Introduction to Txt2Site Site Generator

Txt2Site is a simple but powerful static site generator. Create a few textfiles and Txt2Site generates for each textfile a HTML page. The directory structure reflects the hierarchical structure of the pages of the website. Navigation menus are automatically generated.

Many static site generators exist. Examples are:

• ikiwiki
• rest2web
• Webgen
• Webby

Txt2Site tries to be different by making a good mix between simple design, easy to use and flexibility. The program follows the sacred KISS Principle.

Design goals

Txt2Site is designed to allow focus on writing content for a website and easily manipulating it. Content is contained in directories and flat text files. Easy to manipulate with your favorite texteditor.

The text can be marked up with a simple markup language like Txt2Tags. Txt2Tags interpretes the text and converts it to XHTML. A textfile marked up with Txt2Tags is still readable as text. This means that maintaining an article in Txt2Tags is a lot easier than maintaining them in HTML.
Next to Txt2Tags you can choose to write your text with other markup languages:

• Markdown
• reStructuredText
• Textile
• Creole
• HTML

By using relative links, the website can unchanged be copied to each location. For example to the webserver of your provider. Great for the web-programmer who wants to make websites offline.

Txt2Site is a web template system. Templates and textfiles are merged to generate the HTML pages. Creating templates requires knowledge of HTML. You can also use predefined templates. In this case you can use Txt2Site without any knowledge of HTML.

Target audiance

If you want to use Txt2Site at least you must be able to work with directories and files. Adding, removing or renaming files is common for you. Furthermore you are able to update a file with a text editor.
A Linux distribution is running on your computer and you are able to execute simple commands in a terminal window.
Basically this knowledge is enough to generate a website.
If you get the most out of Txt2Site you need to familiar with HTML and CSS stylesheets.
Txt2Site is not suitable for websites using a server-language like PHP. Contact forms or guestbooks are not possible.
Txt2Site can be useful in an educational environment (webdesign and markup languages).

Features

• Content for your website is saved in flat textfiles.
• You creates the website offline at your personal computer; no server needed.
• A webpage can be provided with content at different locations. Example: two-column layout.
• Simple markup language using Txt2Tags with many features.
• Support for other markup languages: Markdown, reStructuredText, Textile, Creole.
• Or write your text directly in HTML markup.
• Directory structure of textfiles reflects how Txt2Site generates the site.
• Txt2Site generates HTML code for a navigation menu and so called breadcrumbs.
• Sort order of menu items can be defined.
• Web friendly URLs with XHTML and CSS stylesheets.
• Relative links, so website can be copied to each location at your filesystem.
• With templates you can define and maintain your favorite basestyle for your site.
• Variables for content and stylesheets to improve maintenance and management of your site.
• Txt2Site has no graphical userinterface. You can execute the program by using the GNU/Linux command line. It runs standalone on your laptop or personal computer.