Okay, the more we learn the more we like Pinegrow. One sticky issue - I’ve searched the forum and documentation with no luck - is how to create a list of teasers with thumbnails and links for news stories (we have a lot). I’m not surprised if that is not possible without a dynamic database, but we have been pleasantly surprised at how many “dynamic” features are available in Pinegrow so I have to ask. Does anyone have a solution for this?
Specifically:
There is a file folder full of news stories.
They have defined headlines, “teasers” (paragraph summary), and a thumbnail image.
I want to display, on a home page, the most recent ones (three to ten) with a link to “more stories” (or a paginated list).
Or some equivalent strategy… 
I forgot, we would like to do this for videos also (Brightcove or Youtube).
Something like this:
https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages
This can be done with javascript if the content is physically in the same domain publicly available. I have done this with PHP. If you look at carousel’s and tabbed or slider boxes where content is shown in various order and reloaded with new content wither automatically or on a click of the next slide or tab. It is pretty easy to do.
I personally don’t like javascript automation of written content due to the SEO complexities, but if you don’t care about the rankings of the content within the javascript based content display it is an option.
The problem that comes into play with LARGE sites with lots of content and not using a database is that it becomes almost impossible to maintain over time. If you are into CMS management solutions they will make it a breeze with content management. You do not have to go all out with a Wordpress site just some little control panel to put the content into, store it into a database and then the site can retrieve it or output physical files and then every so often check if the content is updated and output the new pages. I only suggest that with non-shared hosting though because the sites can get rather large and take up a lot of storage space. Simple little database and basic content manager and you are good.
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Thanks @Terry44. We’ve become disillusioned after trying several dynamic database WCMs over the past decade because of the cost and complexity. Also, the page load speeds are less than optimal. We’ve heard that some large companies are moving toward flat file (static) web content to improve delivery (especially now that page speed is an SEO factor). So far in our research of flat file systems, we haven’t found any showstoppers (we are still working on list management and multiple photo sizes).
Here is our thinking. Reserve some server space for a stage and production environment. Put content into a logical file folder structure, Use templates, search and replace, and reusable content blocks to to maintain consistency and allow for sitewide edits.
It looks good on paper. We plan to set up a prototype before we take the plunge. The devil is always in the details.
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I know there has been sometime between the last post and this one but an additional idea to look at is to create the static pages and then have them updated when the content is updated in the database. I do this on some sites where I use PHP to instead display content in the database, output a file and check every so many page loads or via a cron schedule check the last time the content was updated and compare that to the generated file timestamp then output a new version if it is out of sync.
You can also make it work so that if the content is deleted in the database or moved to another section, category that the physical file is also removed and either recreated or not in the new section.
What I like about this option is that you get both worlds. A database of stored content and a physical file version for fast loading and the creation and update process is automated. It really depends on the site if I go this route or just leave it as a database driven site, though I like the flexibility of being able to do either. Some content is updated too frequently to make the static file work while others are not so a mixture of both can be used as well.