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https://github.com/justlark/gempost

A simple static site generator for creating a blog on the Gemini protocol
https://github.com/justlark/gempost

atom-feed blogging gemini-protocol static-site-generator

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A simple static site generator for creating a blog on the Gemini protocol

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README 

        
# gempost



gempost is a minimal static site generator for publishing a blog (gemlog) on

the [Gemini protocol](https://geminiprotocol.net/).



You store metadata about each gemlog post in a sidecar YAML file, and gempost

generates a gemtext index page and an Atom feed.



You can use a [Tera](https://keats.github.io/tera/) template to customize the

format of the index page. You can also use a template to customize the format

of the gemlog posts themselves, such as to add a copyright footer or a

navigation header to each post. See [Examples](#Examples) for examples of both.



The metadata in the sidecar YAML file allows you to generate an Atom feed with

rich metadata, but most of this metadata is optional and not necessary to

generate a working feed.



## Getting started



### Installing gempost



To install gempost, you must first [install

Rust](https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install). Then, you can install gempost

with Cargo.



```shell

cargo install gempost

```



### Creating a new gempost project



You can initialize a new gempost project like this:



```shell

gempost init ./capsule

```



This will create a directory `./capsule/` that looks like this:



```

capsule/

├── gempost.yaml

├── posts/

│   ├── hello-world.gmi

│   └── hello-world.yaml

├── static/

│   └── index.gmi

└── templates/

    ├── index.tera

    └── post.tera

```



This includes:



- An example `gempost.yaml` config file to get you started. You'll need to edit

  this to set your capsule's title and URL.

- Some basic templates you can use as-is or customize.

- A "hello world" example post for your gemlog, with its accompanying sidecar

  metadata file.

- A static `index.gmi` for your capsule root.



Edit the `gempost.yaml` and you're ready to build your capsule!



### Building your capsule



```shell

cd ./capsule

gempost build

```



Your capsule will be generated in the `./public/` directory. You'll need a

Gemini server like [Agate](https://github.com/mbrubeck/agate) to actually serve

your capsule over the Gemini protocol. Check out [Awesome

Gemini](https://github.com/kr1sp1n/awesome-gemini#servers) for a more complete

list of Gemini servers.



### Creating a new post



You can add a new post to your gemlog with `gempost new `. This creates a

`.gmi` file in the `./posts/` directory with an accompanying `.yaml` metadata

file. See [examples/metadata.yaml](./examples/metadata.yaml) for an example of

all the different values you can set in the YAML metadata file. Only some are

required.



### Adding static content



You can add new static content to your capsule (anything that's not your

gemlog) by putting it in the `./static/` directory. If a file in the static

directory conflicts with one generated by gempost, the one if the static

directory will win.



### Customizing templates



You can customize the index page and post page templates in the `./templates/`

directory from their defaults. They use the

[Tera](https://keats.github.io/tera/) text templating language, which is

similar to the popular Jinja templating language. See the

[Templates](#templates) section below for a list of all the variables that are

available inside these template.



## Examples



Running `gempost init` will generate minimal index page and post page templates

you can use to get started. These will probably be fine for most users.



However, if you want to see more complex examples of what you can do with

templates, the examples below make use of more of the post metadata to provide

more rich output. You can use these templates as-is, or as a guide to write

your own.



- See [examples/index.tera](./examples/index.tera) for an example of an index

  page template.

- See [examples/post.tera](./examples/post.tera) for an example of a post page

  template.



Additionally, see [examples/metadata.yaml](./examples/metadata.yaml) for an

example of a sidecar gemlog post metadata file showing all the possible fields.



## Templates



The index page template has access to:

- A `feed` variable which is a Feed object.



The post page template has access to:

- A `feed` variable which is a Feed object.

- An `entry` variable which is an Entry object for the current post.



All dates are in RFC 3339 format, which looks like this:



```

2006-01-02T15:04:05Z07:00

```



### Author object



- `name` *(string)* The name of the author

- `email` *(string, optional)* The author's email address

- `uri` *(string, optional)* A URI describing the author



### Entry object



- `url` *(string)* The URL of the post

- `title` *(string)* The title of the post

- `body` *(string)* The gemtext body of the post

- `updated` *(string)* When the post was last updated

- `summary` *(string, optional)* The summary of the post

- `published` *(string, optional)* When the post was originally published

- `author` *(Author object, optional)* The author of the post

- `rights` *(string, optional)* The copyright and license information for the post

- `lang` *(string, optional)* The RFC 5646 language code for the language the

  post is written in (e.g. `en`, `de`)

- `categories` *(array of strings)* The list of categories the post belongs to



### Feed object



- `capsule_url` *(string)* The URL of your capsule's homepage

- `feed_url` *(string)* The URL of the Atom feed

- `index_url` *(string)* The URL of the gemlog index page

- `title` *(string)* The title of the feed

- `updated` *(string)* When any post in the feed was last updated

- `subtitle` *(string, optional)* The subtitle of the feed

- `rights` *(string, optional)* The copyright and license information for the feed

- `author` *(Author object, optional)* The primary author of the feed

- `entries` *(array of Entry objects)* The list of posts in the feed, sorted

  reverse-chronologically by publish date or, if no publish date, last updated

  date



## Suggestions



Here are some miscellaneous suggestions for working with gempost.



You can check your gempost project directory into a VCS of your choice if you

like; just make sure you configure it to ignore the `./public/` directory!



If your Gemini server expects to find your capsule in a particular directory,

you can change the location of the `./public/` directory from its default in

the `gempost.yaml`. Note that file paths in the `gempost.yaml` do not support

tilde expansion.



Every post must have a unique ID to generate the Atom feed. Atom require that

this be a globally unique URI that never ever changes. So, as an alternative to

using your post URL, which might change, you can use a UUID URN:



```

urn:uuid:165b10e8-78c9-45ba-83ef-2f7bd5d89725

```



Running `gempost new` will automatically assign a UUID post ID.



Each post must have a time last updated and, optionally, time originally

published. To get the current time in RFC 3339 format—the format gempost

expects—you can use this command on \*nix platforms:



```shell

date --rfc-3339 seconds

```



## Similar tools



Check out these other awesome static site generators for gemlogs:



- [gloggery](https://github.com/kconner/gloggery)

- [gssg](https://git.sr.ht/~gsthnz/gssg)

- [kiln](https://git.sr.ht/~adnano/kiln)