Hyperloop

Hyperloop is a framework that lets you make static websites with a technology stack familiar to Rails programmers.

Before you keep reading, let's get one thing out of the way:

If you think your website might need a database, do not use Hyperloop.

I came up with the idea for Hyperloop after hearing one too many experienced web developers say "I don't even know how to set up a regular website anymore."

With Hyperloop, you can create a new site just like you would with Rails. You can write ERB and Sass and CoffeeScript and all that other good stuff. You can use layouts and partials and deploy to Heroku.

Basically, you can do all the stuff you're used to with Rails. On top of that, you don't have to type any of the magic incantations that just aren't necessary in a static site. You don't have to set up routes. You don't have to make controllers with a method for every view. You don't have to think about environments or tests or schemas or helpers or any of the other boilerplate directories/files that would clutter up a static site being shoehorned into a Rails app.

Getting Started

Install Hyperloop and Thin at the command prompt if you haven't yet:
```
gem install hyperloop
gem install thin
```
At the command prompt, create a new Hyperloop site:
```
hyperloop new mysite
```
where "mysite" is the site name.
Change directory to mysite and start the web server:
```
cd mysite
thin start
```
Go to http://localhost:3000/ and you'll see your brand new website!

Structure

Layout

Your layout is in app/views/layouts/application.html.erb.

Views

Your site root is in app/views/index.html.erb.

If you create app/views/hello.html.erb, you'll be able to get to it by going to http://localhost:3000/hello/.

Subdirectories

You can nest views in subdirectories. If you create the following files, the following URLs will work:

app/views/people/ted_nyman.html.erb will make http://localhost:3000/people/ted_nyman/ work.
app/views/people/index.html.erb will make http://localhost:3000/people/ work.
app/views/projects/2013/yeezus.html.erb will make http://localhost:3000/projects/2013/yeezus/ work.

Partials

If you create app/views/_some_section.html.erb, you'll be able to load it as a partial almost like you would in Rails:

<%= render "some_section" %>

Note: In Rails, it's <%= render :partial => "some_section" %>, since there are other things you could want to render besides a partial. In Hyperloop, there aren't, so the options hash isn't necessary.

CSS, SCSS, Sass, JavaScript, and CoffeeScript

If you create some files like:

app/assets/stylesheets/bootstrap.css
app/assets/stylesheets/stylez1.css
app/assets/stylesheets/stylez2.scss
app/assets/javascripts/jquery.js
app/assets/javascripts/scriptz1.js
app/assets/javascripts/scriptz2.coffee

They'll be included in all your views, so long as you have these two tags:

<!-- I suggest putting this in between <head> and </head> -->
<link href="https://github.com/jakeboxer/hyperloop/blob/master/assets/stylesheets/app.css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

<!-- I suggest putting this at the end of the document body (as in, right before </body>) -->
<script src="https://github.com/jakeboxer/hyperloop/raw/master/assets/javascripts/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

somewhere in your layout. All your CSS and JS assets belong in these folders, including vendored ones like jQuery and Bootstrap.

Images

If you create app/assets/images/photo.jpg, you'll be able to show it in a view with <img src="https://github.com/jakeboxer/hyperloop/raw/master/assets/images/photo.jpg">.

Contributing

Fork it
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
Create new Pull Request

jakeboxer / hyperloop

readme