly. Likewise, you are provided with a localhost link which live reloads for every change you make.
And It's A Wrap!
That's about it. The idea of pudl basically originated from my personal dev-workflow needs but later it got refined and has helped me open source it to the community on an advanced level. Now I am handing it over to you and look forward to your comments. Let me know if I missed something or if you didnāt understand a step or two. pudl is now available on GitHub and is free to use. Also, it'll be great to š its repository and share it across your network. Peace! āļø
Top comments (15)
You could distribute this as an NPM package with an executable
pudl
This. There are many if not most devs that know how to use curl/git to setup a project, but it seems unnecessary considering we already have tools to distribute and properly manage versions of projects like this.
Anyways, looks cool! Always enjoy seeing Pug around
Considering the limited amount of source files, this could all be packaged as templates then a CLI interface would gather the values necessary to render the templates customized for a new project (project name, authors, description, license, etc.). Using templates removes the dependency on Git even though I believe Git is a dependency of Node so should always be available.
Wonderful idea, how about you reach out and contribute. It's all open source and it's #Hacktoberfest as well. I think she wanted to do just that.
Would love to contribute. Didn't see a project site tho.
Oh sure, here's the GitHub link github.com/maedahbatool/pudl let's do it :)
Peace! āļø
As far as I know, she's already working on it for the next release. š
Hey, Esteban!
That's the plan. I am working on the next release and that is going to be in it.
Peace! āļø
Nice! But what are the benefits over for example MetalSmith?
Haha, yes.
I think this is an excellent project and the fact that a "WordPress Core Contributor" built it seems intriguing, but the first thing I wanna read in such posts are comparisons to other tools like this. I mean "my personal dev-workflow needs" implies that something wasn't quite right with Gatsby, MetalSmith, OctoPress, etc.
This is wonderful, Maedah! It has already helped in my workshop yesterday ā waiting for the v2 release with an
npm
package.Sure thing! Working on it.
Why do people keep reinvent the (old) wheels when we have better things to offer ?
When I looked at my work routine, then the setup of basic web architecture for a new project was something which took more than 20% of my time. And reinventing the wheel daily was something which was bothering me a lot.
I figured out the basic needs of my web-dev workflow and realized that it shouldnāt be that hard to build something small, with just the right features I need. pudl actually helps me not to reinvent the wheel daily.
I just open-sourced it so that others can take the benefit of it. :)
nice one..