EmptyBox

A complete isomorphic hackable blog service based on React JS

Concept

Inspired by the Jekyll blog service. EmptyBox is a boilerplate ready for production. Instead of only producing a static page, you can run the service yourself. This puts EmptyBox in isomorphic mode. This will render the page on the server and deliver it quickly over the wire. On the client React JS takes over and adds your functionality. When the user continues to navigate your blog it will all happen in the client. This gives the best possible user experience.

Features

• Isomorphic by default
• Write articles in Github Markdown
• Articles are automatically bundled with your application and lazy loaded
• When editing markdown files and saving, the application HOT LOADS the article, magic!
• Add whatever functionality you want. Simple APIs gives you access to the articles
• Add Google Webfonts with automatic base64 inlining using package.json

Getting started

1. Fork the repo and clone it to your computer
2. In project root npm install to install dependencies
3. npm start to start the service
4. Go to localhost:3000
5. You can add new articles in the posts/ folder. Use this convention on filename: 2015_02_28_MyArticle.md

Loading fonts

• Go to: google-webfonts-helper and find the fonts you want to use
• Identify the name and types, then update the package.json file, e.g. { ..., "blog": { "fonts": { "Roboto": ["regular", "700"] } } ... } If only using the "regular"-version, set an empty array
• Just start the blog with npm start and fonts are downloaded and inlined automatically

Deploying to Heroku

1. Create a Heroku account
2. Add Heroku git repo as upstream to your fork
3. When you want to push new version, push it to upstream