Ask HN: Any minimal framework for small website?

5 pointsdamaru9y ago8 comments

There is a lot of huge framework for big web projects, but there seems to be a need or a place for medium project. I've used Angular on some projects but it seems quite big complex and actually not needed for smaller sites. Ember.js is actually interesting even for smaller site, but still the complexity is a tad daunting.

I've used a mix of handlesbar.js and json for the content, but often feel limited and looking for some sort of small router, adding to that something like bootstrap, although heavy, creates a interesting minimal mix.

Is there something the wild that answer that need for smaller (few pages, gallery, contact form, maybe a minimal blog) type of site (and no not wordpress, lets keep it static)!

8 comments

panic9y ago

Maybe this is an odd question, but… why do you need a framework? Could you use plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript?

hilti9y ago

Completely agree on this for small websites! I use "oldschool" HTML, CSS and simple PHP includes for stuff like navigation, footer, etc. It's easy to maintain and fast. My workflow looks like this: Buying template/theme at e.g. Wrapbootstrap.com and then moving reuseable stuff like navigation, breadcrumbs, footer into PHP snippets and include them. Finally using mod_rewrite via .htaccess for nice links. Deployment / syncing is done by a simple BASH script which uses rsync command.

crashdown9y ago

I completely agree with this. You don't need a framework for a website at all - especially if it's a small one. Saying that, you can't go wrong with https://getbootstrap.com/

damaruOP9y ago

That is what I am doing now, but I was wondering about boiler plate code, most site have menu, pages, contact form and some of these basic elements, at which point it feel redundant to re-create each time.

dylanhassinger9y ago

I built this: https://github.com/dylanized/minimos

lj39y ago

There's always static site generators, like Jekyll or Hugo. Set up a template in html, write content in markdown, run it all through Hugo or Jekyll and BAM! Static html and css.

If you don't have anything interactive on the site, you don't need any JS at all.

qaq9y ago

Unless you need to support "really old" browsers you don't really need a framework

lightlyused9y ago

Mithril is nice.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse