There are times when we just want to write without having to think about site management, for example upgrading to the latest version (core and plugin), for this purpose I developed a blogging platform that does not use a database at all, so just write and write.

Although prioritizing simplicity and speed, but the platform also includes standard features available on a blog in general, for example:

• Admin panel
• Markdown editor with live preview
• Categorization with tags (multi tags support)
• Static pages Eg. for contact page
• Meta canonical, description, and rich snippets for SEO
• Pagination
• Author page
• Multi author support
• Social links
• Disqus Comments (optional)
• Facebook Comments (optional)
• Google Analytics
• Built-in search
• Related posts
• Per post navigation (previous and next post)
• Body class for easy theming
• Breadcrumb
• Archive page (by year, year-month, or year-month-day)
• JSON API
• OPML
• RSS Feed
• RSS 2.0 Importer (basic)
• Sitemap.xml
• Archive and tag cloud widget
• SEO friendly URLs
• Teaser thumbnail for images and Youtube videos
• Responsive design
• Lightbox
• User role
• Online backup

This platform is a kind of static web page (Flat CMS) in general but using markdown file to store all its posts. Creation date, category, and the URL is taken from the name of the file, example:

2013-12-25-12-56-40_general_url-of-the-post.md

Here's the explanation (separated by an underscore):

• 2013-12-25-12-56-40 is the published date
• general is the tag/category
• url-of-the-post.md is forming the main url

So we only need to give the name of the file with above format and then upload them to a specified folder, in this case is inside content/author/blog folder for the blog post and content/static for static page.

For static pages I use the following format:

about.md

This means that about as the URL.

Why use a file name?

We believe if the performance will be faster by read the file name, filters it, then read the file content that are matched. Although this may change in the future.

What is the minimum requirements?

HTMLy only require PHP 5.3+, yes no database needed to run HTMLy.

So how do I get it?

You can download it on GitHub. Visit a real blog powered by HTMLy on Danlogs, or visit the official homepage at HTMLy.

I have one forum using Discourse, as a test for this new platform, for OS I use CentOS. Discourse official documentation to updating the site is using Ubuntu so there are a few changes need to be done for CentOS.

My SSH login name is Discourse and the installation folder is inside the Discourse folder, example url

/home/discourse/discourse

Here's how to update Discourse to the latest version:

# Run these commands as the discourse user
bluepill stop
bluepill quit

# Back up your install
DATESTAMP=$(TZ=UTC date +%F-%T)

pg_dump --no-owner --clean discourse_prod | gzip -c > ~/discourse-db-$DATESTAMP.sql.gz

tar cfz ~/discourse-dir-$DATESTAMP.tar.gz -C /home/discourse discourse

# Get the latest Discourse code
cd discourse
git checkout master
git pull
git fetch --tags

# To run on the latest numbered release instead of bleeding-edge:
# git checkout latest-release

# Merge the sample configuration just in case if there is an update. Run these commands as the discourse user

diff -u config/discourse_defaults.conf config/discourse.conf

diff -u config/discourse.pill.sample config/discourse.pill

diff -u config/nginx.sample.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/discourse.conf

# Begin upgrade
bundle install --without test --deployment

RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=90000000 RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake db:migrate

RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=90000000 RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake assets:precompile

RUBY_GC_MALLOC_LIMIT=90000000 RAILS_ROOT=/home/discourse/discourse RAILS_ENV=production NUM_WEBS=2 bluepill --no-privileged -c ~/.bluepill load /home/discourse/discourse/config/discourse.pill

# Restart bluepill
crontab -l

Google has released an update to the Google Penguin algorithm , the Penguin version 2.1. Matt Cutts himself who announced via Twitter, the following is Matt's tweet:

Penguin 2.1 launching today. Affects ~1% of searches to a noticeable degree. More info on Penguin: http://t.co/4YSh4sfZQj — Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) October 4, 2013

I do not see a significant effect with the 2.1 release of Google Penguin in all of my website/blog.

After a long-awaited, Adsense now supports HTTPS sites, the following is the official announcement from Google Adsense blog:

Inside AdSense: Use AdSense on your HTTPS sites: Today, we're happy to announce that AdSense publishers can begin monetizing their HTTPS pages. Many websites, like e-commerce sites and social networking sites, use the HTTPS protocol to protect their users' sensitive data. If you have a HTTPS website you’ll be pleased with how easy it is to monetize using AdSense.

Good news if your site is using HTTPS protocol.

Maybe sometimes we need a widget for certain features, but the widgets are not available. Blogger already provides an APIs to overcome this, so we can create our own widget by reading the blog feed using the JSON and JavaScript.

Here is the JSON feed API:

Object	Description	Example
json.feed.id.$t	Show blog ID	tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12345
json.feed.updated.$t	Last update of a blog	2013-07-08T18:21:57.051+07:00
json.feed.category[]	Categories / label array of a blog
json.feed.category[i].term	Show the i-th category	Blogger
json.feed.title.$t	Show blog name	Danlogs
json.feed.subtitle.$t	Show description of a blog	Dan's Weblog
json.feed.author[]	Array of blog authors	Danang Probo Sayekti, Matt Cutts
json.feed.author[i].name.$t	Show the i-th blog author name	Danang Pobo Sayekti
json.feed.author[i].uri.$t	Show the i-th profile author uri	https://profiles.google.com/123456789
json.feed.openSearch$totalResults.$t	Show total posts	777
json.feed.entry[]	Posts array of a blog
json.feed.entry[i].id.$t	Show the i-th post ID	tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8508.post-12345678
json.feed.entry[i].title.$t	Show the i-th post title	Blogger JSON Feed API
json.feed.entry[i].published.$t	Show time published of the i-th post	2013-07-07T12:56:00.000+07:00
json.feed.entry[i].updated.$t	Show when the i-th post is updated	2013-07-07T12:56:47.089+07:00
json.feed.entry[i].category[]	Show array of post categories
json.feed.entry[i].category[x].term	Show the x-th category of the i-th post	Blogger API
json.feed.entry[i].summary.$t	Show post summary	Maybe sometimes we need a widget ...
json.feed.entry[i].content.$t	Show post content	Maybe sometimes we need a widget for certain features, but the widgets are not available ...
json.feed.entry[i].link[]	Links array of a post
json.feed.entry[i].link[x].href	Show the x-th link of the i-th post	http://www.danpros.com/2013/08/blogger-api.html
json.feed.entry[i].author[]	Array of post authors
json.feed.entry[i].author[x].name.$t	Name of the x-th author on the i-th post	Danang Probo Sayekti
json.feed.entry[i].author[x].uri.$t	Show uri author profile	https://profiles.google.com/123456789
json.feed.entry[i].author[x].gd$image.src	Image uri of the x-th author profile on the i-th post	//lh4.googleusercontent.com/photo.jpg
json.feed.entry[i].media$thumbnail.url	Show image on the i-th post	http://3.bp.blogspot.com/danlogs.jpg
json.feed.entry[i].thr$total.$t	Show total threaded comments	7

Here is an example implementation of the above code:

Suppose I need 5 recent posts by a certain label, the label I want to display is "Blogger". I took the title and summary of the post.

<script type="text/javascript">
  function mycallback(json) {
    for (var i = 0; i < json.feed.entry.length; i++) {
      for (var j = 0; j < json.feed.entry[i].link.length; j++) {
        if (json.feed.entry[i].link[j].rel == 'alternate') {
          var postUrl = json.feed.entry[i].link[j].href;
          break;
        }
      }
      var postTitle = json.feed.entry[i].title.$t;
      var postSummary = json.feed.entry[i].summary.$t;
      var item = '<div class="wrapper"><h3><a href=' + postUrl + '>' + postTitle + '</h3></a><p>' + postSummary + '</p></div>';
      document.write(item);
    }
  }
</script>
<script src="http://www.danpros.com/feeds/posts/summary/-/Blogger?max-results=5&alt=json-in-script&callback=mycallback"></script>

Note: we need to understand that json.feed.entry[i].summary.$t only available if we grab the feed URL using http://www.danpros.com/feeds/posts/summary instead of using http://www.danpros.com/feeds/posts/default.

Now how can we create a widget without unsorted recent post by a certain label? This widget also only displays 90 characters in the summary. The following is the example:

<script type="text/javascript">
  function mycallback(json) {
    for (var i = 0; i < json.feed.entry.length; i++) {
      for (var j = 0; j < json.feed.entry[i].link.length; j++) {
        if (json.feed.entry[i].link[j].rel == 'alternate') {
          var postUrl = json.feed.entry[i].link[j].href;
          break;
        }
      }
      var postTitle = json.feed.entry[i].title.$t;
      var postAuthor = json.feed.entry[i].author[0].name.$t;
      var postSummary = json.feed.entry[i].summary.$t;
      var entryShort = postSummary.substring(0, 90);
      var entryEnd = entryShort.lastIndexOf(" ");
      var postContent = entryShort.substring(0, entryEnd) + '...';
      var item = '<div class="wrapper"><h3><a href=' + postUrl + '>' + postTitle + '</h3></a><span>'+ postAuthor + '</span><p>' + postContent + '</p></div>';
      document.write(item);
    }
  }
</script>
<script src="http://www.danpros.com/feeds/posts/summary?orderby=published&max-results=5&alt=json-in-script&callback=mycallback"></script>