In this chapter...
- GPC basics
- Site structure
- Work layout
- Templates
- Sections
- Content files
- Config file
- Using entities and macros defined in config file
- Using Open Site Builder Tools to build a sample site
In this short tutorial we shall go through the steps of creating our own Google Page Creator site using Open Site Builder Tools.
Google Page Creator basics
GPC is a service that lets you create and host your personal sites. At the time of writing you can store up to 100 MB of data per site and have 5 sites per account. You receive a second level DNS name (osbtools.googlepages.com), a bunch of predefined site templates and an AJAX application that lets you enter your content into the different template zones and publish your pages. These are all good things. The bad thing is that there are no mechanism to automate your site navigation. For example if you created a site of 20 pages you are condemned to manually create (and maintain!) navigation links on all your pages.
This particular problem is addressed by using Open Site Builder to create GPC pages and then publish them on your site by using Upload method provided by Google Page Creator. So you'll have a copy of your site on your local machine which is always good. What is much better is the fact that you receive the full control over your pages, can automate menus creation, define entities and macros for often used terms and code blocks etc. So let's get started.