About BlankStatic

BlankStatic is Firsthand Web Design’s starter template for developing static websites and prototyping templates for web applications or for Radiant CMS. It uses StaticMatic which serves and builds HTML and CSS from Haml and Sass.

BlankStatic adds a set of HAML and Sass templates to the default template generated by StaticMatic. It is configured to use Compass with Blueprint CSS.

The Haml and Sass templates include:

• a set of standard pages such as index, 404 and 505 error pages
• a “basic” page layout for styling headers, paragraphs, tables, and forms
• a default layout of stylesheet partials
• a default grid and layout for pages based on Blueprint CSS
• sample styles for drop-down CSS menus and others

It also captures good practices in meta tags and Javascript placement.

References

• Compass Wiki to learn about Compass and installation.
• Blueprint quick start tutorial

Getting Started

You will probably want to add this as a remote repository rather than cloning and overwriting this one. So start off creating your own repository first, then add this as a remote.

  $ mkdir /path/to/my_project
  $ cd /path/to/my_project
  $ git init
  $ git remote add blank-static git://github.com/firsthand/blank-static.git
  $ git fetch blank-static
  $ git merge blank-static/master

Since blank-static uses Bundler install the dependent gems is easy.

  $ (sudo) gem install bundler # if you don't have it installed already
  $ (sudo) bundle install
  $ bin/staticmatic preview .

Now you can visit http://localhost:3000.

Next Steps

Start customizing and adding to the existing Haml and Sass files to build your static website or prototype templates for your web application.