Blog

Issue
85

Highlights in this issue:

  • Building Awesomely
  • 7 minutes to an Awesome site
  • Awesome Collaboration
  • The Edge of templating
  • The best way to learn Eleventy
  • Pages from JSON files

· 13 posts · 13 sites

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A note from Bob:

Well, yesterday was quite a day! It calls for yet another mid-month issue of the Bundle.

There's more below in the first 3 highlights, but the major news of the day is that Build Awesome, the rebranding of Eleventy by Font Awesome, has launched via Kickstarter. There will also be a Pro version adding a bit of whipped cream on top, bringing a bunch of additional features and support. The Kickstarter has already reached its funding goal over the course of yesterday's launch.

<editorial>

While there are still a lot of questions about the path forward to those of us heavily invested in Eleventy, my take is that the non-Pro version, which is free, will be a continuation of Eleventy as we know it, with the Pro version being an optional upgrade for those who need the extra features and support. I'm looking forward to seeing how this evolves and will be keeping a close eye on the development of Build Awesome.

I posed two questions to Zach in the comments on the Kickstarter page, and I want to share them here as well along with Zach's answers.

Q: Will the free version still be something that has a repo on GitHub and it will just be renamed? or does it move elsewhere?

A: Yes! We’ll keep the open source project on GitHub as before! As prior art, you can find the Web Awesome open source project lives here: https://github.com/shoelace-style/webawesome

Q: I assume that the free version will continue to make forward progress as it will be the underlying core for the Pro version. Correct.

A: Correct!

I do realize that this move has made some in the community quite uncomfortable and this is understandable. Eleventy has been a stellar open source project that many have come to rely on. And its stewardship by Zach has been exceptional for such a project.

I would take issue on the whole "selling our" or "corporate-izing" narrative. Font Awesome is not some big corporation. They are 25 people that have developed a business that allows them to support themselves while continuing to devellop projects that people love.

I'd suggest taking a breath and giving it some time.

</editorial>

Highlights

Building Awesomely. Introducing: Build Awesome is Font Awesome's blog post introducing Build Awesome (the static site generator formerly known as Eleventy) and the related Kickstarter campaign.

7 minutes to an Awesome site. Build a Web Site in 7 Minutes with Build Awesome | Demo is a YouTube video demonstration showing how to create a website using Build Awesome.

Awesome Collaboration. Collaborative Editing with Build Awesome – Edit Your Web Site Live | Demo is a YouTube video demonstration about collaborative editing features in Build Awesome.

The best way to learn Eleventy. uncenter has taken ownership of the Learn Eleventy course originally developed by Andy Bell. Uncenter writes about their release of major upgrades to the course. I consider this the best resource for getting started with Eleventy. There's even a new domain for it: https://learneleventy.dev/. NOTE: With the rebranding of Eleventy to Build Awesome, I fully expect that the course will remain relevant, as the non-Pro version of Build Awesome will still be Eleventy as we know it.

The Edge of templating. David Neal brings us Edge.js Template Plugin for 11ty, yet another JavaScript-based template engine, which looks pretty cool.

Pages from JSON files. Saneef H. Ansari shows us how Create pages from JSON files with Eleventy. Inspired by a question on social media, Saneef explains how generate individual pages from separate JSON files organized in the _data folder.

Until next time...