Orchid Newsletter: Summer Recap
Tags: showdev, orchid, static, webdev
Published: 2019-09-11 17:11:21

Sorry for the absence, it's been a very busy summer for me! Lots of stuff going on both for me and for Orchid, so stick around to see what's coming up!

This is a monthly newsletter around Orchid, the newest and best static site generator for the JVM. There is a growing need to keep the community up-to-date on all the happenings around Orchid, and here I will share Orchid's progress during the previous month! Follow along with this series to stay on top of Orchid's newest features, track adoption on Github, and see who's using Orchid!

{% github JavaEden/Orchid %}

# On Github

As of the time of writing, Orchid is at 233 stars on Github, thank you so much for all the support! And a special thanks goes to the following individuals who submitted pull requests to Orchid!

- [Sumo99](https://github.com/Sumo99)
- [Jean-Michel Fayard](https://github.com/jmfayard)

I've also been preparing for [Hacktoberfest](https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com), which is coming up in less than a month. I've curated a bunch of new issues labeled for [first-time contributors](https://github.com/JavaEden/Orchid/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aupdated-desc+label%3A"Good+First+Issue"), how about getting a head-start on Hacktoberfest and helping out with some of these issues? 😎 Feel free to hold off on your PR until Hacktoberfest officially begins, just comment on the issue so others know what you're working on.

# What's New?

Orchid is now at version [0.17.4](https://github.com/JavaEden/Orchid/releases/tag/0.17.4). 0.17.0, which came out at the end of May, was a really big update and included a handful of new "integrations" projects. These integrations make it easy to create wikis from Github and Gitlab wikis, and to publish your site to Gitlab Pages and Bitbucket Cloud (in addition to the already-supported Github and Netlify publishers). 

# In Progress

Y'all. Some big things are just up the road for Orchid. Really big. Like, _Texas-sized big_. I'm talking about:

- A completely redesigned documentation site (you can preview it [here](https://new-docs--orchid.netlify.com), I'd greatly appreciate any feedback on it!)
- Mutli-module code documentation
- Completely decoupling code documentation from Orchid with [Kodiak](https://github.com/copper-leaf/kodiak), to vastly simplify the process of supporting new languages and ensure consistency of usage across all languages
- Some much-needed refactoring of core Orchid functionality
- A new framework for automated testing of Orchid plugins and themes
- Migrating to GitHub Actions for continuous releases

All this will be coming in the upcoming 0.18.0 release. While I don't want to put a date on this release (I don't want to release it until it's 100% ready-to-go), I can say that I'm nearly code-complete with the changes I wanted to add. From here, it's mostly just adding the finishing touches to the new site, documenting the new functionality, and testing everything thoroughly. 

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Are you interested in getting started with Orchid? There simply is no better way to manage all the documentation for your project, and I'd love to help you get set up! 

If you have an open-source project that needs docs, are building a new portfolio, or are building any other kind of static site, I want to work with you to get you set up with Orchid! Comment on this post, send me a PM here on Dev.to, reach out on [Gitter](https://gitter.im/JavaEden/Orchid), or [contact me here](https://www.caseyjbrooks.com/contact/) and I will be with you every step of the way.

And as always, let me know if you start using Orchid so I can feature you in next month's update!