Static Vals

[pomdtr]

I often want to write/host static assets in val.town (ex: html files, json configs, css stylesheets, markdown documents).

Using blob for those is not great since they do not support:

• serving (ex: pomdtr-static.web.val.run serve an html val)
• editing
• setting the privacy
• esm.town
• readme
• ...

My current workaround is to use this val: https://www.val.town/v/pomdtr/static, but obviously the editing experience is subpar.

There are already a significant amount of vals that are used only client-side (ex: https://www.val.town/v/stevekrouse/dataTableScript) that would fit this definition that would fit this definition. The run button does not accomplish anything for them, since they are not supposed to run on val.town,

I think introducing a new type of vals (static vals) would make sense. Intead of a run button they would have a language selector at the top right.

It would also play well with the new import syntax that should release soon in deno:

// Plain text imports
import style from "https://esm.town/v/pomdtr/stylesheet" with { type: "text" };

[stevekrouse]

Great discussion here: https://discord.com/channels/1020432421243592714/1020432421243592717/1194566199200190525

I think this is a wonderful question. Could it make sense to "overload" the term val in such a way? Already it feels like the many different types of "val" are a bit overwhelming. But maybe there's room for one more slice.

Or should we offer a static file hosting service that's separate? The issue there is that that would be a big increase in the product's complexity / surface area.

Let's continue to noodle on it!

[pomdtr]

Or should we offer a static file hosting service that's separate?

Not a fan of this option, as I feel most val concepts translate great to "static vals".

[stevekrouse]

Agreed! But then we'll need another "type" of val that doesn't have a run button or logs or other things that normal vals do. Could make sense - just flagging the overloading.

[mb21]

It shouldn't be another type of val. You should be able to mark a folder in any val to be served statically. Similar to public folders in some web projects, or the CF assets directory. If a request matches a file in that folder, it should take precedence over other HTTP endpoints in the val.

[stevekrouse]

Good idea! In the meantime, this is how to serve html and other text assets: https://www.val.town/x/std/basic-html-starter

[pomdtr]

I just thought about this once again, and I feel like there could be a nice integration with esm.town:

For this static_val: (pomdtr/table)

name,speed
usain,10
biden,-3

The esm.town url (https://esm.town/v/pomdtr/table) would return:

export default <json-stringified-content>;

So you would be able to import the text from other vals.

import table from "https://esm.town/v/pomdtr/table"

If I want to access the raw text of the val, I would use https://cdn.town/v/pomdtr/table instead.

[stevekrouse]

I like the idea of a CDN service that can turn your val town content into other kinds of static content. And as you're doing it could definitely be done in user space, even for other user's content as long as it's public. Kinda like how there are plenty of CDNs on top of github

[KooIaIa]

This would be great so we could use our limited "Runs per Day" on stuff that is actually dynamic that needs computation. What would happen if a val updated a static file's data?

I'm really optimistic about val.town because Glitch.com is shutting down and the world desperately needs a friendly replacement.