htmlXPress

It is a Perl script to parse web pages before publishing. User-defined place-holders of macros can be expanded. Invisible comments and extra whitespace can be removed. Being Perl, it is essentially freely programmable to suite your website.

How do I use htmlXPress?

You copy the configuration file to the directory of your HTML source files and edit it. Here you define your own macros and general search and replace patterns. You also specify into which folder the result files should be saved to.

Site-specific settings can be defined through different config files in separate source folders.

Whenever an HTML file is ready for publishing you "compile" it with htmlXPress. In Mac OS X, you can do that directly from the command line in the Terminal:

% htmlXPress myfile.html

Alternatively, you can drag and drop your HTML file onto the htmlXPress icon. This is possible by using a MacPerl droplet (Mac OS 9) or DropScript (Mac OS X).

Make

Better automation can be achieved using make. For example, you may use a rule similar to this in your Makefile:

HXP=/usr/local/htmlXPress/htmlXPress.pl
OUT=/Library/Apache/htdocs

# Use htmlXpress to process .html files:
$(OUT)/%.html : %.html
	$(HXP) -out $(OUT) $<
	@chmod 644 $(OUT)/$(@F)

MacPerl

If you do not have Mac OS X, you will need a custom installation of Perl, such as MacPerl which has been ported to the Mac by Matthias Neeracher.

The latest version of MacPerl can be obtained at:
www.cpan.org

DropScript

This neat little utility is the brainchild of Wilfredo Sánchez. It can be obtained at www.wsanchez.net.