
Show HN: Coisas, an open-source client-side CMS for static site generators - fiatjaf
https://github.com/fiatjaf/coisas
======
erlend_sh
> t is similar to Netlify CMS and Prose, the difference is that, unlike the
> first, it doesn't try to be a multipurpose CMS, it lets you edit files,
> create text files, upload files, browse your files, but doesn't try to look
> like a fancy CMS with custom schema and objects and all that mess;

Err, "all that mess" are the additional features that actually make it a
worthwhile upgrade from GitHub's in built file management. I'm using a CMS
because I'd like to interact with raw files as little as possible.

~~~
fiatjaf
I didn't mean that Netlify CMS is horrible, just that this one is more low
level and has less magic, serving a different purpose.

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jonaf
It's interesting to me that, before I learned about databases (circa 2004), I
built 3 distinct software products based on flat files (no database). They
were all written in PHP (the only backend language I knew at the time). This
was before the days of GitHub, so I don't have links to the software anymore,
but I may still have the (horrendous) source code. The products were: a forum
(!) system called "DatForum"; a chat app called "Chategory"[1] (this one still
apparently exists on SourceForge); and a flat-file backed bookmark manager
that synchronized with del.icio.us called "LinkDex." I did also build a
blog/CMS based on flat files, which I used personally, but it was hardly
productized (practically server-side includes). Obviously, using flat file
databases is very different from static site generation, but since all of
these were written using flat file databases, it would have been easy to
optimize their (often poor) performance by statically regenerating the site
periodically, instead of reading the flat file database at render time.

[1] [http://chategory.sourceforge.net/](http://chategory.sourceforge.net/)

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lioeters
This looks great, I think it solves an existing need and could be extended
beyond editing files on GitHub, to be a more general-purpose tool.

One suggestion: a demo where a potential user can try editing files without
needing to authenticate with a GitHub account. I actually haven't seen the
editing interface yet - I'll clone the repo locally since I'm curious, but it
would be a better on-boarding process if I could try it first.

~~~
fiatjaf
Here's a demo:
[https://coisas.alhur.es/#!/geraldoquagliato/geraldoquagliato...](https://coisas.alhur.es/#!/geraldoquagliato/geraldoquagliato.github.io/)

The access token will work out of the box (it is hardcoded), and the site is a
Jekyll which will automatically be rendered by GitHub and shown at
[https://geraldoquagliato.github.io/](https://geraldoquagliato.github.io/)

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fiatjaf
This is a weekend hack, not a fully finished and polished project. I'm sorry
about the errors if you encountered some. The idea is that things will improve
in the near future. Criticism and suggestions are welcome.

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rozenmd
Anyone else unable to actually get it to do anything? Running it from their
URL: [https://coisas.alhur.es/](https://coisas.alhur.es/)

~~~
the_duke
You need to enter a Github repo url and click go, then you can start editing.

The grey 'fiatjaf/coisas'e is just a placeholder.

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codegladiator
Didnt work on firefox. Works on chrome.

~~~
fiatjaf
Sorry about that. Didn't test it on Firefox yet. I'll do.

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eitland
Is the license MIT?

It looked like but I was not sure (it might also just be that I read it too
early in the morning.)

~~~
ZiiS
Yes, the desktop version of github highlights common licenses:
[https://github.com/fiatjaf/coisas/blob/master/LICENSE](https://github.com/fiatjaf/coisas/blob/master/LICENSE)

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rubenbe
I'm using Lektor[0] as a static site CMS for a non-technical user. It's not
super advanced nor shiny, but it does the job.

[0] [https://github.com/lektor/lektor](https://github.com/lektor/lektor)

~~~
fiatjaf
The problem with Lektor is that you need a server running this Python app.

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nunobrito
Hello fiatjaf, are there some example sites that we can take a quick look to
see how they end up?

Thanks

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xtiansimon
Crap like this,

Headless CMS Auth by fiatjaf wants to access your xxxxxx account Personal user
data: Full access Repositories: Public and private

...makes me think Trojan Horse.

~~~
fiatjaf
You didn't read a single line of the README, right? It is written there that
you may AND SHOULD use your own authentication methods, and that's quite easy
to implement.

Now if you were going to freak out because you don't want to authorize access
to your account I just can't imagine why you clicked at "authorize with
GitHub".

