Blog Oklahoma Website Update
Welcome to Blog Oklahoma
I’ve updated the Blog Oklahoma website. I’ve taken the site forward by stepping backward. The website now uses only HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It no longer uses server-side scripting or a database server. Making this change helps the site in the long run. It leaves ample room for growth and significantly improves load time.
You may notice, the site hasn’t changed very much. I’ve kept the site's overall style and layout. All the improvements are on the backend. I’m now leveraging Eleventy to help generate the website.
Eleventy is an open-source static website generator. It lets me create templates for a uniform look, provides scripting to generate files such as sitemaps and RSS feeds, and lets me use Markdown to write blog posts. Long-time readers know how I love using Markdown. This is a very brief description of Eleventy; it does so much more. You can learn about it at 11ty.dev.
Sections on the home page, such as the Mastodon feed, calendar, newsletter, podcast, and YouTube, are all pulled from their respective RSS feeds and APIs.
I’ve moved site navigation to a single-column collapsible sidebar. All the information is right there for Oklahoma news, weather, resources, and direct links to the newsletter and podcast. I’ve simplified the blog; it will now include more general information about Blog Oklahoma. Most of my previous long-form posts are in the newsletter.
I’m still using Google Analytics for visitor statistics and Google AdSense for unobtrusive advertising (every penny helps). Please visit the about page for credits, privacy statement, cookie notice, etc.
I originally planned to move my personal blog over to Eleventy first, but that turned out to be a heavier lift than expected. I need to code a way to export 26 years' worth of posts.
If you have any questions about the new site, using Eleventy, or the future of Blog Oklahoma, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
More Later. Time to take a break, that took more than a few weekends to code. Ha!
– K. @}-;--