View this plugin on the official WordPress.org site

This plugin aims to provide users the ability to export their entire WordPress site in a completely static form. This suits users wanting extreme performance from their website, without relying on server-side scripts, ie those with MobileMe hosting accounts. It also adds the following potential benefits:

– Improved performance
– Enhanced security
– Geek experience points

The plugin works by simply being installed in to your current WordPress environment, then choosing a destination URL to export it to. Currently, it will generate a .ZIP file for which you can download and then upload the contents to your destination server. Future versions will automate this step for you.

To install this plugin, simply download from the official WordPress plugin location:http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/static-html-output-plugin.zip and then upload the contents into your wp-content/plugins/ folder. If you have SSH access to your server, this can be much faster by SSH’ing into your server, issuing a wget command into the wp-content/plugins/ folder, followed by the unzip command.

From here, if there are no server incompatibilities reported by the plugin, you may simply access it by clicking on the menu item “WP Static HTML Output” in your WordPress admin’s “Tools” section.

So long as your WordPress theme’s configuration does not rely on any specific server-side functions, such as comments or contact forms, you can simply enter your desitination server’s URL into the field supplied and click the “Generate” button. Please wait while the plugin does its work in compiling a .ZIP file of your entire site in a static form. It will then present you with a clickable link to this .ZIP file, which is also located in your wp-content/uploads/ folder.

Please download this .ZIP file and upload the now static contents to the server of your choice. All dynamic URLs should have been re-written to match that of your destination URL.

An example of a website which has been generated by this plugin and is now running in a much faster, static mode can be seen here:

Thai Recipe

UPDATE: The above site has since been put on ice by the client, I shall update this page and the official plugin page with links to current live sites in the wild, running on my plugin. Please contact me via this site if you would like to showcase your static HTML driven site here.

The now static nature of this site allows it to be loaded very fast in a user’s browser. In comparison to the previous WordPress-driven site, speed gains were approximately 200% or more.

Current potential limitations of this plugin include

– inability to correctly capture some relative links in posts
– inability to detect assets dynamically loaded via javascript on after page load
– no one-click transfer to your destination server via FTP,sFTP, WebDAV, etc.

Recent modifications

– ability to specify extra files to be included in the .ZIP file

Planned upgrades

– one-click transfer to your destination server via FTP,SFTP,WebDAV, etc
– progress meter to show % of .ZIP creation
– speed improvements

If you have any questions about this plugin’s usage, installation or development, please email me at: leon.stafford@mac.com. There is now also a support forum available here: https://leonstafford.wordpress.com/support-forum-wp-static-html-plugin.

Credits

Initial lead developer: Oleksandr Bernatskyi, Senior PHP Software Engineer
Bug fixes and feature additions: Leon Stafford, Internet Consultant

Donate

Want to see future enhancements to this plugin? Has it helped you build awesome websites? Contribute some $$ to help support poor developers like me 😉

My PayPal account ID is:

leon.stafford@mac.com (yes, I’m a Mac lover!)

How much should you donate (how much can you afford)?

If you are currently a poor developer, $1 is fine. If you program for Apple, $10 is better. For everyone else, please send me USD$37.63c, it’s my favorite number!