Simple Static: the simplest way to host static websites on Cloudron

[TheMeerkat]

I was dissatisfied with the two options for hosting static sites on Cloudron, Surfer (no server control for, e.g., caching) and the generic LAMP app (unnecessary). So I made my own! Simple Static uses only nginx and a YAML config file.

Repo: https://codeberg.org/TheMeerkat/Simple-Static
CloudronVersions.json: https://codeberg.org/TheMeerkat/Simple-Static/raw/branch/main/CloudronVersions.json
For the CLI: cloudron install --versions-url https://codeberg.org/TheMeerkat/Simple-Static/raw/branch/main/CloudronVersions.json

Extremely simple app with included instructions.

[joseph]

Given we are already looking to improve Surfer, we are happy to assess any feature requests. What do you mean by no control over caching ? Isn't it already only serving static pages?

[TheMeerkat]

@joseph Surfer never really seemed to cache any static assets for me; every time I reloaded the page, it seemed to serve it fresh again. Simple Static has these default options just for caching:

# --- Caching ---

caching:
  # Enable ETag and Last-Modified headers. Default: true.
  etag: true

  # Cache-Control max-age for static assets (seconds). Default: 3600.
  # Set to 0 to send no-cache.
  max_age: 3600

  # File extensions to cache (if set, only these are cached; unset = all).
  # extensions:
  #   - css
  #   - js
  #   - png
  #   - jpg
  #   - svg
  #   - woff2

Then there are things like custom redirects, custom headers, etc. It's a large degree of direct control with no app running on top.

[andreasdueren]

@TheMeerkat Nice! Nothing against nginx but have you considered caddy?

[TheMeerkat]

@andreasdueren Three reasons I chose nginx:

1. nginx is already in the base image and central to the Cloudron model.
2. nginx is incredibly light.
3. Caddy’s biggest selling point (auto-HTTPS) is completely irrelevant to Cloudron apps, which are behind a reverse proxy anyway.

[timconsidine]

@TheMeerkat can you add to ca.cloudron.io (otherwise not visible).

[TheMeerkat]

@timconsidine thanks for the reminder! done:
https://ca.cloudron.io/app/simple-static

Despite switching everything else away from Codeberg, I'll keep Simple Static there indefinitely. It's a nothing package that would take more effort to switch than not.

[robi]

@TheMeerkat multi domain support?

[jadudm]

I would vote for this to be considered as a base/standard package in the Cloudron store. It has no overhead from the base image, and it is the simplest possible static hosting solution possible, based on a time-proven/industry standard web server (nginx).

Excellent stuff, @themeerkat . Thank you.

[TheMeerkat]

@jadudm thanks so much!

also, updated to the latest base image, which let me shave ~2GB off of the package. even smaller and lighter weight now!

[TheMeerkat]

@robi if you open an issue on Codeberg, i'll take a look.

[robi]

@TheMeerkat sorry, I don't have the desire to make an account.