Projects

AlchemyPub #

AlchemyPub is the static site generator powering this site, built with Elixir & Phoenix LiveView. The source code is free and open source (Apache License 2.0) and available on Github.

It generates websites from markdown files. Changes to the source files are instantly published to all viewers. If no JavaScript is available on the client, it falls back gracefully to fully server-side rendered content. There is also an RSS feed generated from the articles.

Instead of saving generated pages as html files, they are rendered on startup and stored in memory using ETS. A file watcher picks up changes and broadcasts them using PubSub. Using the magic of Phoenix LiveView the change is immediately visible to all page viewers.

As a markdown parser, Earmark is used because of its possibilities to add custom transformers. This way, [[Wikilinks]]-style references are resolved and anchors are automatically generated for headers.

For styling, daisyUI allows easy change of themes and creation of your own style using Tailwind. The site is fully responsive for mobile and desktop resolutions, and supports themes for dark and light mode. Code blocks are automatically highlighted using highlight.js.

Page visits are tracked anonymously. Thanks to Phoenix Presence, it can keep track of navigation and the duration of each page visit. This also powers the live online counter in the navigation bar. The tracking data is stored in a file based SQLite database using Ecto. No external database or configuration is required. The tracking data can be viewed through the Phoenix LiveDashboard.