Statiq is a static content generator written in c# that is used to generate the site you are reading right now. It is an incredibly robust and feature full project, Below is a series of steps that you can walk through to create your own blog similar to this one.

The source for the app that generates this site is open source at https://github.com/e13tech/blog. Feel free to browse the source and get inspiration for your own project.

1. Create a new .NET console app and add the Statiq.Web Package

   dotnet new console --name AwesomeBlog
   cd AwesomeBlog
   dotnet add package Statiq.Web --version 1.0.0-beta.13
   md input
   md theme\input
   

   Most of this is fairly intuitive but in case you need some more details

   • [1] : Create a .NET console app that will be the generator for your site
   • [2] : Navigate into the directory for your new console app
   • [3] : Add the Statiq.Web nuget package, at the time of writing this Statiq is still prerelease so specify the version
   • [4] : Create the input directory that will host
   • [5] : Create the theme input directory that will contain the layout and other site assets

2. Create a bootstrapper Program.cs

   using System.Threading.Tasks;
   using Statiq.App;
   using Statiq.Web;
   
   namespace Your.AwesomeBlog
   {
     public class Program
     {
       public static async Task<int> Main(string[] args) =>
         await Bootstrapper
           .Factory
           .CreateWeb(args)
           .RunAsync();
     }
   }
   

   A very straight forward Program.cs, notable lines:

   • [2] : The core Statiq framework namespace with the original Bootstrapper.Factory comes from
   • [3] : The Statiq Web namespace which provides the .CreateWeb(..)
   • [9-13] : Have the Main(string[]) method await the call to the Statiq

3. Create a new index.md file within the input directory with the following content

   Title: My First Statiq page
   ---
   # Hello World!
   
   Hello from my first Statiq page.
   

   There are countless great sources online explaining how Markdown works including the official Statiq website. In a follow-up post I will go through an example of how I am utilizing this input files.

4. Launch the built-in previewer from a terminal window

   dotnet run -- preview
   

   If all went well Statiq will display a bunch of diagnostic information and then host your new site at https://localhost:5080 with livereload meaning that you can edit your site content in your favorite editor such as VS Code and the browser will reload to display your changes as you save.

Most of these steps here are borrowed directly from the Statiq Quick Start and adjusted for my content. Combining Clean Blog Template with a responsive web template such as one from as a starting point will get you most of the way towards having a blog of your own, lets look at some of the modifications I made beyond this.

Statiq Web is built on top of Statiq Framework and this series covers a small fraction of the functionality of this fantastic project. So far I am very happy with this platform and am anticipating the release of Statiq Docs which is built on top of the Statiq Web with a focus on generating .NET API documentation.

What static content generator have you used? Do you have a blog of your own that's statically generated? Share your experiences in the comments below.

Special Thanks to Philipp Katzenberger on Unsplash for the photo used for this post