Astrea — Python-based static site generator

Astrea is a custom static site generator meant to ease the experience of desgining of one's own Digital Garden. Astrea allows users to write pages using the precision of HTML while also taking care of the headers and footers of the website file, keeping them consistent site-wide. When a new page is added, Astrea automatically handles its addition, logging it in every other page's navigation bar under its appropriate category by parsing a customizable pre-header.

Astrea can be can be used for free by anyone in an unlimited capacity — Github Link

I am of the opinion that the best and most meaningful personal blogs are born out of simplicity. In this spirit, I desiged my this website manager which forces me to be creative given a set of simple and restrictive rules, resulting in a relatively extensive website with no Javascript whatsoever. I am exceedingly impressed by what I can do with html and css that I write by hand rather than what I can build using a paid website service. Because Astrean websites are barebones, they require the minumum amount of hardware capabilities on a visitor's end, so your website can be easily viewed by anyone anywhere. I encourage others to give this tool a try. Discover what you can make when you have full control over your website/blog/digital garden.

Astrea works by first detecting the .htm files within the inc/ folder, making a catalogue of them and their category. Each file's category is defined within the file itself between the --- markers. Astrea detects all unique occurrences of a category and determines the membership of all files. Astrea then parses the .htm files. The .htm format requires users to write, in HTML, all of the file contents within the <main> element. Astrea appends text requirements for the HTML format including the navigation bar which contains all file categories and links to the other site files. Finally, a <footer> is added to each file. The post-processsed files are saved in site/.

Mess around with this! Add your own files, change up the `home.html` landing page, fiddle with `links/main.css` to create your own styling. You'll probably want to change the places where my name is referenced directly or links to places that don't exist.

If you have any questions please let me know! If you have any optimizations/suggestions for the code, let me know too or make your own pull requests! I've cobbled this together in 1 hour spurts over 2 weeks, all while being fried after work so it's guarenteed that much of this code is less than optimal. Lastly, have fun! I'm excited to see what you come up with using Astrea.