Webgen 0.5.9 released

Ruby
#1

Hey everybody!

webgen 0.5.9 has just been released! If you don’t know what webgen is,
read the “What’s webgen?” section down below.

This announcement is also available at
http://webgen.rubyforge.org/news/release_0_5_9.html

This release does not bring many new and cool features (some naturally
made it into this release :wink: but it is another step to bringing more
advanced functionality like image gallery and blog support to webgen.
Since gallery and blog template files will rely heavily on embedded
Ruby scripts via erb, haml and thelike, the functionality of the
context object has been expanded to allow the programmatic inclusion of
tags and the rendering of blocks.

Another important change in this release is that the naming convention
for paths has been made stricter sothat it is easier to derive the
(a)(l)cn from a source path.

Also note that there have been some incompatible API changes!

Changes

  • Major enhancements:

    • webgen tags can now be accessed and used via the context object
      provided by some content processors (builder, erb,
      erubis, and haml).

      Tag handlers that do not use the Webgen::Tag::Base module now
      need to provide one more method - see the API documentation!

    • Likewise, blocks can now be rendered via the context object in
      the same way as can be done via the blocks content processor.

    • Change in source path naming convention: only files have different
      parts now (sort information, basename, extension), directories and
      fragments not - see Source Paths Naming Convention! Also note
      that directories now always have a trailing slash (source paths and
      canonical names)!

      This change may lead to unexpected behaviour if you used the sort
      information part or an extension in your directory names! Check
      this before upgrading to this version!

    • There is the new notion of passive sources which do not actively
      create nodes from paths but only on-demand when a to-be-resolved
      path is not found. This is, for example, very useful for shipping
      default files that can easily be overridden with custom files by
      putting the custom files under the to-be-resolve path in a normal
      source directory.

    • There is now a better system for error reporting which allows for
      more detailed and more specific (with path name and approximate
      line number) error reports.

  • Minor enhancements:

    • Added new content processor head for inserting CSS/JS
      fragments and links into the head section of an HTML file.
      Arbitrary meta tags can also be inserted.

    • Added new content processor tidy for running tidy over a
      (most often generated) HTML file (requested by Michael Franzl).

    • Special characters like German umlauts and spaces are now allowed
      in paths (suggested by Michael Franzl). However, note that using
      paths with such characters may lead to problems when accessing them
      later on the server!

    • Added new configuration option output.do_deletion for
      specifying if generated files should be deleted if their respective
      source is deleted (suggested by Matthias Kirschner).

    • Added new configuration option tag.coderay.css which allows
      the inclusion of external stylesheets.

    • Added new meta information used_nodes for specifying
      dependencies for a node (suggested by Hermann Schichl).

    • The feed source handler now uses the passive sources system for
      finding its templates and does not rely on the feedtools library
      anymore (which gives a huge speedup).

    • The sitemap source handler now uses the passive sources system for
      finding its templates and dos not rely on the builder library
      anymore. And the format of a *.sitemap file is now similar to
      that of a *.feed file for consistency.

    • The ERB::Util module is now available when using the erb
      content processor.

    • Directories are not created anymore if they do not contain any
      files.

    • There is now the distinction between textual and binary content
      processors.

    • The leading and trailing whitespace of content blocks in Webgen
      Page Format is not removed anymore.

  • Bug fixes:

    • Fixed bug RF#25943: apply command did not work without explicitly
      specifying a directory

    • Tag::Relocatable: the resolved node is now additionally used as
      dependency for detecting a change

    • Switching on host_os instead of arch for specifying Windows
      specific behaviour (in preparation for the change of the Windows
      Ruby Installer).

    • Using $?.exitstatus instead of bit shifting to fix a JRuby issue

    • webgen tag handlers are now called only if all mandatory parameters
      are set

    • Fixed Website#render to work when called multiple times

    • Fixed Node#is_directory? to also work when called on a fragment
      with a trailing slash

  • Incompatible API changes:

    • Since one can now get at the parent node of a to-be-created node
      directly via the Path object, the interface for creating nodes has
      been simplified. The method SourceHandler::Base#create_node now
      only takes a path parameter and optionally an options hash for
      special cases (fragment nodes and virtual nodes),
      SourceHandler::Base#node_exists has seen a similar change.

      The create_nodes service signature also changed. Also note that
      the before_node_created message now only sends the path instead
      of parent and path.

      These changes will in most cases render custom source handlers
      nonfunctional! Read the API documentation and have a look at the
      shipped source handlers!

    • Node.absolute_name has been removed since it has no purpose
      anymore!

  • Deprecation notes:

    • Path#cnbase and Path#cnbase= are now deprecated, use
      Path#basename and Path#basename= instead!

    • Common.absolute_path(path, base) is deprecated, use
      Path.make_absolute(base, path) instead! Note the different
      parameter order!

    • Node#absolute_cn and Node#absolute_lcn are now deprecated, use
      Node#acn and Node#alcn instead!

What’s webgen?

webgen is a tool to generate static websites by combining content
with template files. You create one or more template files in which
you define the layout of your page and where the content should go.
After that you create page files in which you only define the
content. You can use a variety of markup languages like Textile or
Markdown or Haml to define your content and you can add dynamic parts
via ERB or by using webgen tags. This allows the automatic generation
of menus, breadcrumb trails and much more!

Installation

gem install webgen

Usage

See http://webgen.rubyforge.org/documentation/