https://bryanquigley.com/enContents © 2026 Bryan Quigley <a rel="license" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="/licensebuttons/CC80x15.png" /></a>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:16:30 GMTNikola (getnikola.com)http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rsshttps://bryanquigley.com/posts/converting/now-powered-by-gitlab-nikola-and-cloudflare.htmlBryan Quigley<p>I just finished moving my website from Wordpress to Nikola (static site generator), GitLab (git and hosting), and CloudFlare (CDN, HTTPS and more).</p> <h2>Why Nikola</h2> <p>Their attitude in the handbook is "DON'T READ THIS MANUAL. IF YOU NEED TO READ IT I FAILED, JUST USE THE THING." That's my kind of software methodology. Don't blame the user, make the system better.</p> <p>It is also a great <a href="https://getnikola.com/handbook.html">handbook</a> that has had pretty much every question I've asked. Documentation is still essential, but it's nice if the commands are self explanatory.</p> <p>It just worked to import my Wordpress site (minus comments which I "inlined" or deleted for various reasons). I did do some manual HTML to markdown conversion for pages I want to edit more.</p> <h2>Why GitLab</h2> <p>I first tried and had Nikola working with GitHub, but <a href="https://about.gitlab.com/">GitLab</a> gives me:</p> <ul> <li>Automatic building - I don't have to have a separate branch for output, I just git push my changes (or change on the website) - and GitLab will run a job to create my website. I know this is possible on GitHub, but GitLab just makes it easy.</li> <li>The option to upload SSL Certs. If I need to drop CloudFlare for some reason, I can have GitLab maintain my website using HTTPS (Which I need to because I'm on the HSTS preload list).</li> <li>Easier drive by contributions. GitLab lets you sign in with Google, Twitter, GitHub, or BitBucket. I'm thinking for suggesting changes to say a paper (or even this blog post!), that will make for a lower barrier to entry. (Of course, I'd prefer any OpenID but it's better than requiring a new account)</li> </ul> <p>I absolutely love that they have their <a href="https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/"><em>company</em> handbook</a> maintained in Git and public to the world (with merge request welcome!).</p> <h2>Why CloudFlare</h2> <p><a href="https://www.cloudflare.com">CloudFlare</a>'s free plan rocks. And if I ever need to be able to handle more traffic faster, I can upgrade/downgrade as necessary.</p> <ul> <li>Free (Good) SSL with TLS1.3 Beta too</li> <li>Free IPv6</li> <li>Free HTTP2</li> </ul>Convertingsecurityhttps://bryanquigley.com/posts/converting/now-powered-by-gitlab-nikola-and-cloudflare.htmlWed, 15 Nov 2017 03:00:19 GMT