Static Site Generation with Swift using Publish, Plot and Ink

I have been using Publish, a static site generator for Swift developers, by John Sundell, in recent months to generate JavaScript-free websites with just HTML and CSS from Markdown files. Publish uses Ink, a Markdown parser written in Swift, and Plot, a domain-specific language (DSL) for writing type-safe HTML, XML, and RSS in Swift, which was recently updated to build HTML components in a more SwiftUI like fashion.

Publish is provided as a Swift package and can be used with the Swift Package Manager by adding the package as a dependency within the Package.swift manifest:

let package = Package(
    ...
    dependencies: [
        .package(url: "https://github.com/johnsundell/publish.git", from: "0.1.0")
    ],
    ...
)

However, the easiest way to get started is using the command-line tool to set up new projects and deploy websites. To use the command-line tool, clone the Publish repository and run make in the local folder of the repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/JohnSundell/Publish.git
$ cd Publish
$ make

The command publish help provides instructions on how to use it. The basic publish new command will create a new project at the current location, which can then be edited in Xcode using the open Package.swift command.

$ mkdir AmazingWebsite
$ cd AmazingWebsite
$ publish new

Now, let's have a closer look at how it works in detail. Become a free member or log in to proceed.