middleman/middleman

Features

• Static Site Generators - Transforms templates and assets into standalone HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files for hosting on any web server.
• Ruby Frameworks - Implements a Ruby-based web framework for processing assets and rendering dynamic static page content.
• Blog Post Scaffolding - Generates article files from templates or commands using frontmatter for titles and metadata.
• Data-Driven Templates - Injects structured YAML or JSON data into templates to dynamically generate site content.
• Static Blogging Systems - Provides specialized infrastructure for static blogging, including chronological archives, tags, and paginated article lists.
• Build Tools - Provides a command-line interface for compiling markup languages and optimizing production assets.
• Page-Scoped Data Variables - Assigns custom metadata to individual templates using YAML or JSON blocks to control content on a per-page basis.
• Browser Reload Triggers - Triggers an automatic browser reload whenever project files are edited to show changes instantly.
• Static Asset Pipelines - Ships an automated asset pipeline to compress, minify, and fingerprint CSS and JavaScript for optimized delivery.
• HTML Template Renderers - Transforms source files written in various markup languages into final HTML and CSS output.
• Multi-Engine Template Support - Supports multiple template engines to decouple source markup from the final static HTML output.
• Filesystem-to-URL Endpoint Mapping - Automatically generates URL paths based on the physical directory structure of the source files.
• Nested Layouts - Stacks multiple layouts so a page inherits structure from both category-specific and global layouts.
• Asset Optimization Pipelines - Implements a build pipeline to compile, minify, and optimize CSS and JavaScript assets for production delivery.
• Site Localization - Supports multilingual site localization through locale files and language-specific URL mapping.
• Frontmatter-Driven Page Control - Uses YAML or JSON frontmatter to control individual page variables, layouts, and organization.
• Pretty URL Generation - Generates a folder for each page with an index file so pages load without file extensions.
• Shared Layouts - Wraps individual page content in a common HTML structure to share headers and footers across templates.
• Static Path Resolution - Resolves source paths to correct absolute or relative output URLs when creating HTML link tags.
• Local Development Hosting - Provides a local web server to render development files and reflect content changes in real-time.
• Asset Pipelines - Integrates build systems that process, transform, and bundle frontend CSS and JavaScript assets.
• Asset Optimization Pipelines - Provides integrated workflows for bundling, minifying, and transforming web assets to optimize production delivery.
• Static Article Pagination - Splits long lists of articles across multiple numbered pages to improve navigation and page load.
• Custom Article Collections - Groups articles based on frontmatter attributes to generate corresponding category archive pages.
• Language-Specific Templates - The creation of separate template files for different languages to handle large blocks of translated text efficiently.
• Localized Content Generation - Produces multiple language versions of pages through locale files and template helpers.
• Development Preview Servers - Provides a local development server with live reloading for real-time visual feedback during template development.
• Template Partial Reuse - Provides a mechanism to share reusable HTML or template code snippets across layouts and pages.
• Virtual Site Map Manipulation - Allows adding or altering pages within the site structure to generate dynamic content or reroute resources.
• Template Function Injections - Allows the injection of custom Ruby logic and helper functions into the template context for page rendering.
• Content Archive Pages - Produces chronological index pages for articles filtered by year, month, or day.
• Site Map Generators - Indexes every page and asset to provide a structured list of resources for navigation and search.
• Automated Tag Archives - Groups articles using frontmatter tags and automatically generates dedicated archive pages for each tag.
• Development Iteration Workflows - Facilitates a rapid development cycle with local preview servers and automatic browser refreshing.
• Environment Configuration Management - Manages project-specific settings and environment variables to control behavior across development and production.
• Dynamic Page Generators - Programmatically creates new site resources and pages via extensions or configuration.
• Template-Based Page Generators - Creates several unique HTML files from a single template by injecting different variables into each instance.
• Asset Filename Hashing - Creates unique filenames based on content hashes to ensure correct asset versioning when using CDNs.
• Remote File Deployment - Pushes built static files to remote hosts using protocols such as rsync, FTP, SFTP, or Git.
• Static Site Deployment - Enables exporting production-ready static files and pushing them to remote servers via rsync, FTP, or Git.
• Template Helper Registrations - Allows the registration of user-defined methods to be accessible across all controllers and view templates.
• Build Lifecycle Hooks - Allows the creation of custom classes that hook into the system lifecycle to manipulate site structure and content.
• Hook-Based Extensibility - Implements an extensibility pattern allowing custom classes to hook into the build process and manipulate content.
• Module-Based Extensions - Enables extending functionality by integrating external modules that provide custom helper methods.
• Collection Partitioning & Grouping - Defines dynamic sets of files and paths using logic to create hashes or arrays for use in templates.
• Drafting Workflows - Implements a system to hide incomplete content from production builds using draft flags or publication dates.
• Asset Versioning - Implements asset versioning via content hashing to force browser cache updates for production files.
• Global Site Configuration - Provides a system for defining shared global data and settings accessible across the entire website.
• Metadata-Driven Layout Assignment - Allows assigning specific layout files to individual pages or groups via configuration files or page-level metadata.
• Localized URL Mapping - Remaps file names and directory paths for specific languages to ensure URLs are translated for users.
• Relative Asset Path Resolution - Handles the insertion of hyperlinks and scripts, resolving assets relative to the current page path.
• Responsive Asset Generation - Produces multiple image sizes and resolutions for the srcset attribute to load the optimal asset per viewport.

Star history