Eleventy Guide: A Framework-Agnostic Static Site Generator

Eleventy (11ty): A Node.js Static Site Generator for Effortless Website Creation

Eleventy, a popular Node.js static site generator (SSG), simplifies the creation of static websites. SSGs perform most rendering during the build process, generating static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. This eliminates server-side dependencies like runtimes and databases.

Key Advantages:

• Simplified Hosting: Serving only HTML files makes hosting straightforward.
• Enhanced Security: The absence of server-side components minimizes security vulnerabilities.
• Exceptional Performance: Static files lead to faster loading times.

Eleventy's popularity has grown significantly, attracting prominent figures in web development. While ideal for content-focused sites and blogs, it's adaptable to e-commerce platforms and reporting systems.

This tutorial demonstrates building a basic website using Eleventy, showcasing its capabilities beyond simple Markdown-to-HTML conversion. It illustrates how Eleventy can function as a complete build system, eliminating the need for separate tools like npm scripts, Webpack, or Gulp.js, while still enabling automated builds and live reloading.

Key Features & Capabilities:

• Node.js Foundation: Leverages Node.js for efficient static file generation.
• Templating Engine Support: Offers flexibility with various templating engines, including Nunjucks, for dynamic content integration.
• Framework Agnostic: Doesn't mandate specific JavaScript frameworks (though integration with React or Vue.js is possible).
• Streamlined Setup: Involves creating a Node.js project, installing Eleventy, defining a directory structure, and configuring input/output directories.
• Live Reloading: Utilizes Browsersync for real-time updates during development.
• Advanced Features: Supports navigation menu creation (using the navigation plugin), asset transformations, and image optimization via JavaScript templates.
• Content Management: Efficiently manages articles through collections, enabling pagination, custom filters, and production optimizations.

JavaScript Frameworks: Necessary or Not?

While some SSGs integrate client-side JavaScript frameworks (React, Vue.js), Eleventy doesn't require them. Unless building a complex application (in which case an SSG might not be the optimal choice), a JavaScript framework is likely unnecessary.

A Practical Example: Building a Simple Website

This tutorial guides you through creating a website with pages and blog posts, a task often handled by platforms like WordPress. The complete code is available at https://www.php.cn/link/6ec3ff0c922ce84561ce5162f912b47e. You can clone, install, and run it using these commands:

git clone https://www.php.cn/link/6ec3ff0c922ce84561ce5162f912b47e
cd 11ty-starter
npm i
npx eleventy --serve

Access the site at http://localhost:8080.

The following sections detail building the site from scratch.

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