
Automate GitHub Pages with IFTTT, Glitch and Jekyll - webrender
https://webrender.net/2017/11/23/automate-github-pages-ifttt-glitch.html
======
progval
Wouldn't it be simpler to host a lightweight dynamic website?

Automatic commits to a git repo of a static website to make it reflect dynamic
data reminds me of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15272144](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15272144)

~~~
webrender
There's a couple different reasons I ended up going with this solution for my
site:

1) Most of the time, integrating social networks into your site means either
a) using widgets that are hard to work into the main site flow or b) having a
backend to pull and integrate social media posts for you. This solution
essentially provides B without needing to maintain a backend.

2) When planning my site refactor, Github Pages appealed to me because of its
speed and simplicity. This lets me preserve the site automation that would
previously have required a CMS, and because the site is static and hosted by
Github, I don't need to worry about bandwidth or usage limits.

------
michaeloblak
This is very interesting write up. Kudos for the author for completing it and
showing the whole process. Nevertheless, coding skills were still necessary.

Right now I'm working on a tool to achieve such kind of automation of a
website, but without code. Mostly without the glitch part from the post.
Working on any kind of hosting, no matter what underlying technology -
WordPress, GH pages, whatever. With interface similar to IFTTT where you
connect 3rd party apps to a website to populate content - like in the example
from the post - data from Instagram on the website. Or data from Slack bot on
website (D&D example). UX for this project is not an easy stuff. Also, we are
thinking what services are most important to be on the platform at the very
beginning. We would love to hear any kind of feedback. If you are interested
find my email in my bio.

------
noway421
I'm fascinated how far we can take SaaS solutions to build something you would
usually deploy on PaaS before (i.e. a CMS).

While a slightly unrelated question, I was wondering: is there a PaaS platform
which really replaces AWS ec2 instance by flexibility/capabilities? EC2 has
great ecosystem (RDS+Elastic Cache+S3) and great flexibility of just setting
up some extras on the side (App specific cron jobs+Letsencrypt cron jobs). Is
there an offering which could really provide all that without going onto IaaS
(which is what ec2 is) level?

~~~
electricEmu
Azure has been something I've considered for this exact purpose. The PaaS and
ARM Templates abstract away IaaS and provides both configuration and secret
management.

It should be possible for someone to deploy a Mastodon or Matrix instance via
Azure PaaS with no IaaS management necessary. With Kudu's Git triggers,
automatic updates might even be possible!

It's no small feat though. It also would require a great deal of ARM JSON
which is painful at times.

~~~
noway421
Secret management, yes!

Secret management + Automatic Deployments + Cronjobs + Lets encrypt management
is what I'm really looking for.

It could be solved on Amazon: codepipeline + ECS + lambda + route53 (although
no let's encrypt here) but they are all really separated products which need
some tinkering to set up nicely. And even then, cronjobs through lambda feel
like such a dirty hack.

ARM sounds interesting, but judging by the extensive documentation it's need
way too much configuration.

------
paradite
I have been using WordPress for my personal blog and such task is trivial in
WordPress with built-in sharing feature. What's more you can have control over
the source code when you host it on your own VPS. The free WordPress hosting
by wordpress.com has the same functionality built-in.

What are some of the advantages of using this workflow involving multiple
services/tools? I feel that this is too many dependencies to accompany a
simple task.

~~~
doublerebel
This seems like too easy a question, but

\- WordPress is dynamic, not static, which contributes to:

\- WordPress takes more resources to run, and

\- WordPress regularly has security holes

\- WordPress is therefore not simple because it requires maintenance

\- WordPress relies on countless server- and client-side dependencies, which
contributes to the maintenance and server requirements

~~~
paradite
> WordPress relies on countless server- and client-side dependencies

Which you have access to the source code and ability to choose when to
upgrade.

Compare that to GitHub, Glitch and IFTTT, which:

\- Also have countless dependencies, but not just in the source code, in their
service architecture as well

\- You do not have access to source code

\- Can make your blog offline when they experience service disruption

~~~
btgeekboy
The only step in that chain that can take your blog offline for visitors is
GitHub pages. The cool thing about static sites is they're really easy to
replicate to a second provider. Or a 3rd, 4th, nth...

------
fiatjaf
Travis-CI has a simple GitHub Pages deploy mode.

~~~
styfle
Do you have a link to this feature/mode?

~~~
fiatjaf
[https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/deployment/pages/](https://docs.travis-
ci.com/user/deployment/pages/)

------
sogen
Wouldn't it be easier to just merge a PR branch (containing the post) in
Github or Bitbucket??

Also: less parts involved

~~~
icebraining
How would you create the PR from a Tweet?

------
cybermancy
Can Glitch run arbitrary Node.js like Webtask?

~~~
nsp
Yes

------
gmemstr
This is exactly what I need for one of my projects - thanks for posting!

------
styfle
How does Glitch compare to Heroku or ZEIT Now?

~~~
applecrazy
Well, for, starters, Glitch is free for unlimited usage :)

Glitch is geared towards people collaboratively working on Node apps (it
doesn't support anything else, unlike the other options).

However, it's much easier to get started, with an in-browser code editor,
console, and starter projects.

I've been using Glitch to play around with ideas mostly and then I will build
locally and deploy to something like Heroku. One other downside of Glitch is
that source code is viewable by anyone, which means you probably don't want to
launch a side project there.

Note: don't work for Glitch, Heroku, or anyone else mentioned

~~~
GarethX
You can set your Glitch project to private to hide the source code under
advanced options from the top-left project info menu.

~~~
applecrazy
Nice. I'll use this in the future, thanks.

------
chiefalchemist
I'm a big fan of IFTTT. This is interesting.

~~~
farnsworthy
Upvoted, because there's nothing wrong with this sort of comment, and this and
the posts above represent two sides of the same coin--one wants to support,
the other wants to tear down, but is shielded behind a veneer of "helpfulness"
or "constructive criticism," when in fact it is not.

Complainers complain, and like attracts like. If people want to assert that
supportive comments don't "contribute," then knee-jerk downvotes for their own
sake are equally unhelpful.

~~~
doublerebel
All it takes is a "because". I'm a big fan of X _because_ it has provided Y
benefit. This helps others decide when such a software/product is useful.

Otherwise the comment is an unsubstantiated "me too", for which an upvote
already exists. Such low quality comments are a... relatively new trend on HN.

Not to mention complaints about downvotes are directly against HN policy.

~~~
chiefalchemist
Fair enough.

But let me explain MY pov. It didnt not strike me as a heavy duty (read: high
comment volume) topic on NH.

Too often we don't take the time to say thanks, to actuwlly acknowledge the
efforts of someone else. Sorry, the upvote, Like, etc. doesn't cut it.

Why is HN so anti-human? Why always the "don't slip up, we'll get you"? Why
always so elitist? Why so pro assimulation?

More importantly, why is HN so often completely unaware of context? Ruling on
a comment alone reeks of lacking communications skills. Context matters. And
in this case...well, I can't believe I'm writing this comment. It says more
about HN than it does about me.

Yeah. I know. This will be downvoted.

