DATAFRUITS RELEASES catalog site

Middleman static site for https://releases.datafruits.fm/. The release catalog (search, series/artist filters, grid/list view, lazy-loading cards) is baked into build/index.html at build time from a YAML snapshot of the DATAFRUITS releases spreadsheet.

Run locally

bundle install
bundle exec middleman build

The generated site is written to build/.

Local preview server (rebuilds and serves with live reload):

bundle exec middleman server

Open http://127.0.0.1:4567/.

config.ru/Procfile run the same bundle exec middleman build and serve build/ via Rack for the Heroku deploy.

Data flow

Google Sheet (TSV export)
  -> ruby bin/fetch_releases.rb -> data/releases.yml, data/artists.yml (committed)
  -> bundle exec middleman build -> build/index.html (release cards + embedded JSON baked in)

data/releases.yml and data/artists.yml are committed snapshots of the spreadsheet, not fetched live. To pick up new releases:

ruby bin/fetch_releases.rb
bundle exec middleman build
git add data/releases.yml data/artists.yml
git commit -m "Refresh release catalog"

bin/fetch_releases.rb reads the same two sheets referenced below and can be pointed at different sheets via DATAFRUITS_TSV_URL/DATAFRUITS_ARTISTS_URL env vars.

The source/index.html.erb template (via helpers in config.rb) computes everything date-dependent — sort order, search text, and the "NEW" badge for releases within the last 180 days — at build time, so a rebuild is all that's needed to refresh those, even without re-running the fetch script. It also embeds the normalized release/artist data as JSON for source/app.js, which handles search, filtering, view toggling, and lazy-rendering entirely client-side with no network requests.

Deploys

Four targets all build the same way (bundle exec middleman build, no Node involved):

• Heroku — config.ru/Procfile, Rack serving build/.
• Netlify — netlify.toml.
• GitLab Pages — .gitlab-ci.yml, copies build/ into public/.
• GitHub Pages — .github/workflows/deploy-ssg.yml, runs on push to main, daily on a schedule, or manually.

The custom domain (releases.datafruits.fm) is set via source/CNAME, which Middleman copies into build/CNAME on every build.

Spreadsheet feed

Releases sheet: gid=0. Artist-list sheet: gid=459498689 (range B:B), whose first row named Sorted Artist is skipped; Various Artists is pinned to the top of the artist filter, followed by a separator, then the rest.

Recommended columns:

catalog ID	artist	title	link	image URL	date	Series	Package	Track List	Credit

Column aliases are accepted for common names such as catalog, cover, artwork, jacket, image, url, bandcamp, format, genre, genres, released, and Japanese labels like 品番, アーティスト, タイトル, 発売日, ジャケット (see HEADER_ALIASES in bin/fetch_releases.rb).

image URL should be a public image URL or a relative image path. If it is blank or fails to load, the site renders a generated catalog jacket.

The masthead also uses a small decorative layer of GIFs from DATAFRUITS wiki pages. Their positions are randomized on each load and move lightly on scroll for a parallax feel.