Introducing Pure Blog
The keen eyed among you will have noticed that things have been quiet around here recently, and that's because I've been working away on a new project: Pure Blog.
Pure Blog is a simple PHP based blogging platform that has a lovely little CMS in the background to help you manage your content. Everything is based on Markdown, and all the content is stored in plaintext files, just like an SSG.
Why Pure Blog?
Well, dear reader, back in September I announced my Jekyll CMS, Hyde. After continuing to iterate on Hyde, I got to thinking about whether I could build an entire blogging platform that works in a similar way.
You see, having Hyde has been a breath of fresh air. Everything is right where I want it, and I'm in total control, but I do still have to battle with Jekyll from time to time. So around late October, I decided to start experimenting with building my own blogging platform.
Pure Blog is the result.
Features
I've tried to keep what I consider to be the essentials, while also trying to keep things lean. Here are some of the features that Pure Blog has:
- Flat-file content using Markdown and front matter.
- A clean, distraction-free admin CMS.
- Draft previews so you can check your work before publishing.
- Optional tags and tag archives for grouping related posts.
- Post list pagination.
- Full post RSS.
- Built-in search.
- Ability to customise layout and design from inside the CMS.
Here are some screenshots and a video of the back end so you can get an idea of what Pure Blog looks like:
Pure Blog Dashboard
Pure Blog editor
How do I get Pure Blog?
Pure Blog is open source and available for download from GitHub. You can also find out more about the project over on the project website.
Please bear in mind that this is v1 software. I've been squashing bugs for a couple of weeks now, and I think I have caught all the major ones, but if you find any issues, please leave an issue on GitHub.
Final thoughts
I have to say, I'm incredibly proud of what I've built here, and I've learned so much during this process.
I'm going to take a little break from coding for a few days, then come back and start migrating this site over to Pure Blog. Dogfoodin' yo!
Is it professional grade software? Nope, because I'm not a professional software developer. But I think it works really well, and it scratches a technical itch for me. If you find it useful too, that's fantastic.