Today's Deep-Dive: HTMLy

Welcome back to the deep dive, you know, this is the place to be.

If you want a true shortcut to being instantly well informed today,

we're cutting right through all the usual complexity of web development.

We're focusing on something that's really designed for the person

who just wants to get online now, fast, simple, and, you know,

without all those database headaches that usually trip up beginners.

So our mission today is a deep dive into something called H T M lie.

It's a database list, PHP blogging platform.

Now, that might sound a little obscure, but trust us,

the technical promises here are, well, they're huge.

We're going to explain exactly what a flat file CMS is,

why it's such a win for simplicity and speed.

And based on the material, just how quickly you can go from zero

to a really powerful functioning site.

And before we jump in, a quick thank you to our supporter for this deep dive.

We're sponsored by Save Server.

Save Server ensures the hosting of this software and supports you

in your digital transformation.

You can find out more at www.safeserver.de.

OK, let's unpack this, because we're really talking about

just eliminating complexity.

When people start a blog, you know, the first couple of hours

are often spent just fighting with databases, setting up users,

connecting to MySQL, all these config files.

HTML just bypasses all of that.

Its whole focus is on high performance and accessibility,

making sure you don't need a ton of technical knowledge or,

you know, heavy server resources to get going.

And that shift in focus, that's what makes this so important for beginners.

That's the perfect setup, actually, because it brings us right to that term

database list. I mean, for most people, a CMS like the big ones out there,

they are completely reliant on these complex data structures.

So what happens when HTML just says, no, we don't need that?

Why is dropping that database such a massive, massive advantage?

Well, when we say database list, we're really just classifying it

as a flat file CMS.

So instead of using something like MySQL to organize data

and all these complex tables, it just it stores everything.

Content, metadata, settings in plain text files right on your server.

Think of it less like a sophisticated library catalog

that needs a special search engine and more like a set of perfectly organized

folders and documents.

OK, so it's literally just files and folders. Exactly.

And for a beginner, the advantage is an almost instantaneous setup.

You have fewer moving parts, fewer connections to worry about securing

and critically, just less complexity to troubleshoot when something goes wrong.

The core promise, and this is a quote from the sources,

is that this lets you create a fast, secure and powerful website

or blog in seconds.

That's the whole philosophy. I like that analogy.

So if the content is managed in these simple files, does that mean

we're like manually editing text files all the time?

Or do you still get that familiar dashboard experience you'd expect?

No. And that's the beauty of it.

It's a hybrid approach, which really reinforces that whole easy philosophy.

You absolutely get a traditional web based dashboard

where you can write your posts, manage all your settings and so on.

OK. But and this is the cool part, if you're comfortable with it,

you also have the flexibility to manage content right from the file system.

Yeah. So if you need to, say, upload a whole batch of articles at once,

you can just drop the files on your server via FTP.

It's incredibly powerful.

OK, so this is where it gets really interesting for me

and maybe where I have to challenge the premise a little bit.

Databases were invented for a reason, right?

Because file systems can get incredibly slow and you have a lot of data.

So how can something database list claim to be truly fast

and handle a massive scale?

I'm talking thousands of posts without hitting some huge bottlenecks.

That is the central engineering marvel of the system.

It really comes down to a tradeoff.

It shifts complexity away from the query phase and into an indexing phase.

See, traditional database systems run these complex dynamic queries

every single time someone loads a page, and that introduces overhead.

HTML just avoids that entirely.

It uses a unique algorithm that's designed to find and list content

based on an optimized index of file metadata.

So it's not performing a live search every time?

Precisely. It's like a relational database is dynamically searching

a giant mixed pile of information every time.

HTML, on the other hand, has already pre sorted all that information

and cached the key data.

So when you ask for all posts tagged PHP,

it just grabs that info from the index instantly.

No scanning thousands of database rows.

So if I'm understanding you correctly, instead of this constant querying,

the heavy lifting happens what when a file is first uploaded

or the index is refreshed and that minimizes the load

when a visitor actually hits the page.

You got it. The efficiency is baked right into the retrieval method.

And the sources give us some really concrete evidence

that this scales way better than you'd think.

OK, lay those scaling facts on us, because saying a flat file system

can handle that kind of scale, that sort of redefines

what a beginner can achieve with minimal resources.

The sources are very specific on this.

They state its performance stays fast, even with 10,000 posts

and hundreds of tags and doesn't. OK, but it gets better.

They claim it can handle more than 20,000 posts without issues.

And this is while running on really restricted hardware

like basic shared hosting or a tiny server with only 512 megabytes of RAM.

Wait, wait, 20,000 posts on 512 megs of RAM. Yeah, that is.

That's a staggering claim.

I mean, many big database driven platforms start feeling sluggish

with just a few thousand posts on way more resources than that. Absolutely.

And this completely lowers the financial and technical barrier to entry.

It connects right back to that core idea of the platform

making powerful tech accessible, even with minimal resources.

You don't have to overpay for server power just to run a performance blog.

But let's bring in some nuance here, because we talked about tradeoffs.

If a relational database is built for, say, transactional integrity,

what kind of functionality might a user eventually outgrow

with a system like HTML?

That's a great critical question.

HTML is built for content delivery.

Think blogs, portfolios, static like sites.

It's not designed for massive transactional data

like an e-commerce checkout or complex user systems

where you need real time data syncing across multiple tables.

So if your goal is publishing articles at high speed, it's perfect.

But for, you know, 99 percent of beginners launching their first site,

HTML gives them far more than they'll ever need.

That clarity is important.

OK, let's get practical for a minute.

If someone listening is convinced and they want to try this out right now,

what are the absolute basic technical requirements to run it?

It's pretty minimal.

Since it's built on PHP, the main requirement is just PHP 7.2 or greater,

which should be available on pretty much any modern hosting service.

And what about the sneaky part of PHP installs the extensions?

What specific modules do people need to make sure are enabled? Right.

You'll need to check for five specific PHP extensions.

You need PHP MB string, PHP XML, PHP INTL and PHP GD.

And then there's PHP ZIP.

But that one is only required if you want to use the built in backup feature.

But those first four are the must haves. Perfect.

OK, let's walk through the installation.

The sources give us two clear paths.

We can start with the traditional one, installing from the source code.

Yep. Option one.

Step one, you download the latest version as a ZIP file from the GitHub repository.

Step two, you upload that file and extract it on your web server.

And then step three, you just visit the installation script in your browser.

So, you know, your site dash dash com install dot PHP.

And after you run through the installer, what's that crucial final step

that everyone has to remember for security?

This is so important.

Post install cleanup is mandatory.

The installer tries to delete the install dot PHP file itself.

But if it fails for some reason, like permissions,

you must delete that file manually.

OK, so that's a big one.

Delete install dot PHP, leaving it accessible is a major security risk.

Cannot overstate that noted.

And what about that second option online install?

That sounds like the faster path.

It's significantly shorter. Yeah.

You download just one single file.

The online dash installer dot PHP from the release page.

Upload just that one file, visit it in your browser,

and that script handles the entire download and extraction process for you.

That really simplifies things.

And I assume the security cleanup is still required. Oh, yes.

And for this method, you have to manually delete both the online

dash installer dot PHP file and the install dot PHP file when it's done.

That's super clear.

Now, for the truly impatient beginner who just wants to see the site live instantly,

there was a quick setup hack mentioned.

Ah, the shortcut. Yes.

If you don't need the admin dashboard right away,

you can just rename the file config dot ene dot example to config dot ene chi.

Then you just delete install dot PHP and you're technically live.

It bypasses the whole setup. That's about as instantaneous as it gets.

Instantaneous entry. I love it.

OK, let's shift to features, because what's fascinating is that

HTML isn't just a basic file viewer.

It has these robust features you'd normally associate

with those heavy database systems.

What kind of powerful tools are packed in here?

It really does punch above its weight.

On the admin side, you get high level security

like two factor authentication or 2FA.

Wow, 2FA. Yep.

An extra security layer for your login.

You also get a built in one click update function,

which is critical for maintenance, and a simple menu editor.

And looking at the content management side, what surprised you the most?

The inclusion of scheduled posts and full text search right out of the box.

That is incredible for a flat file system.

I mean, full text search usually requires a dedicated search engine

or a complex database query.

HTML manages it through its indexing.

You also get custom fields for unique content types.

You know, the scheduled post thing really spikes my curiosity.

In a traditional CMS, that relies on a server cron job hitting a database.

How does a flat file system handle timing without that?

It's clever. It just uses file status and time awareness.

So when a visitor hits the site,

the system just checks the scheduled posts against the current server time

and decides if that post's file should be included in the content it serves up.

It's a really efficient, lightweight way to handle it.

And for SEO and site structure, it has archives, categories, tags,

automatic site maps, even a built-in popular post feature.

These are all core components, not add-ons.

And that list of built-in features really speaks to their security philosophy,

doesn't it? The whole idea of avoiding the plugin ecosystem.

Exactly. The developers are explicit about this.

They want to avoid the mess of unsafe, outdated and slow plugins that you see

elsewhere.

Their whole strategy is that if a new feature is important, it gets vetted,

added to the core of HTML and has to pass a security audit.

It ensures stability and security.

That's a huge selling point for beginners who might not know how to vet third party

code.

OK, so before we summarize, if a user gets this installed,

what are the final steps, file permissions and logging in?

Just two things. You need to make sure you have right permission for two directories,

cache and content. This just lets the system store its index data and new posts.

And to get to the admin panel, you just add login to the end of your site's URL.

And for anyone who might want to contribute to the project, it is fully open source,

right?

It is, yeah. Licensed under GPL 2.0, hosted on GitHub with about 1.3K stars,

which shows pretty strong community interest.

It's mostly PHP, CSS and JavaScript with about 60 contributors.

It's a healthy, active project.

So after all that, what does this all mean for the beginner listener,

the person who just wants a beautiful fast site up and running without all that

friction?

It means the barrier to entry has really never been lower.

HTML successfully combines these professional, powerful features.

I mean, full text search, 2FA, scheduled publishing

with the speed and simplicity of a data baseless file system.

It's incredibly lightweight, it's scalable, and it's just fundamentally easy to

manage.

It is the perfect starting point for your digital transformation

because it lets you focus on your content, not your infrastructure.

It's a really compelling case for just streamlining everything.

And that brings us to our final thought for you to explore on your own.

This raises a really important question.

Given the incredible performance claims,

handling 20,000 posts on minimal resources because of that unique algorithm,

how much of that computational burden is truly removed from the server

and how much is maybe shifted somewhere else?

Is it on the client's browser

or is it hidden inside that optimized indexing process?

Understanding that balance, that's the key to pushing a system like this

to its absolute limits.

Something to definitely mull over as you start experimenting with its speed.

A great thought to leave you with.

Thank you again for joining us for this deep dive.

Of course, a final thank you to our supporter, Save Server,

helping with digital transformation and hosting.

Until next time. Farewell.

Until next time. Farewell.