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This day’s portion

I'd like a friendly Jekyll/Github hybrid to manage websites

Today I updated the work site to WordPress version 4. Updating WordPress work sites is never a pleasant experience.

It actually went OK: the site was only out of action for a few seconds while the update downloaded and installed. The process is simple – you click a button and wait. I have nothing against WordPress from this point of view – it’s well designed, easy to use software that can do a million and one things. There’s just a nagging feeling that something could go wrong with one of the many components that make up a site, and that one thing could bring the site down.

I’m conservative with plugins, but when it comes to maintenance we still have to think about:

  • a caching plugin
  • an events plugin
  • a forms plugin
  • a plugin that makes sure javascript is loaded from Google code correctly
  • the WordPress core
  • a parent theme
  • a child theme
  • a database
  • backing up the database
  • backing up the content files
  • reinstalling everything should something go wrong

All these bits and pieces affect each other; for example, a few months ago the events plugin created so many pages it messed up the caching plugin, which in turn caused an intermittent fatal error.

It’s stressful. Every update represents a round of testing, backing up and finger crossing when the live site is finally changed. 10 plugins means lots of updates.

Having to change things live without being absolutely sure of what’s going to happen is a thrill I don’t really need at work.

I don’t think Jekyll or Hugo can generate easy to edit, complex sites, but a system that did all the heavy lifting locally would be ideal. Updates would be a matter of uploading static HTML files to a server, which is about as predictable and stable as you can get.

Here’s what I think you’d need:

  • A GUI so non–technical writers could work with content
  • A way of accessing that content from different devices
  • Extended Markdown
  • To generate flat, HTML files
  • A way to incorporate common 3rd party alternatives for dynamic functions (such as forms and comments)
  • A way of displaying the generated site on a test server

I guess I’m describing a friendlier Jekyll/Github hybrid. Whatever it is, it’d make for a stress free, robust CMS.