Is there any up to date documentation on how to install wp2static? I’ve found what looks like the official documentation but it just says to download it from the Wordpress Plugin site, which it’s been removed from.
I’m pretty experienced with Wordpress, Linux, etc, and I could probably figure it out, but a quick install guide, even just quick bullet points, would probably save me a lot of time experimenting getting it working. For example:
If I download from github do I just throw it into a folder in my plugins folder, or does it need to be installed? Should I used the older
Should I use the “older” plugin “static html output”? I’m not sure if it’s up to date code or not. I tried it and got the error below - I’m using PHP5.6 which could be the problem, part of the reason I want to go static is to remove older sites that don’t support PHP7.
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘:’, expecting ‘;’ or ‘{’ in /var/www/wp-content/plugins/static-html-output-plugin/src/Controller.php on line 42
You’ve found the biggest weakness of the projects at the moment - lack of docs and easy installation. I’m going to be redoing the docs and providing easy installers next.
As of today, none of the plugin versions will support PHP 5.x. I did make a last attempt about 2 years ago to maintain support for PHP 5.3, in order to keep the plugin usable for these older sites, where you can’t quickly update to PHP 7.x (7.3 is now minimum I support, with 7.4 recommended).
HTTrack is the easiest with plenty of guides out there. But, being a Linuxy person, you may find wget’s --mirror option to be more flexible for you to script up. I have an example of wget in a script that will do a full site static export to a new URL in https://appi.sh - you can inspect the code on GitHub for some ideas or try running that directly. You can then deploy in various ways with the resultant static site.
Back to plugin installation for future use on PHP 7.3+ sites, it requires either:
running composer install from the checked out source code directory on your webserver
or
running composer install and composer build PLUGINNAME on your local machine, which will generate a zip for easy installation
Thanks Leon, that’s very helpful I’ll have one last attempt at getting the theme to work on PHP 7.x, then will check out the alternatives you suggested.
When you do the docs it’d be good to include all the required commands - the git pull to get the code, where to have that code checked out to, folder to run composer in, etc. Stuff that’s very basic for you but is a barrier to others using the project.
Oh definitely - it’s less that I think people will understand it and more that I’ve balls’ed up the execution of things of late. Several months of depression I now seem to be getting out of and during that switching the way I was doing “free downloads” and selling lifetime licenses, which both had easier delivery mechanisms of ready to use installers via email.
I’d wanted to get away from charging anything if possible, even the “pay what you want” approach, as it all adds blocking steps between the user and installing/getting started with the plugin. So, I’m surviving on donations-only at the moment - an absolute challenge, but more rewarding when one does come in and hopefully forces me to “sing for my supper” a bit more
I’m also not a fan of holding any user’s information (why I don’t want to run a SaaS). So, even free email signups, which I can then blast with a shake-down call for donations feels unnecessary. It feels good to be pushing more in a direction I believe in, but as you see, it’s not all there yet!
You may be interested to try out Lokl - it’s a new thing I’m working on that fits into the bigger picture and I’m really enjoying it so far.
Please keep me posted and I’m happy to help with any of your static site conversion questions, whether using my projects or not.
Hi,
Yes I indeed was in the same situation and found the most efficient way to support the project and easily install: after a donation you can access an archived/zipped plugin ready to be installed in WP.
I’ll have one last attempt at getting the theme to work on PHP 7.x, then will check out the alternatives you suggested.
