Nidavel: Quick start guide

By Ikenna | On Wednesday 1st May 2024, 03:12pm

Nidavel provides a framework to create and manage a static blog locally on your computer. It automatically exports static files organized in their respective folders, which you can host on any server of your choice. This provides immense advantages, especially to those who want to take advantage of serverless technologies like Netlify, AWS S3, and Digital Ocean.

Nidavel is the framework that powers this very blog.

This post shows you how to get Nidavel, install it, and get started quickly on your next big static blog.

Requirements

You need to have PHP version 8 and above to use Nidavel. Getting and installing PHP is outside the scope of this tutorial, but you can click this link for a good guide on installing XAMPP which also installs PHP.

Getting Nidavel

There are various ways one can get Nidavel. You can see all of them here: Getting Nidavel.

On this tutorial however, I am going to use the direct method. So first things first, on your browser, navigate to the homepage at https://nidavel.com.


NIdavel homepage

 

Click on the “Get Nidavel” button. This will take you to the download page. The download should start automatically, but if it doesn’t, manually click on the specified link.

Nidavel download page

Installing Nidavel

When the download is complete (approximately 30mb), it is now time to extract. Copy or move the downloaded zipped file to your preferred directory. I will use C:/tutorial. In that directory, right-click on the file and select “extract here”. This will extract the contents of the zipped file into the current directory.

Extract here
Extracting

 

After extracting, you can optionally rename the extracted folder. You can also optionally delete the downloaded zipped file. Navigate into the folder, and launch your command line program as an administrator. You need to run your command line as admin only for installation purposes. Subsequent use of the application does not require admin privileges.

 

cd nidavel

As you can see from the image, I have my command line open as administrator. And the current working directory is the path to the extracted folder - tuts. Now type the command: ‘php serve’. This will start a local server on port 8000 and 8001.

 

php serve

Nidavel server running

 

On your browser, navigate to ‘localhost:8000’. First time of doing this will lead you to the installation page. Change the application name to your own preferred value, and click ‘Continue’.

 

Nidavel installation page

 

If everything goes properly, you will be taken to the registration page. Here you should fill out the required information and submit to navigate to your dashboard.

 

Nidavel registeration page

 

That’s it. You have a fully functioning Nidavel application, ready to manage your static blog.

Writing your first post

Now that you have installed Nidavel, it is time to write your first post. Click on ‘Posts’ which is located in the menu on the left side of the page.


Nidavel dashboard

 

After page load, click on ‘Add new post’.


NIdavel add new post

 

Type in your post title, write your first post, write a description in the description box and your tags in your tags box. Choose a featured image. This image is going to be used in open graph meta tags. So choose an image that relates with your content.

 

Nidavel create post

 

When you are done, you have the option to publish, or save as draft in other to continue later. I will hit publish, and voila, my post is saved.

Now when you go back to ‘Posts’, I will find my newly published post.

 

Nidavel posts dashboard

 

 And when I go to ‘public/my_exports/posts/’ folder, there is a new file with the title of my new post.

 

Nidavel my_exports

 

I should note here that all you static files are located at the ‘public/my_exports’ folder. The contents of the my_exports folder, is what you should host.

Conclusion

Now we’ve had a quick start on Nidavel. We started with downloading, through installation, and then writing our first post. Now will be a great time to get a quick overview of the Nidavel dashboard. Can’t wait to see your great blog.