About this site
How this site works
This site is made in Google Drive. You put documents and photos in a public folder, and the site shows what is in it.
See the folder beside the site
What you do
- Write a Google Doc or put a photo in a folder. In Drive, as usual.
- There is no publish step. Saving the document is enough.
- A few minutes later it is on the site. So is a change, or something you remove.
What the program does
A small program on a server looks in the folder every minute to see whether anything changed. If so, and nobody has touched the file for a few minutes, it makes the pages again. That way an edit in progress isn't published. The site is a copy of the folder, as plain web pages; there is no database.
The folder is public: anyone with the link can look in it, as anyone can see the site. That is why the program needs no login. It works the other way round too: everything in the folder goes on the site, so keep drafts elsewhere in your Drive until they are done.
How it gets onto the page
Every folder is a page, and so is every document. Two names are special: a document called intro opens the page of its folder, and one called design sets your colors and fonts. Neither is a page itself.
The home page has two kinds of parts. Fixed parts always have the same place; you fill them with files in the shared folder itself, next to the other folders. Rows appear by themselves: every folder in it becomes a row.
intro + a photointro (the list)folder 01 Workfolder 02 Personala new folder, like 03 Talksintro (its links)fixed row, from a folder
Files in the shared folder
intro- Not a page: it opens the home page. Its title is the headline, its subtitle the label above it, its first paragraph the intro, a heading and a list the topics. Its links to your email and profiles go in every page’s footer.
- any other document
- A page of its own, and a menu item:
About,Contact, anything. design- Not a page: a table with your colors and fonts.
- a photo
- The portrait (the newest one). Its Drive description is shown below it.
Rows: every folder
- a folder
- A row on the home page, a page of its own and a menu item.
intro- Optional: a document that opens the folder’s page. Its title renames the section (the address stays), its subtitle is the line under its name, on its page and on the home row; the rest comes before the folder’s pages.
01,02- A number before the folder’s name sets the order of the rows. The number is not shown.
- a folder in a folder
- A part within the row, like
writingandphotoswithin Personal.
What happens to a file
- A document
- Becomes a page. The paragraph styled Title is its title, the one styled Subtitle its summary. Headings, lists and photos come along; an indented paragraph becomes a quote. Word files work too.
- A photo
- Becomes a photo page, dated by the day it was taken. Its Drive description is the caption.
- The order
- Newest first. Put a date before a name (
2024-08-26 My old post) to place an older piece back in time. Number every file in a folder (01,02) to set the order yourself.
Why a folder
- You work in what you already know. Writing together, comments and suggestions work as always in Docs.
- Everything stays yours. The texts and photos live in your own Drive; the site only shows them.
- Any public folder can become a site like this. Sharing a folder with ‘anyone with the link’ is all the site needs from Drive.
- Plain web pages. There is no database or plugin to keep up to date.