Simply-Static / simply-static

Convert your WordPress site into a static one with the free WordPress static site generator plugin, Simply Static.
https://simplystatic.com
GNU General Public License v2.0
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simply-static static-site-generator wordpress-plugin

=== Simply Static - The WordPress Static Site Generator === Contributors: patrickposner Tags: static site generator, performance, security, jamstack Requires at least: 6.3 Tested up to: 6.7 Requires PHP: 7.4 Stable tag: 3.2.4.2 License: GPLv2 or later License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Create a static website directly from your WordPress website with Simply Static.

== Description ==

Simply Static is a static site generator that converts your existing WordPress website to a static website that you can host on your server, a static hosting provider, or a CDN.

It drastically improves the performance of your website and minimizes security risks as it removes the connection between your traditional server and your static website.

Simply Static can also be used by local development tools like LocalWP or Lando to develop your website offline and push the static site online.

This reduces your hosting costs to zero (depending on your requirements and the used service/provider).

= Performance =

Converting your website to a static website can drastically improve your performance. Simply Static eliminates all requests to your database and by that reducing the first time to byte.

This is especially impactful for websites that use long pages with a lot of animations, graphs, and other load-heavy tools like sliders.

= Security =

Removing the connection to your database and traditional server reduces the risk of getting hacked.

This reduces the stress to keep your WordPress website up to date and keeps your data secure (locally or in a protected environment).

= Reduce hosting costs =

Using Simply Static to deploy your website to one of the static hosting providers, a CDN or an S3 bucket reduces the amount of money required for reliable web hosting.

With the right setup, you can even host your website completely for free (Cloudflare Pages and GitHub Pages for example).

= Local development =

Develop your site locally and only push the static exported website on a server. To ensure everything works as expected I created a list of development tools that are completely supported:

I highly recommend not to use another tool for local development if you are not a programmer as in most cases manual package installation is required.

== Simply Static Pro ==

The pro version of Simply Static enhances the plugin with various features.

[youtube https://youtu.be/Vml537IIwVc]

= GitHub Integration =

With the GitHub integration, you can completely automate your entire development process.

The only thing you need is a GitHub account, no knowledge of Git or GitHub itself is required, as Simply Static Pro handles the entire process for you and keeps your repository up to date.

This allows deploying your static website to:

= AWS S3 Integration =

Export directly to Amazon AWS S3 from Simply Static Pro. Connect your bucket and run your export.

= SFTP =

Export directly to a remote SFTP server. Connect your server and run your export.

= BunnyCDN Integration =

Export directly to BunnyCDN and get all the benefits of their CDN - including caching, file optimization and DNS management.

= Incremental-, Builds and Single Exports =

Use Incremental Exports to update only changes to your static website. No configuration needed, just choose Update and run the export.

Use Build Exports to quickly roll out global changes to your static website. Want to update your style.css file? Or a new plugin? Use a build export.

Use Single Exports to quickly publish new pages and posts to your static site. This also supports scheduled posts.

= Forms =

Create and use forms created with your favorite form plugin on your static website with Simply Static Pro. Supported plugins are:

You can decide if you want to use an external service like Zapier and IFTTT to offload the submission (webhook) or embed the form from your WordPress website via iFrame.

= Search =

Use a fully static search solution that does not rely on any Third-Party-Providers. It uses Fuse.js and creates an index of your whole website as a JSON file.

The search supports autosuggestion and fuzzy logic and is by default way more convenient than your default WordPress search.

= Comments =

Enable comments on your static website without the requirement of Third-Party-Providers. Use your original WordPress website to process the comment.

After a comment was submitted, Simply Static automatically exports a new static version of the post. You don't have to do anything.

= Multilingual =

Use WPML, Polylang or TranslatePress and run static exports per language or all at once.

Simply Static Pro also supports configuring settings per language, using the available language switchers and more to export a your multilingual website as easy as possible.

= WP-CLI =

Simply Static Pro has a detailed and comprehensive integration with WP-CLI.

Control every option, run different kinds of exports and more with the WP-CLI integration.

= Minification =

Automatically minfiy HTML, CSS and JavaScript files on your static site.

We can even minify inline CSS & JavaScript.

= Image Optimization =

Automatically optimize images on your static website with our ShortPixel API integration.

= Optimization =

Replace default WordPress paths and completely hide that you are using WordPress behind the scenes.

Replace:

Hide & Disable:

Disabled unwanted features in WordPress before running an static export like:

and much more.

= Get the Pro version =

You can get the pro version here.

= Simply Static Course =

We created an entire video course about Static WordPress with Simply Static - check out the first video:

[youtube https://youtu.be/Ei_w-Jcq4uQ]

You can watch the entire course entirely for free on YouTube here: Simply Static Course

= Tutorials =

We also publish new tutorials on our blog every other week on how to work with Simply Static and other static site tools.

You can check the latest tutorials here

= Documentation =

We have a super extensive documentation that covers every aspect of Simply Static and Simply Static Pro.

You can check the documentation here

== Installation ==

  1. Log into your WordPress website.
  2. On the left menu, hover over Plugins and then click on Add New.
  3. In the Search Plugins box, type in "Simply Static" and press the Enter key.
  4. You will see a list of search results that should include the Simply Static plugin. Click on the Install Now button to install the plugin.
  5. After installing the plugin you will be prompted to activate it. Click on the Activate Plugin link.
  6. The Simply Static plugin is now installed and can be found on the left menu.

or

  1. Upload the entire simply-static folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
  2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= What does Simply Static do? =

Simply Static generates static (HTML) copies of your WordPress pages. It works a bit like a web crawler, starting at the main page of your website and looking for links to other pages to create static copies of. It also includes any images, CSS & JS files, and any other files that it can find a link to.

As Simply Static is creating the static pages, it will automatically replace the URLs for the WordPress installation with either (a) absolute URLs, at a domain of your choice or (b) relative URLs, so you can host the static files on any domain or (c) URLs constructed for offline use, so you can browse the site locally on your computer.

= Who should use Simply Static? =

Pretty much everyone, besides e-commerce or membership sites. They require a serious amount of interaction and user accounts, which are not available on a static website.

= Are there any limitations? =

You can not use plugins that require a login as there is no account system on a static website. This applies to e-commerce (like WooCommerce) or membership sites.

Also, a website that relies heavily on ajax to update content in real-time is not the best project for Simply Static as a serious amount of custom development would be required.

= How do I set up Simply Static? =

Let's assume you presently have WordPress hosting a site at www.example.com, and that's where you'd like to have your static site instead. Your first task is going to be to move your WordPress installation to a subdomain, such as wordpress.example.com. Once that is complete, you'll set up www.example.com to receive your static files.

If www.example.com is on the same server as your WordPress installation, you can have Simply Static copy the static files to the directory that www.example.com is serving files from. If www.example.com is on a different server, you can download a zip of your static files and then upload them to www.example.com.

= Will this plugin interfere with other plugins? =

No, Simply Static will not interfere with other plugins. Simply Static works well alongside other plugins, such as plugins to improve your site's SEO.

Simply Static creates a static copy of your website, which is just a collection of files: HTML, CSS, JS, images, etc. Any functionality that requires PHP code will not work with that static copy. That includes, but is not limited to: blog post comments, contact forms, forums, membership areas, and eCommerce.

Note that you can achieve much of this functionality by using plugins that interact with third-party services or Simply Static Pro.

= How is Simply Static different from cache plugins? =

Cache plugins -- such as W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache -- make your existing WordPress site faster by caching pages as they're visited. This makes your site much faster but still leaves your WordPress installation accessible to the outside world. Unless you keep on top of updates, your WordPress installation can become vulnerable to hackers due to security vulnerabilities that are found over time.

Simply Static creates a static copy of your WordPress site that is intended to be used completely separately from your WordPress installation. Your WordPress installation lives on one server and your static site is served on a different server. Or, they're both on the same server, but your WordPress installation is restricted to only allow access from certain IP addresses or with an additional username/password requirement. Your static site is just a collection of static files with no server-side code or database -- nothing for hackers to hack -- while your WordPress installation remains safe and secure.

== Screenshots ==

  1. Generate
  2. Settings
  3. Diagnostics

== Changelog ==

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