Make Me Static - Getting Started

If you’re new to the plugin, this is what you need to do to get going. Follow the instructions in order and make sure you’re happy with what you’re doing at each stage. If you have any questions or worries, please post questions to our free support forum. You can try this out without your own WordPress site, click on Demo at the top of this screen.

Install The Plugin

  • In your WordPress Admin Panel, select Plugins, then Add new Plugin
  • Enter make me static in the search box, and you should see the Plugin in the resulting list
  • Click on the Install Now button for the Make Me Static plugin
  • Wait while the plugin installs
  • Click on Activate to activate the plugin
  • A new option (MakeMeStatic) should appear in the Admin menu (bottom left of your screen)
  • Click on the new menu option and it should take you straight into Plugin Setup

Plugin Setup

Setup
  • Click on MakeMeStatic in the Admin menu
  • On a first run, this should display the setup Wizard
  • Read the Intro, then click Next
  • Either choose your own profile name or just click on Next to continue with the default profile name
  • This details how to use the three main action buttons
  • click Next to continue

This details how to verify your email address and point a domain name at your static site. Click Next to continue

All you need to do now  is click on Complete and your new Website Profile should appear as a new Profile on your Dashboard

The Dashboard

You should now see the Plugin Dashboard listing your newly created default profile. Next we will generate our first static site copy. Looking at the Profiles section;

Our default profile in this case is called Live and it should have the following default settings;

  • A maximum scan rate of 1 page per second (note; only pages are throttled, static assets like images are not)
  • The profile will automatically create a makemestatic GIT profile in which to store the static copy
  • The profile will automatically create a makemestatic PAGES profile in order to publish the static copy
    (we’ll cover other GIT and PAGES providers later)

Our First Deployment

To create your first static copy, click on the synchronise button to the right of the profile, then click on confirm when it prompts. This will activate a crawler which will scan your site. This process is independent of the User Interface and will continue regardless of whether you have the web page open or not. If you wish to cancel the process you can click on the red button that will appear to the right of the profile.

  • While the scan is in progress, a locked indicator should appear next to the profile 
  • The message under the profile name indicates whether your new static copy is visible yet

  • These metrics will update in real-time as the scan progresses
  • The State indicator tries to approximate how far through the scan we are, this will adjust itself as the scan progresses

  • Each scan is stored in a Git Branch
  • Once the scan is complete, it creates a Merge Request and merges this branch into the main branch

  • The default configuration will trigger a deployment to the MakeMeStatic Pages platform once a merge completes
  • When the Pages deployment is complete, your static copy will be visible on the Internet
  • This process should take 10-15 seconds from the time the scan completes

  • Keep an eye on the indicator underneath the profile name
  • When this changes from Waiting to Ready, it means your new static site live on the Internet
  • Click on your profile name (Live in this instance) to visit your new static copy

Be aware that at this stage the site is visible via a self signed SSL certificate, which means your browser will throw up a warning message about the site being insecure. You will need to accept and bypass this warning in order to see your static copy. You can apply a SSL certificate to your site, the recommended method is documented in the next section.

Next, working with Domains

Deployment Notes

  • Deploying to a pages platform can take a little time.After you see an all quiet message from the crwler, it will typically take between 5 and 15 seconds to deploy to the MakeMeStatic pages platform at which point you should see the Deployment ready message.
  • If you are deploying to an external platform such as GitLab or CloudFlare, it can take between 30 seconds and 10 minutes, the difference being that most pages platforms deploy the entire site for each deployment, whereas the MakeMeStatic platform only redeploys a delta. (i.e. the changes since the last deployment)
  • The Last Run column should show the time the last scan took and when it completed. If updates are listed, this number should be the number of changes submitted to the Git repository. i.e. the actual number of files changed since the last deployment.
  • The ring icon next to the profile indicates that the profile points to an anonymous web endpoint that runs off a self -signed SSL certificate. i.e. that you have yet to point a real domain name at it
  • The Last run column gives you a real-time update on how long the scan has taken so far
  • Assets are the number of entries the plugin is tracking for your site
  • Queued are the number of items the site has yet to process
  • In this instance we are using the default MakeMeStatic Pages platform, so the Merge Request will automatically trigger a Pages deployment, which will make your new static copy visible on the Internet.
  • If you are using your own Git Account and Pages provider, for example GitLab and CloudFlare, (covered later) then you will need to set a build job to trigger when it sees a Merge request on the main branch