I appreciate the storytelling and the nice graphics, but after reading 10 screen lengths of this story I still don't understand what technology they are using to achieve this.
Is it a lot of words to talk about localstorage? How exactly are the changes persisted to the HTML file? Is it using FileSystemAPI to overwrite the previous HTML file? How can they implement it seamless for the user without them having to choose the proper file in the "Save As.." dialog?
There's two approaches Hyperclay takes.
1. Hosted: You get a bunch of "HTML Apps" that persist themselves by calling their own /save endpoint. We grab the HTML and overwrite their-app-name.html, making a backup/version along the way. (Each user can edit their own app only, but they can also enable signups so that other people can fork their app. We also have plans to allow them to ship optional updates to forked apps.)
2. Local: You download the open-source Hyperclay Local [0] and you can have your own personal, local HTML apps that also call the /save endpoint and make backups. You're also open to extracting the core code from this to host your own personally malleable apps on your own server (just implement some kind of auth)
[0] https://hyperclay.com/hyperclay-local
So… it's a server that stores HTML files?
Sounds like modern version which replaces FTP access with nodejs server. But you have to host it on a server or pay monthly fee anyway so you do need a server. AKA ad for OPs business.
And probably uses the Mutation Observer to capture DOM changes
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/MutationObs...
Why are you trying so hard to avoid saying that it uses a NodeJS server?
I'm also a bit lost after scrolling through it. It seems if we take this one step further and add a bit of syntax to HTML to be executed on the server you'll have invented PHP / WordPress right?
AFAICT this is another cycle of; a decent system becoming overcomplicated because someone wanted to make it multi-tenant, and the re-discovery that 90% of the "improvements/advancements" are essentially bloat in the context & freedom you find/create.
I have to say, it feels rather strange to read
> It would be a great to ignore all the noise of modern web dev and just build the experience I want
sandwiched in between meme images that intersperse short bursts of text as if the reader needs constant distraction from the act of reading.
The experience I want is a short prose description up front, backstory that flows, and diagrams only where they actually illustrate a concept that needs it.
There's a DB on the server. It's just storing HTML with all its views instead of storing JSON, an extract of the information that is allowed to change...
From what I understood the html file itself is updated so it's updating forms, attributes and other tags to include the new changes
Then that file is posted to the backend for persistence