Prerequisites

Make sure you have Python >= 3.9 installed:

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$ python -V
Python 3.9.x

(On Windows: py -V)

It is highly recommended to create a virtual environment for barely:

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$ python -m venv .venv
$ . .venv/bin/activate
(.venv) $

(On Windows: py -m venv .venv and .venv\Scripts\activate)

Installation

Now, simply install barely like any other package:

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(.venv) $ pip install barely

(On Windows: py -m pip install barely)

That's it! Congrats!

Now let's get familiar with using barely!

Creating a new project

You can create a new project with barely new:

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$ barely new
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: setting up new project with parameters:
                        ->   webroot: webroot
                        ->   devroot: devroot
                        -> blueprint: default
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: setting up basic config...
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: done.

Sweet! barely created two new subdirectories, devroot and webroot. The project was also created with a blueprint, namely default, which is why our devroot is not empty.

building the project

Build the project with barely rebuild:

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$ cd devroot
$ barely rebuild
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: registering plugins...
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: 7 plugins registered.
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: rebuilding devroot...
                        -> deleted /[...]/webroot
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: event at /[...]/devroot/page.md
                        -> rendered, highlighted /[...]/devroot/page.md -> /[...]/webroot/index.html
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: rebuild complete.
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: Finalizing plugin ReadingTime...
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: Finalizing plugin ToC...
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: Finalizing plugin AutoSEO...
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: Finalizing plugin Highlight...
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: Finalizing plugin Forms...
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: Finalizing plugin Minify...
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: Finalizing plugin Gallery...
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: ..
                        -> Do you want to Publish / Backup / do both?
                        -> *[n]othing | [p]ublish | [b]ackup | [Y]do both :: n
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: exited.

And then start the live server:

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$ barely
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: registering plugins...
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: 7 plugins registered.
[barely][  core][ INFO] :: started tracking...

Your favorite browser should open, and you will be greeted with the rendered version of page.md.

These two steps can be combined by making use of the -s flag: barely rebuild -s starts the live server immediately after rebuilding.

Now is a good time to play around a bit with your sample project - make some changes to the contents, the templates or add a stylesheet and watch the page update in real time!

For a more thorough explanation, make sure to check out Getting Started in the docs.

Core Mechanics

There are a couple of things that are important to know about how barely works. If you've used similar frameworks before, you're probably already familiar with most of these things. barely doesn't try to reinvent the wheel.

• the structure of your site is defined in jinja2 templates. By default, these are stored in the templates/ folder.
• you write the content of your pages with Markdown.
• each page can individually be configured using YAML notation.
• global level configuration of barely is situated in the config.yaml file, global variables to be used in your templates are stored in metadata.yaml.

This just scratches the surface; please, do yourself a favor and read the Detailed Overview in the docs.