Getting started

Starting your first project

Create your first project with:

$ proton create <name>

Where <name> is the name of your project. This will create a folder with that name, along with some sample files to get you started.

Starting

Begin working on your project by starting the Proton webserver. This is optional, but is recommended as it's a nice way to see your changes in real time.

$ proton start

After typing this, you will see the server has started. Point your web browser to http://localhost:4833 to see your site. You should now see your project's default "welcome" page.

Editing your site

Your project has a subfolder called site -- this is where all the site's files are stored. In general, dropping any file in this folder will make it accessible with the same filename.

Try this: create a file called products.html and fill it up like you would an HTML page. After that, point your browser to http://localhost:4833/products.html, which should now show the page you were working on.

You may also put your files in subfolders. If you were to create the file site/assets/my_style.css, it should be accessible through http://localhost:4833/assets/my_style.css.

Dynamic files

Proton supports many templating languages like HAML, Less, and ERB (more on this later). If your file ends in one of these supported extensions (e.g., index.haml), it is assumed to be a dynamic file and will be rendered by it's corresponding templating engine (in this case, HAML).

Building HTML files

The proton start webserver is good for local development, but when it's time to deploy your site, you will need to build your files. This process outputs raw HTML files for your entire site (for the dynamic files), with Proton translating any files that need translation (e.g., HAML and ERB files).

Build your files by typing this in the command prompt:

$ proton build

This will create a folder called public/ where the built files are stored. You can now deploy this folder to your webserver.