Install and Configure Sculpin in the ServBay Environment

What is Sculpin?

Sculpin is a PHP-based static site generator, suitable for creating blogs, documentation, and other static websites. It uses the Twig templating engine and YAML front matter, making website development very flexible and powerful.

Steps to Install Sculpin

In this article, we will introduce how to install and configure Sculpin in the ServBay environment.

Step 1: Create the Project Directory

First, create a new project directory in ServBay's www directory:

cd /Applications/ServBay/www
mkdir servbay-sculpin-app
cd servbay-sculpin-app

Step 2: Create a Sculpin Project Using Composer

ServBay already includes Composer, so we can use Composer directly to create a Sculpin project:

composer create-project sculpin/sculpin-blog-skeleton .

Step 3: Configure the Web Server

1. Add a New Website

   Open ServBay, click the "Hosts" tab, and add a new website:

   • Name: My Sculpin Site
   • Domain: servbay-sculpin.local
   • Site Type: PHP
   • PHP Version: Select the appropriate PHP version
   • Site Root Directory: /Applications/ServBay/www/servbay-sculpin-app/output_dev

2. Save Configuration

   Save the configuration and restart ServBay.

Step 4: Build the Sculpin Site

1. Install Dependencies

   In the project directory, run the following command to install the dependencies:

   composer install

2. Build the Site

   Run the following command to build the Sculpin site:

   vendor/bin/sculpin generate --watch --server

Step 5: Run the Local Development Server

1. Start the Local Development Server

   Run the following command to start the local development server:

   vendor/bin/sculpin generate --server --watch

2. Access the Development Server

   Open a browser and visit https://servbay-sculpin.local, you will see the local development version of the Sculpin site.

Step 6: Customize the Sculpin Site

1. Edit Content

   Edit Markdown files and Twig template files in the source directory to customize your site's content and layout.

2. Add New Pages

   Create new Markdown files in the source directory to add new pages. For example, create an about.md file:

   ---
   title: "About Us"
   ---
   
   # About Us
   
   This is the about page.

3. Configure Navigation Menu

   Edit the Twig template files for the navigation menu in the source/_layouts directory to add new navigation links.

4. Rebuild the Site

   Every time you modify content or templates, run the following command to rebuild the Sculpin site:

   vendor/bin/sculpin generate

Building a Site with Sculpin

Now that you have successfully installed and configured Sculpin in the ServBay environment, you can start using it to build your site. Here are some common operations:

Create Blog Posts

1. Create a Post

   Create a new Markdown file in the source/_posts directory to add a blog post. For example, create a 2024-06-06-my-first-post.md file:

   ---
   title: "My First Post"
   date: 2024-06-06
   ---
   
   # My First Post
   
   This is the content of my first post.

2. Rebuild the Site

   Run the following command to build the Sculpin site:

   vendor/bin/sculpin generate

Customize Styles and Scripts

1. Edit Styles

   Edit the CSS files in the source/assets/css directory to customize the style of your site.

2. Edit Scripts

   Edit the JavaScript files in the source/assets/js directory to customize the interactive behavior of your site.

3. Compile Assets

   Run the following command to compile CSS and JavaScript files:

   vendor/bin/sculpin generate

By following these steps, you have successfully installed and configured Sculpin in the ServBay environment and started using it to build your site. Sculpin's flexibility and powerful features make it an ideal choice for building static websites.