Update 2: Another round of updates to make sure the URLs and other content match the correct IBM Cloud branding.
Update: I have upgraded my project to be a new IBM Cloud Continuous Delivery toolchain and updated the Deploy to IBM Cloud button below to point at my new repository. Learn more.
Somebody asked me the other day if it was possible to build a simple, static website using IBM Cloud. With a bit of thought, I managed to get one going that used the nginx buildpack, but it turns out there’s an even simpler solution. On the CloudFoundry community site on GitHub there’s a “static file” buildpack that is just what you’re looking for. Given this, it’s just a handful of steps to get a static website going:
- Create a toolchain at IBM Cloud Continuous Delivery, with a repo and a pipeline.
- Create a manifest file with the
buildpack:set to the static file buildpack - Pour in some html content
- Configure the pipeline to deploy the app
- Commit your source to the repo
Ok, even though that’s pretty easy, it might be a bit hard to get right if you’ve never done it before. So here’s an even simpler solution…
Just click this button:
🙂
That will take you through all the steps above, setting you up with a toolchain and all the tools you need to work with on IBM Cloud, along with example starting content for your website. It also takes care of deploying the site so you can see it running right away. All you have to do is edit the html files to be what you want, commit them to the repo, and you’re done.
It even works if you don’t have an IBM Cloud account yet (although you’ll be asked to sign up for one).
Now that’s simple!
(… Ok, it’s not quite that sample. IBM Cloud uses API keys to access its services, including Cloud Foundry deployment. You’ll need to create one along the way. Luckily, that too is part of the flow that happens when you push the Deploy to IBM Cloud button above, so it’s *almost* that simple.)