Multiple instances on the Same Site

Enhancement

Currently there is support for only one instance of Staticman per static site since the staticman property is a hash in the configuration file. For instance _config.yml:

staticman:
  name          : "comments"
  allowedFields : ['name', 'email', 'url', 'message']
  branch        : "master"
  commitMessage : "New comment."
  filename      : comment-{@timestamp}
  format        : "yml"
  moderation    : true
  path          : "_data/comments/{options.slug}"
  requiredFields: ['name', 'email', 'message']
  transforms:
    email       : "md5"

I am wondering if more than one configuration could be specified if the staticman property could be an array. Each hash in the array, requires an additional property name, and in the submitted form, we must pass an additional required field options[name] with the corresponding name value so that the server can know which instance to use. This would be backward compatibility, since if the staticman property is a hash, it behaves like it does in the current version, and if it is an array, it enables this new behaviour. For example:

staticman:

  - name          : "ideas"
    allowedFields : ['title', 'description']
    branch        : "master"
    commitMessage : "New idea."
    filename      : idea-{@timestamp}
    format        : "yml"
    moderation    : true
    path          : "_data/ideas/{options.slug}"
    requiredFields: ['title', 'description']

  - name          : "comments"
    allowedFields : ['name', 'email', 'url', 'message']
    branch        : "master"
    commitMessage : "New comment."
    filename      : comment-{@timestamp}
    format        : "yml"
    moderation    : true
    path          : "_data/comments/{options.slug}"
    requiredFields: ['name', 'email', 'message']
    transforms:
      email       : "md5"

<form method="POST" action="https://api.staticman.net/v1/entry/my/repo/master">
  <input name="options[name]" type="hidden" value="ideas">
  <input name="options[slug]" type="hidden" value="{{ page.slug }}">
  <label><input name="fields[title]" type="text">Title</label>
  <label><textarea name="fields[description]"></textarea>Description</label>
  <button type="submit">Submit Idea!</button>
</form>

<form method="POST" action="https://api.staticman.net/v1/entry/my/repo/master">
  <input name="options[name]" type="hidden" value="comments">
  <input name="options[slug]" type="hidden" value="{{ page.slug }}">
  <label><input name="fields[name]" type="text">Name</label>
  <label><input name="fields[email]" type="email">E-mail</label>
  <label><textarea name="fields[message]"></textarea>Message</label>
  <button type="submit">Submit Comment!</button>
</form>

[eduardoboucas]

Also, I’m thinking the name of the instance should be provided as part of the URL instead of relying on a form field, being such a crucial setting.

So something like:

https://api.staticman.net/v2/entry/{your GitHub repository}/{your repository name}/{the name of the branch}/{the name of the instance}

With the name of the instance being optional.

[eduardoboucas]

I like this!

I think I would prefer to add this for version 2 of the endpoint (see #5 for more details). Sharing the configuration file with Jekyll was a design mistake, and “polluting” it to yet more Staticman-related stuff doesn’t seem ideal.

With version 2, we have a dedicated configuration file for Staticman, and in that case yes, absolutely. Maybe each instance could be a property within the main object and get rid of name, so something like:

ideas:
  - allowedFields : ['title', 'description']
    branch        : "master"
    commitMessage : "New idea."
    filename      : idea-{@timestamp}
    format        : "yml"
    moderation    : true
    path          : "_data/ideas/{options.slug}"
    requiredFields: ['title', 'description']

comments:
  - allowedFields : ['name', 'email', 'url', 'message']
    branch        : "master"
    commitMessage : "New comment."
    filename      : comment-{@timestamp}
    format        : "yml"
    moderation    : true
    path          : "_data/comments/{options.slug}"
    requiredFields: ['name', 'email', 'message']
    transforms:
      email       : "md5"

Does that sound reasonable?

Thanks for creating the issue.