Building a dynamic blog with Astro JS and the Astro-Paper theme

Posted on:July 12, 2023 at 03:57 PM
Reading time:3 minutes

In today’s digital age, having a blog is an excellent way to share your ideas, connect with others, and establish your online presence. However, creating a dynamic and performant blog can be a challenging task. Fortunately, Astro JS, a modern front-end framework, simplifies the process and enables you to build fast and SEO-friendly websites. In this article, we’ll explore how to develop a blog using Astro JS and the Astro-Paper theme, empowering you to create a sleek and functional blog with ease.

Table of contents

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What is Astro JS?

Astro JS is a static site builder that allows you to combine various front-end frameworks, such as React, Vue.js, and Svelte, into a single optimized output. It lets you write your code in components and compiles them into static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. Astro JS takes care of rendering the components on the server or the client, resulting in a performant and SEO-friendly website.

Getting Started

Step 1: Initialize a new Astro project with the Astro-Paper theme

Start by initializing a new project with a specified theme (in our case it’s the Astro-Paper theme). The general command is:

npm create astro@latest -- --template <github-username>/<github-repo>

For our example, we will replace <github-username>/<github-repo> with the actual repository of the theme which is satnaing/astro-paper.

npm create astro@latest -- --template satnaing/astro-paper

After running the command, make sure to follow and respond appropriately to the CLI prompts.

Step 2: Entering your new project

Once you followed the CLI prompts and the setup is complete, you should see a new repository created in whichever directory you ran the command in. The title of the repository should be the title which you chose during the CLI prompts from step 1. Change into the directory using the command below replacing <project-name> with the actual name of the project you chose.

cd <project-name>

NOTE: if you didn’t install the dependencies during the CLI prompts in step 1, make sure to do so after you enter into your project directory by running:

npm install

Step 3: Start the development server

Once you are in the project directory, you can run the below command to start the dev server and checkout your blog in the browser on localhost:3000.

npm run dev

or

npm run start

Now you should see your blog up and running with the Astro-Paper theme!

Step 4: Customize the theme & create blog posts

Finally, to learn more about how to customize the theme or to setup new blog posts, checkout the official repository of the theme.

Conclusion

Building a blog with Astro JS and the Astro-Paper theme allows you to create a dynamic, fast, and SEO-friendly website with ease. Astro JS simplifies the development process by combining various front-end frameworks, and the Astro-Paper theme provides a sleek and customizable design. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can create a stunning blog and share your thoughts with the world. Happy blogging!

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