Dynamic To Static
Despite Ruby on Rails being the dynamic web framework sometimes static is the way to go. So that’s why we’ve moved the content management system behind this site from a dynamic database driven system – Radiant CMS (a fantastic CMS in it’s own right) – to one that produces static files. After looking at a number of contenders (nanoc, Webgen, Staticmatic) we chose Webby So why choose a static engine over a dynamic one? Here are a few reasons:
- Simplicity – All we require now is a standard Apache install, whereas with Radiant we also need a Ruby interpreter, the Ruby on Rails framework and a database such as MySQL or Postgres.
- Speed – Static pages are served a lot faster than dynamically generated ones.
- Security – No code running on the server means less potential for security exploits.
- Convenience – Changes are made and previewed locally before being uploaded via RSync.
We should stress that Radiant is a great tool to use and we highly recommend it if you find it suits your needs, but for us it was just too much overkill.
Aimred is a specialist Ruby and Ruby on Rails development house and consultancy based in Cape Town, South Africa.