First Community Patch & “Tweaks”
+Fri, 15 Jul 2022
+pblog
has received its first community patch! By “community” I mean someone other than myself has helped make this blog generator even better. So special thanks to Matthew Graybosch for contributing to this humble project and patching in some solid quality of life improvements.
This is why open source is great: smarter people can help fix your mashed-up spaghetti code!
The Changes
- Both pages and posts now generated Table of Contents by default
- You have the ability to disable this site-wide in the
pblog
config
- You have the ability to disable this site-wide in the
- Ability to disable Pandoc generated syntax highlighting
xsltproc
will now generate HTML5 and include the RSS feed description under the title- See it live on the main RSS XML feed
- New metadata variable (
HTML_LANG
) in thepblog.sh
config - Generated pages and posts now have “Table of Contents” by default
- This can be disabled in individual files with
toc: false
- This can be disabled in individual files with
- Cleaned up redundant find statements
Some Features Left Behind…
Also suggested in this patch was the addition of more advanced image manipulation via ImageMagick
. This additional feature was pretty great from my testing but I felt as though adding an extra dependency and slightly more complex settings to pblog
was moving things further from simplicity.
BUT - that doesn’t mean you can’t take this great feature with you!
Introducing “Tweaks”
I feel that pblog
should always remain as simple as possible at the core. Let people get something up-and-running with the least amount of friction as possible. But I know that some users might want to squeeze just a little bit more out of it. This is where the new Tweaks section comes in.
Feel free to check out the official Tweaks page and don’t be afraid to add your own by opening a patch-set!
That’s all for now, thanks for reading!
– Brad
+New Default Styling and 2x Faster!
+Wed, 27 Jul 2022
+If it wasn’t already obvious, this project has received a minor styling overhaul. But looks weren’t the only thing updated with this latest patch.
The total build process time is now two times faster!
Keep reading for more details.
The Default “Theme”
The styling changes aren’t anything ground breaking. They simply center the main content and add a little more visual separation of the content and backdrop. Again, you can customize pblog
as you see fit, but having a sane default is always nice.
New Config Setup
Since updates and performance fixes might continue to come through in the future, I didn’t want to make users play around with their default configuration every single time. Now, all main configuration is handled in the _config.sh
file.
Feels cleaner already, right?
Cutting the Build Time in Half
I must give big kudos to Matthew Graybosch for inspiring this pretty big improvement. After some discussion over emails we both agreed that it seemed overkill to render the blog content twice (once for the XML feed itself and then again for all posts listed under blog
). Performance wasn’t the initial goal when I first launched this project, but now that the dust has settled it seemed appropriate to go back and fix some things.
pblog
now only needs to render the blog posts found in the posts
directory once. It still produces semantic XML and keeps the webview versions of the articles looking solid. Overall I’m pretty happy with this little improvement - it should pretty noticeable on projects rendering many posts.
Far From Perfect
This project is still very much in it’s infancy. So if you notice something odd or broken in your own testing, please don’t hesitate to open a patch or simply bring up the issue!
Thanks for reading,
– Brad
+pblog.xyz
Pandoc static blog generator
Introducing pblog
+Mon, 04 Jul 2022
+This article is a living document. It will always have the most up-to-date information on getting started with pblog
.
Last Updated: July 27, 2022
Although this project was already announced a couple days ago, I thought it might be best to actually breakdown pblog
into greater detail.
Enough chit-chat, let’s get into it!
Main Goal
The entire purpose of pblog
is to be as bare-bones as possible, while still maintaining a pleasant writing workflow. Users write their posts and pages in Markdown - pblog handles everything else:
- Posts and pages generated via Pandoc with minimal CSS
- RSS feed at
feed.xml
- Generated blog listing at
blog/index.html
- Browser-styled XML (in supported browsers)
Site Structure
After you’ve cloned the official pblog repo, the next thing you should do is edit the main _config.sh
file in the root directory. This will give you a better understanding of how everything is built.
Once generated, pblog structures the final website files as such:
_output/
+ |__blog/
+ |__index.html
+ |__blog-post-example.html
+ |__media/
+ |__feed.xml
+ |__index.html
+ |__rss.xsl
+ |__style.css
This structure is completely customizable by simply editing the pblog.sh
file (if you so desire).
Headers and Footers
By default pblog
will add the header and footer includes to every individual post and page. To edit these, simply open the _header.html
and _footer.html
files respectively.
Important: To avoid rendering issues DO NOT remove the included article
opening and closing tags within those files. Everything else you can edit, remove, etc.
Posts and Pages
Posts and pages are written via Markdown inside the posts
and pages
folders respectively.
Individual posts require the following headers (take note of the date format):
---
+title: Blog Title
+date: Mon, 04 Jul 2022
+---
while individual pages only require a title
:
---
+title: Page Title
+---
This makes for an easier switch over from other SSG platforms like Jekyll or Hugo.
The Build Process
The main variables at the top of the pblog.sh
file need to edited with your own details before generating your website. Those variables are fairly self-explanatory and simple to edit.
All you need to do now is run make
(or make serve
if you’re looking to test locally) and you’re done. Your website should now be fully generated inside the include _output
directory. For quick reference:
- pblog converts your Markdown posts into two variations of HTML
- One is used specifically for rendering itself inside the RSS feed
- The other is used for linking in a browser
- Next, pblog converts your Markdown pages into HTML
- All of these generated HTML files are then moved to the
_output
folder
pblog is also smart enough to automatically generate a main blog list directory for you. This index.html
file is placed inside the _output/blog
folder on build. You can see an example of the blog list on this very website.
Uploading to the WWW
Those with more experience will probably lean towards using a utility like rsync
to sync the contents of their _output
folder with their web server. For those with less experience, I recommend using something like Netlify Drop to make things as friction-less as possible.
Wrapping Up
There isn’t much else to say. pblog
is as static or flexible as you chose it to be. If you have any ideas on how to improve things or come across any bugs, please open a ticket or PR on the official repo.
Thanks and happy blogging with pblog!
+Announcing pblog
+Thu, 30 Jun 2022
+It’s time to celebrate! The official launch of pblog
happened today.
There isn’t much else to say. All details and instructions on how to start your own pblog can be found on the main homepage for this project.
Thanks for reading!
+Includes, rsync and Variables - Oh My!
+Fri, 08 Jul 2022
+Even though pblog
was just launched a week ago, it has since been updated with some nice quality-of-life improvements.
Default “header” & “footer” Includes
A new variable was added to the main pblog.sh
configuration file called INC_HEAD_FOOT
. By default this is set to true
and simply pulls in two HTML files:
_header.html
: all content within is placed directly after the openingbody
tag_footer.html
: all content within is placed directly before the closingbody
tag
These includes are added to every outputted file from inside both the posts
and pages
directories on build.
Syncing Changes with rsync
Although it adds another dependency to the project, I believe utilizing rsync
for the generated files is far better then nuking the directory from orbit each time. This also provides a cleaner experience for users syncing their _output
directory with their web server of choice.
On the Horizon…
My plan was to also tackle the issue of “auto rebuilds” when running pblog
locally. This became more of a headache than I initially estimated - so it was dropped from this patch. My hope is to get something up-and-running in the near future, while avoiding the inclusion of yet another major dependency. Anyone more experienced than myself in the ways of “auto rebuilds” is free to open a patch if they so desire!
Thanks for your interest in these minor updates!
P.S. Don’t forget - if your website runs on pblog
be sure to reach out and get it featured on the homepage!
First Community Patch & “Tweaks”
+Fri, 15 Jul 2022
+ + +pblog
has received its first community patch! By “community” I mean someone other than myself has helped make this blog generator even better. So special thanks to Matthew Graybosch for contributing to this humble project and patching in some solid quality of life improvements.
This is why open source is great: smarter people can help fix your mashed-up spaghetti code!
The Changes
- Both pages and posts now generated Table of Contents by default
- You have the ability to disable this site-wide in the
pblog
config
- You have the ability to disable this site-wide in the
- Ability to disable Pandoc generated syntax highlighting
xsltproc
will now generate HTML5 and include the RSS feed description under the title- See it live on the main RSS XML feed
- New metadata variable (
HTML_LANG
) in thepblog.sh
config - Generated pages and posts now have “Table of Contents” by default
- This can be disabled in individual files with
toc: false
- This can be disabled in individual files with
- Cleaned up redundant find statements
Some Features Left Behind…
Also suggested in this patch was the addition of more advanced image manipulation via ImageMagick
. This additional feature was pretty great from my testing but I felt as though adding an extra dependency and slightly more complex settings to pblog
was moving things further from simplicity.
BUT - that doesn’t mean you can’t take this great feature with you!
Introducing “Tweaks”
I feel that pblog
should always remain as simple as possible at the core. Let people get something up-and-running with the least amount of friction as possible. But I know that some users might want to squeeze just a little bit more out of it. This is where the new Tweaks section comes in.
Feel free to check out the official Tweaks page and don’t be afraid to add your own by opening a patch-set!
That’s all for now, thanks for reading!
– Brad
]]>New Default Styling and 2x Faster!
+Wed, 27 Jul 2022
+ + +If it wasn’t already obvious, this project has received a minor styling overhaul. But looks weren’t the only thing updated with this latest patch.
The total build process time is now two times faster!
Keep reading for more details.
The Default “Theme”
The styling changes aren’t anything ground breaking. They simply center the main content and add a little more visual separation of the content and backdrop. Again, you can customize pblog
as you see fit, but having a sane default is always nice.
New Config Setup
Since updates and performance fixes might continue to come through in the future, I didn’t want to make users play around with their default configuration every single time. Now, all main configuration is handled in the _config.sh
file.
Feels cleaner already, right?
Cutting the Build Time in Half
I must give big kudos to Matthew Graybosch for inspiring this pretty big improvement. After some discussion over emails we both agreed that it seemed overkill to render the blog content twice (once for the XML feed itself and then again for all posts listed under blog
). Performance wasn’t the initial goal when I first launched this project, but now that the dust has settled it seemed appropriate to go back and fix some things.
pblog
now only needs to render the blog posts found in the posts
directory once. It still produces semantic XML and keeps the webview versions of the articles looking solid. Overall I’m pretty happy with this little improvement - it should pretty noticeable on projects rendering many posts.
Far From Perfect
This project is still very much in it’s infancy. So if you notice something odd or broken in your own testing, please don’t hesitate to open a patch or simply bring up the issue!
Thanks for reading,
– Brad
]]>Introducing pblog
+Mon, 04 Jul 2022
+ + +This article is a living document. It will always have the most up-to-date information on getting started with pblog
.
Last Updated: July 27, 2022
Although this project was already announced a couple days ago, I thought it might be best to actually breakdown pblog
into greater detail.
Enough chit-chat, let’s get into it!
Main Goal
The entire purpose of pblog
is to be as bare-bones as possible, while still maintaining a pleasant writing workflow. Users write their posts and pages in Markdown - pblog handles everything else:
- Posts and pages generated via Pandoc with minimal CSS
- RSS feed at
feed.xml
- Generated blog listing at
blog/index.html
- Browser-styled XML (in supported browsers)
Site Structure
After you’ve cloned the official pblog repo, the next thing you should do is edit the main _config.sh
file in the root directory. This will give you a better understanding of how everything is built.
Once generated, pblog structures the final website files as such:
_output/
+ |__blog/
+ |__index.html
+ |__blog-post-example.html
+ |__media/
+ |__feed.xml
+ |__index.html
+ |__rss.xsl
+ |__style.css
This structure is completely customizable by simply editing the pblog.sh
file (if you so desire).
Headers and Footers
By default pblog
will add the header and footer includes to every individual post and page. To edit these, simply open the _header.html
and _footer.html
files respectively.
Important: To avoid rendering issues DO NOT remove the included article
opening and closing tags within those files. Everything else you can edit, remove, etc.
Posts and Pages
Posts and pages are written via Markdown inside the posts
and pages
folders respectively.
Individual posts require the following headers (take note of the date format):
---
+title: Blog Title
+date: Mon, 04 Jul 2022
+---
while individual pages only require a title
:
---
+title: Page Title
+---
This makes for an easier switch over from other SSG platforms like Jekyll or Hugo.
The Build Process
The main variables at the top of the pblog.sh
file need to edited with your own details before generating your website. Those variables are fairly self-explanatory and simple to edit.
All you need to do now is run make
(or make serve
if you’re looking to test locally) and you’re done. Your website should now be fully generated inside the include _output
directory. For quick reference:
- pblog converts your Markdown posts into two variations of HTML
- One is used specifically for rendering itself inside the RSS feed
- The other is used for linking in a browser
- Next, pblog converts your Markdown pages into HTML
- All of these generated HTML files are then moved to the
_output
folder
pblog is also smart enough to automatically generate a main blog list directory for you. This index.html
file is placed inside the _output/blog
folder on build. You can see an example of the blog list on this very website.
Uploading to the WWW
Those with more experience will probably lean towards using a utility like rsync
to sync the contents of their _output
folder with their web server. For those with less experience, I recommend using something like Netlify Drop to make things as friction-less as possible.
Wrapping Up
There isn’t much else to say. pblog
is as static or flexible as you chose it to be. If you have any ideas on how to improve things or come across any bugs, please open a ticket or PR on the official repo.
Thanks and happy blogging with pblog!
]]>Announcing pblog
+Thu, 30 Jun 2022
+ +It’s time to celebrate! The official launch of pblog
happened today.
There isn’t much else to say. All details and instructions on how to start your own pblog can be found on the main homepage for this project.
Thanks for reading!
]]>Includes, rsync and Variables - Oh My!
+Fri, 08 Jul 2022
+ + +Even though pblog
was just launched a week ago, it has since been updated with some nice quality-of-life improvements.
Default “header” & “footer” Includes
A new variable was added to the main pblog.sh
configuration file called INC_HEAD_FOOT
. By default this is set to true
and simply pulls in two HTML files:
_header.html
: all content within is placed directly after the openingbody
tag_footer.html
: all content within is placed directly before the closingbody
tag
These includes are added to every outputted file from inside both the posts
and pages
directories on build.
Syncing Changes with rsync
Although it adds another dependency to the project, I believe utilizing rsync
for the generated files is far better then nuking the directory from orbit each time. This also provides a cleaner experience for users syncing their _output
directory with their web server of choice.
On the Horizon…
My plan was to also tackle the issue of “auto rebuilds” when running pblog
locally. This became more of a headache than I initially estimated - so it was dropped from this patch. My hope is to get something up-and-running in the near future, while avoiding the inclusion of yet another major dependency. Anyone more experienced than myself in the ways of “auto rebuilds” is free to open a patch if they so desire!
Thanks for your interest in these minor updates!
P.S. Don’t forget - if your website runs on pblog
be sure to reach out and get it featured on the homepage!
pblog.xyz
+Pandoc static blog generator
pblog
comes packed with an incredible list of features:
- 5-second configuration
- Write all your posts and pages in Markdown
- Valid RSS 2.0 feed (customized design too!)
and it also doesn’t ship with a lot of other features:
- No advanced template layouts
- No themes
- No categories / tagging systems
- No comments
- No auto rebuilds for local testing
But you can add these things yourself with a little know-how and patience! The goal of pblog
is to remain as bare-bones as possible, so these “extras” are left out intentionally.
Live Demo
This very website is a live demo! Mind blowing, right? Take a look at the automated blog list to see some blog posts.
Requirements
On MacOS / BSD Systems
On Linux
Getting Started
- Clone the project repo: https://git.sr.ht/~tdarb/pblog.xyz
- Edit the variables at the top of the
pblog.sh
file - !! Pay close attention to the
OS
variable to set your correct operating system !! - Edit the posts in
posts
and pages inpages
to your own - Run
make
from the root directory - Upload the contents of the
_output
folder to your server - Profit!!!
For a more in-depth look, take a look at the article Introducing pblog
Base Settings
Table of Contents
By default pblog
ships with TOC (Table of Contents) enabled. You can disable this on each individual page or post by editing the TOC
variable in pblog.sh
to false
:
TOC: false
Code Highlighting
pblog
uses the standard syntax highlighting provided with Pandoc. To disable this, set the SYNTAX
variable to false
in pblog.sh
:
SYNTAX: false
Extras
- Add all media files (images, videos, etc.) under the
media
folder - Customize the look of your blog by editing the included
style.css
- Looking for fancier image manipulation? Take a look at this detailed post to get setup
Sites built with pblog
You can share your pblog websites by emailing me at the address listed below and I’ll add them here.
hello at tdarb {dot} org
+
+
Tweaks
+Tweaks Explained
“Tweaks” are extra features that are not packaged within the default pblog
project. If you have your own tweaks you would like to include, be sure to open a patch.
Magick Images
by: Matthew Graybosch
This tweak gives you the ability to automatically convert PNG and JPG images to WEBP and AVIF files when used with the picture
HTML element.
Requirements:
- Download and install ImageMagick
Then change your base makefile
to reflect the following:
.SUFFIXES: .png .jpg .webp .avif
+
+.jpg.webp:
+magick -quality 80 "$<" "$@"
+
+.jpg.avif:
+magick -quality 80 "$<" "$@"
+
+.png.webp:
+magick -quality 80 "$<" "$@"
+
+.png.avif:
+magick -quality 80 "$<" "$@"
+
+JPEGS!=find media/ -name '*.jpg'
+PNGS!=find media/ -name '*.png'
+
+JPEG_WEBP=${JPEGS:.jpg=.webp}
+JPEG_AVIF=${JPEGS:.jpg=.avif}
+
+PNG_WEBP=${PNGS:.png=.webp}
+PNG_AVIF=${PNGS:.png=.avif}
+
+.DEFAULT: build
+
+.PHONY: build
+build: $(JPEG_WEBP) $(JPEG_AVIF) $(PNG_WEBP) $(PNG_AVIF)
+bash pblog.sh > _output/feed.xml
+ xsltproc _output/feed.xml | tail -n +2 > _output/blog/index.html
+
+serve: build
+python3 -m http.server --directory _output/
+
+clean:
+rm _output/* rss/* $(JPEG_WEBP) $(JPEG_AVIF) $(PNG_WEBP) $(PNG_AVIF)
That’s it. Enjoy!
Hiding Table of Contents “Heading”
by Bradley Taunt
By default the include Table of Contents displays a title and styled section. To disable this, simply edit the style.css
file and comment out or delete the following:
#TOC {
+border: 1px solid;
+ position: relative;
+
+ }#TOC:before {
+border-bottom: 1px solid;
+ content: 'Table of Contents';
+ display: block;
+ font-weight: bold;
+ padding: 5px;
+ position: relative;
+ }
Adding navigation to blog index and RSS feed
In order to include any main navigation (or other custom elements for that matter) on the main blog index page and RSS feed.xml
, simply edit the rss.xml
file in the root directory. Be sure to add your elements / content inside the body
tag near the bottom of the page.
+ +## Magick Images + +#### by: [Matthew Graybosch](https://matthewgraybosch.com) + +This tweak gives you the ability to automatically convert PNG and JPG images to WEBP and AVIF files when used with the `picture` HTML element. + +**Requirements**: + +- Download and install [ImageMagick](https://imagemagick.org/script/download.php) + +Then change your base `makefile` to reflect the following: + +```bash +.SUFFIXES: .png .jpg .webp .avif + +.jpg.webp: + magick -quality 80 "$<" "$@" + +.jpg.avif: + magick -quality 80 "$<" "$@" + +.png.webp: + magick -quality 80 "$<" "$@" + +.png.avif: + magick -quality 80 "$<" "$@" + +JPEGS!=find media/ -name '*.jpg' +PNGS!=find media/ -name '*.png' + +JPEG_WEBP=${JPEGS:.jpg=.webp} +JPEG_AVIF=${JPEGS:.jpg=.avif} + +PNG_WEBP=${PNGS:.png=.webp} +PNG_AVIF=${PNGS:.png=.avif} + +.DEFAULT: build + +.PHONY: build +build: $(JPEG_WEBP) $(JPEG_AVIF) $(PNG_WEBP) $(PNG_AVIF) + bash pblog.sh > _output/feed.xml + xsltproc _output/feed.xml | tail -n +2 > _output/blog/index.html + +serve: build + python3 -m http.server --directory _output/ + +clean: + rm _output/* rss/* $(JPEG_WEBP) $(JPEG_AVIF) $(PNG_WEBP) $(PNG_AVIF) +``` + +That's it. Enjoy! + +--- + +
+ +## Hiding Table of Contents "Heading" + +#### by [Bradley Taunt](https://tdarb.org) + +By default the include *Table of Contents* displays a title and styled section. To disable this, simply edit the `style.css` file and comment out or delete the following: + +```css +#TOC { + border: 1px solid; + position: relative; +} +#TOC:before { + border-bottom: 1px solid; + content: 'Table of Contents'; + display: block; + font-weight: bold; + padding: 5px; + position: relative; +} +``` + +--- + +
+ +## Adding navigation to blog index and RSS feed + +In order to include any main navigation (or other custom elements for that matter) on the main blog index page and RSS `feed.xml`, simply edit the `rss.xml` file in the root directory. Be sure to add your elements / content inside the `body` tag near the bottom of the page. diff --git a/pblog.sh b/pblog.sh new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed392c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/pblog.sh @@ -0,0 +1,80 @@ +#!/bin/sh + +source _config.sh + +################################################################################### +# !WARNING! +# You probably don't need to tweak anything below this line. Edit at your own risk! +################################################################################### +if [[ $TOC = true ]] + then + TOC_TOGGLE="--toc"; + else + TOC_TOGGLE=""; +fi + +if [[ $SYNTAX = true ]] + then + SYNTAX_TOGGLE=""; + else + SYNTAX_TOGGLE="--no-highlight"; +fi + +# Create the web browser-focused HTML versions for all posts +for i in $POSTS; do pandoc --css=../style.css --ascii --metadata lang="$HTML_LANG" $TOC_TOGGLE $SYNTAX_TOGGLE --wrap=none -A _footer.html -B _header.html -s $i -o ${i%.*}.html; done; + +rsync $POSTS_DIR*.html $OUTPUT$WEB_HTML; +rm $POSTS_DIR*.html + +# Create the web browser-focused HTML versions for all pages +for i in $PAGES; do pandoc --css=style.css --ascii --metadata lang="$HTML_LANG" $TOC_TOGGLE $SYNTAX_TOGGLE --wrap=none -A _footer.html -B _header.html -s $i -o ${i%.*}.html; done; + +rsync $PAGES_DIR*.html $OUTPUT; +rm $PAGES_DIR*.html + +# Copy XSLT, stylesheet, and media files +rsync rss.xsl $OUTPUT; +rsync style.css $OUTPUT; +rsync -r media $OUTPUT; + +# Remove the default blog index to avoid pulling into the XML feed +rm $OUTPUT$WEB_HTML/index.html + +echo " + +
\([^<]*\)
$|\1|p' $file) +POST_TITLE=$(sed -n 's|^\([^<]*\)
$|\1|p' $file) +POST_CONTENT=$(sed -n '/\([^<]*\)
$|\1|p' $file)" +"%Y/%m/%d/%u") + POST_DATE=$(gdate -d "$(sed -n 's|^\([^<]*\)
$|\1|p' $file)" +"%a, %d %b %Y") +else + CAT_DATE=$(date -d "$(sed -n 's|^\([^<]*\)
$|\1|p' $file)" +"%Y/%m/%d/%u") + POST_DATE=$(date -d "$(sed -n 's|^\([^<]*\)
$|\1|p' $file)" +"%a, %d %b %Y") +fi + +echo "
+