Getting Started

The site directory

Faircamp reads a directory on your disk, the site directory. Based on its contents, it generates a website, which it writes to another directory, the build directory.

Here is an example of a site directory:

A site directory is just nested subdirectories that contain audio files, images and other files.

Preparing your site directory

Faircamp categorizes the subdirectories in your site directory based on two simple rules:

1. Directories that contain exactly one audio file (think singles) become track releases
2. Directories that contain multiple audio files (think albums, podcasts, playlists) become multitrack releases

Applying these rules to the example site directory above:

Knowing this and following the example above, you can now prepare your own site directory.

Note that the more releases you put in your site directory, the longer it takes faircamp to generate your site, so for your first test it is recommended to start with a smaller site (and later expand from that, you can always add more content). Around 2-3 albums (if you produce music) or 2-3 longer episodes (if you produce a podcast) can be a good starting point.

Building your site

If you haven't installed Faircamp yet, now is the time. You can get it in the download section on the website.

Faircamp comes in two flavors – if you're unsure whether to use the desktop application or the command line interface, go with the desktop application.

With the installation complete, move on to the applicable paragraph below.

Using the desktop application

Launch faircamp, then click Open existing site to locate and open your site directory in the editor. As soon as the editor has loaded your site, click Build and preview site and wait until the process is finished.

Recall that this process takes proportionally longer the more content you put in your site directory, so if you feel you put way too many things into your site directory and it takes too long, you can always cancel the build, remove a few releases and reopen and/or rebuild the site for a smaller run.

When the build has completed your finished website will automatically open in your browser. If you accidentally close the site you can re-open it through the Build menu, or just click Build and preview site again – subsequent build finish instantly (expect when you add new material or make bigger changes).

Congratulations, your faircamp site is now alive and kicking!

Using the command line interface

Open the terminal and change (cd) into your site directory, then run the following command:

faircamp preview

Faircamp will read your site directory and generate a website from it, writing all resulting files to a .faircamp_build/ folder inside the site directory. With the preview command, the result will automatically be opened in your browser after building is complete. To see all available commands run faircamp help. To get help and see further options for specific commands run faircamp help preview, faircamp help build, faircamp help clean, etc.

And that's it, your faircamp site is now alive and kicking.