HTDB-app

For bootstrapping nextjs servers which will deliver HTDB content.

A primer for the HTDB language is here

Install

$ git clone https://github.com/xpollen8/HTDB-app.git
$ npm i
$ npm run dev

Then visit http://localhost:3000 with a browser to see a simple htdb file based website being rendered.

What it is

HTDB is a very old web technology (dating from 1994), was written in C and used as a fast-cgi module for apache web servers.

HTDB's advantage over simple HTML files is in its ability to manage multiple "web pages" inside documents containing related "pages", using a text editor.

Those .htdb documents support macro expansions, user-written scripting functions, as well as a suite of DSO library functions to gain access to more sophisticated capabilities: encryption, database, etc

Why does this exist?

A few people have put significant work into developing HTDB-based websites. As times change, the way the world delivers websites is less via dedicated webservers and more via serverless methods.

HTDBjs attempts to bridge these worlds, by allowing a modern nextjs/React application to be able to parse and deliver the older HTDB documents without much fuss.

Announcement!

A 20-year goal of making HTDB be an arbitrary way to manage sophisticated "living" documents has just been realized.

HTDB now allows one to embed javascript directly into your documents.

#define	thing	This is a random sentence
#define	index.html
	Hello World!

	This is the date: ${js( return Date();)}

	Here is an example, where JS has access to HTDB definitions:

	${js(
		const thing = getval('thing');
		return thing.replace('random', 'crazy');
	)}