Use Web Origami’s conceptual framework to make digital content:
- web sites
- documentation
- data sets
- command-line tools
- dev toolchains
Working in Web Origami can feel like making a spreadsheet: you define things with formulas that each yield a piece of the thing you’re trying to create and build toward a final result. Like a spreadsheet, Web Origami is excellent for quick experiments or independent projects, but it’s also just as suitable for real work. (This site is created entirely with Web Origami.)
Concepts
Most tools for creating content like websites achieve power through complexity that’s hidden from you, and offer flexibility through configuration that’s to difficult to understand.
Web Origami gives you a high degree of power and flexibility in a very different way — by providing a foundation of interlocking, fundamental concepts:
- Async trees are a convenient way think about hierarchical data, files, and other resources.
- Virtual content represents your intermediate results and your final result.
- Formulas transform your real data and files into virtual content you can browse.
- Scope determines the code and data your formulas can reference.
- Templates turn data and trees into text.
- Transforms change a tree from one form to another, processing content in bulk.
- Tools serve virtual content or copy it to static files for publishing.
Applying these concepts lets you create impressive results with much less work than other systems while maintaining control over all aspects of the process.
The foundation of the project isn’t hidden — if you want to understand things all the way down, explore the programming pattern, async-tree library, and language that support the high-level concepts.
Follow the tutorial to build a simple website in Web Origami and explore each of the above concepts in turn.