SimplyStatic WP plugin is working… but is this really a static site?

  • Resolved 1waytoheaven

    (@1waytoheaven)


    6 days, 14 hours ago

    Dear Patrick,

    Thank you for your hard work creating this excellent plugin.

    I set it up to convert our WP site into a static site, but in the settings did not exclude any files because I couldn't understand what to keep, and what to drop.

    I thought I was making a flat-file site, where each WP page and post is made into an .htm file, but what I see is each post made into a folder, with a slim index.htm file inside that.

    The new "static" site works well, loads faster, and looks the same as the WP site, but what has surprised me is that the plugins that I kept active are still working as they did in WP, and still require updating. Today I had to even update the SimplyStatic plugin! Should I delete it now, or keep it?

    Ought I to have disabled all plugins, and +then+ SimplyStatic +would have+ made a genuinely static site, without a database, as I expected?

    Should I try again, this time excluding certain WP directories? If so, which ones?

    However, I actually quite like the way it is now, with just three useful active WP plugins instead of 23!

    But feel I may have misunderstood what you were aiming for.

    Perhaps you were made it intending it to create hybrid WP-static sites, rather than completely static sites?

    I'm sure I'm not the only person confused about this.

    Please clarify for me, and others considering using it.

    I emphasise for fellow newbies; Patrick's plugin did what it did cleanly, without any bugs.

    Colin

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Plugin Author patrickposner

    (@patrickposner)

    Hey Colin (@1waytoheaven),

    first off: I’m glad it worked for you!

    <span style=”box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;”>The free video course I recorded and published on?YouTube covers many of these questions</span>.

    We also covered a lot of these things in our documentation (What happens to the WP site, what we recommend in terms of setting it up, etc): https://docs.simplystatic.com/category/57-prepare-wordpress

    I hope that helps clarify it! ??

    Cheers,
    Patrick

    Thread Starter 1waytoheaven

    (@1waytoheaven)

    Thank you Patrick,

    Actually, I did indeed read through all those pages, and even watched all the videos you made before using Simply Static.

    But I honestly think you need another to answer my question :)

    I still have not understood the Simply Static "philosophy", the idea behind transforming WP to static.

    As I wrote in my original post, I thought the idea was to covert the WP site entirely to static, but that is not the case is it?

    Instead, it seems to be, let the user decide the degree of static they wish to make their WP site into.

    If that is the case, then non-nerd users like most of us, will not know what to include and exclude.(Despite watching your video on that topic twice now. It's too superficial.)

    WP is already a lumbering behemoth, and I don't even use "Blocks", so it will only get worse, and more and more folks will want to use your Simply Static plugin to get some sanity back.

    So I urge you to find time to make a video addressing this :)

    And I would make it the first one to watch!

    Colin
    Plugin Author patrickposner

    (@patrickposner)

    Hey Colin (@1waytoheaven),

    thanks for the clarification!

    The idea is to make your website entirely static but have WP somewhere available (locally or protected somewhere online) to make updating content easy.

    I think we need a beginner-friendly video to explain this!
    I might do 1-3 videos on this to cover the very basics:

    • What to do with WordPress (LocalWP vs. Basic Auth for protection)
    • How to bring your website to Local WP (Create a backup, download it, import it..)
    • How to use Basic Authentication instead of LocalWP (to keep WP online)
    • What is my static site and where is my WP site (and how do I spot the difference?)

    Anything else you like to see?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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