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| 1 | #+title: Blogging in Org-Mode | 1 | #+title: Blogging in Org-Mode |
| 2 | #+date: 2024-03-29 | 2 | #+date: <2024-03-29 Fri 09:00:00> |
| 3 | #+description: A guide to blogging with org-mode, no third-party tools required. | 3 | #+description: A guide to blogging with org-mode, no third-party tools required. |
| 4 | #+filetags: :dev: | 4 | #+filetags: :dev: |
| 5 | #+draft: t | ||
| 6 | #+slug: org-blog | 5 | #+slug: org-blog |
| 7 | 6 | ||
| 8 | Refer to the post I wrote about [[/blog/doom-emacs-org-mode.html][Doom Emacs & Org-Mode]] for more information about | 7 | First and foremost, apologies to those who subscribe via RSS as I know that my |
| 9 | my base Emacs configuration. | 8 | feed duplicated itself when I moved this blog over to org-mode last night. |
| 10 | 9 | ||
| 11 | * TODO Weblorg | 10 | This post focuses specifically on the configuration and tools I use to blog from |
| 11 | Emacs with Org-Mode and does not focus on Emacs or Org-Mode themselves. Refer to | ||
| 12 | the post I wrote about [[/blog/doom-emacs-org-mode.html][Doom Emacs & Org-Mode]] for more information about my base | ||
| 13 | Emacs configuration. | ||
| 14 | |||
| 15 | * Weblorg | ||
| 16 | |||
| 17 | The first step in blogging with Org-Mode is to choose a method to convert the | ||
| 18 | source files to HTML and publish them. The Worg site maintains a nice list of | ||
| 19 | [[https://orgmode.org/worg/org-blog-wiki.html][Blogs and Wikis with Org]], but the tools are inevitably different and | ||
| 20 | opinionated, so you'll need to find what works for you. | ||
| 21 | |||
| 22 | I tried using Jekyll, Hugo, ox-hugo, Nikola, Blorg, org-static-blog, and the | ||
| 23 | native org-publish functions before finally settling on Weblorg. For one reason | ||
| 24 | or another, the other solutions were a drastic step down from my previous | ||
| 25 | workflow that used [[https://www.getzola.org/][Zola]] with Markdown content. | ||
| 12 | 26 | ||
| 13 | [[https://github.com/emacs-love/weblorg][Weblorg]] is a static site generator for [[https://orgmode.org/][org-mode]], built for use within [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/][Emacs]]. | 27 | [[https://github.com/emacs-love/weblorg][Weblorg]] is a static site generator for [[https://orgmode.org/][org-mode]], built for use within [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/][Emacs]]. |
| 28 | Since it's written in Emacs Lisp, there's no need to install other languages or | ||
| 29 | frameworks to get started. More than that, you can write in any editor you | ||
| 30 | please and simply invoke the Emacs build process with the =--script= parameter | ||
| 31 | instead of requiring you to blog inside Emacs. | ||
| 14 | 32 | ||
| 15 | ** Installation | 33 | ** Installation |
| 16 | 34 | ||
| 17 | macOS, use Doom's package installation process, link proper files in =publish.el= | 35 | The [[https://emacs.love/weblorg/doc/index.html][Getting Started]] page details broad installation requirements. I am using |
| 36 | Doom Emacs on macOS, which requires you to add the package to the | ||
| 37 | =~/.doom.d/packages.el= file and configure the =publish.el= file slightly | ||
| 38 | differently. | ||
| 39 | |||
| 40 | To start, add the =htmlize= and =weblorg= packages to Doom, sync the changes, | ||
| 41 | and reload. | ||
| 42 | |||
| 43 | #+begin_src sh | ||
| 44 | nano ~/.doom.d/packages.el | ||
| 45 | #+end_src | ||
| 46 | |||
| 47 | #+begin_src lisp | ||
| 48 | (package! htmlize) | ||
| 49 | (package! weblorg) | ||
| 50 | #+end_src | ||
| 51 | |||
| 52 | #+begin_src sh | ||
| 53 | doom sync | ||
| 54 | #+end_src | ||
| 55 | |||
| 56 | Either re-open Emacs or hit =SPC h r r= to reload the changes. | ||
| 18 | 57 | ||
| 19 | ** Configuration | 58 | ** Configuration |
| 20 | 59 | ||
| 60 | Now that I've installed weblorg, I need to configure the project. I'll start by | ||
| 61 | navigating to my site's source code and creating a =publish.el= file. | ||
| 62 | |||
| 63 | #+begin_src sh | ||
| 64 | cd ~/Source/cleberg.net && nano publish.el | ||
| 65 | #+end_src | ||
| 66 | |||
| 67 | Since I'm using Doom, Emacs will not automatically load the packages I need | ||
| 68 | later in the build process. To compensate, my =publish.el= file needs to | ||
| 69 | explicitly tell Emacs where Doom stores the =htmlize=, =weblorg=, and templatel= | ||
| 70 | packages. | ||
| 71 | |||
| 72 | #+begin_src lisp | ||
| 73 | ;; explicity load packages since I'm using Doom Emacs | ||
| 74 | (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/.local/straight/repos/emacs-htmlize") | ||
| 75 | (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/.local/straight/repos/weblorg") | ||
| 76 | (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/.local/straight/repos/templatel") | ||
| 77 | (require 'htmlize) | ||
| 78 | (require 'weblorg) | ||
| 79 | |||
| 80 | ;; defaults to http://localhost:8000 | ||
| 81 | ;; To build with the custom URL below, call: | ||
| 82 | ;;;; ENV=prod emacs --script publish.el | ||
| 83 | (if (string= (getenv "ENV") "prod") | ||
| 84 | (setq weblorg-default-url "https://cleberg.net")) | ||
| 85 | |||
| 86 | ;; site metadata | ||
| 87 | (weblorg-site | ||
| 88 | :theme nil | ||
| 89 | :template-vars '(("site_name" . "cleberg.net") | ||
| 90 | ("site_owner" . "hello@cleberg.net") | ||
| 91 | ("site_description" . "Just a blip of ones and zeroes."))) | ||
| 92 | |||
| 93 | ;; route for rendering the index page of the website | ||
| 94 | (weblorg-route | ||
| 95 | :name "index" | ||
| 96 | :input-pattern "content/index.org" | ||
| 97 | :template "index.html" | ||
| 98 | :output ".build/index.html" | ||
| 99 | :url "/") | ||
| 100 | |||
| 101 | ;; route for rendering each blog post | ||
| 102 | (weblorg-route | ||
| 103 | :name "blog" | ||
| 104 | :input-pattern "content/blog/*.org" | ||
| 105 | :template "post.html" | ||
| 106 | :output ".build/blog/{{ slug }}.html" | ||
| 107 | :url "/blog/{{ slug }}.html") | ||
| 108 | |||
| 109 | ;; route for rendering the index page of the blog | ||
| 110 | (weblorg-route | ||
| 111 | :name "blog-index" | ||
| 112 | :input-pattern "content/blog/*.org" | ||
| 113 | :input-aggregate #'weblorg-input-aggregate-all-desc | ||
| 114 | :template "blog.html" | ||
| 115 | :output ".build/blog/index.html" | ||
| 116 | :url "/blog/") | ||
| 117 | |||
| 118 | ;; route for rendering each wiki post | ||
| 119 | (weblorg-route | ||
| 120 | :name "wiki" | ||
| 121 | :input-pattern "content/wiki/*.org" | ||
| 122 | :template "post.html" | ||
| 123 | :output ".build/wiki/{{ slug }}.html" | ||
| 124 | :url "/wiki/{{ slug }}.html") | ||
| 125 | |||
| 126 | ;; route for rendering the index page of the wiki | ||
| 127 | (weblorg-route | ||
| 128 | :name "wiki-index" | ||
| 129 | :input-pattern "content/wiki/*.org" | ||
| 130 | :input-aggregate #'weblorg-input-aggregate-all | ||
| 131 | :template "wiki.html" | ||
| 132 | :output ".build/wiki/index.html" | ||
| 133 | :url "/wiki/") | ||
| 134 | |||
| 135 | ;; routes for rendering all other pages | ||
| 136 | (weblorg-route | ||
| 137 | :name "pages" | ||
| 138 | :input-pattern "content/*.org" | ||
| 139 | :template "page.html" | ||
| 140 | :output ".build/{{ slug }}.html" | ||
| 141 | :url "/{{ slug }}.html") | ||
| 142 | |||
| 143 | (weblorg-route | ||
| 144 | :name "salary" | ||
| 145 | :input-pattern "content/salary/*.org" | ||
| 146 | :template "page.html" | ||
| 147 | :output ".build/salary/{{ slug }}.html" | ||
| 148 | :url "/salary/{{ slug }}.html") | ||
| 149 | |||
| 150 | (weblorg-route | ||
| 151 | :name "services" | ||
| 152 | :input-pattern "content/services/*.org" | ||
| 153 | :template "page.html" | ||
| 154 | :output ".build/services/{{ slug }}.html" | ||
| 155 | :url "/services/{{ slug }}.html") | ||
| 156 | |||
| 157 | ;; RSS Feed | ||
| 158 | (weblorg-route | ||
| 159 | :name "rss" | ||
| 160 | :input-pattern "content/blog/*.org" | ||
| 161 | :input-aggregate #'weblorg-input-aggregate-all-desc | ||
| 162 | :template "atom.xml" | ||
| 163 | :output ".build/atom.xml" | ||
| 164 | :url "/atom.xml") | ||
| 165 | |||
| 166 | ;; route for static assets that also copies files to .build directory | ||
| 167 | (weblorg-copy-static | ||
| 168 | :output ".build/{{ file }}" | ||
| 169 | :url "/{{ file }}") | ||
| 170 | |||
| 171 | ;; fire the engine and export all the files declared in the routes above | ||
| 172 | (weblorg-export) | ||
| 173 | #+end_src | ||
| 174 | |||
| 21 | * Project | 175 | * Project |
| 22 | 176 | ||
| 23 | ** TODO Structure | 177 | ** Structure |
| 178 | |||
| 179 | The project structure for weblorg is highly customizable and the main | ||
| 180 | restriction is that the =publish.el= file must point to the correct paths. | ||
| 24 | 181 | ||
| 25 | ** TODO Configuration | 182 | For my blog, I prefer to keep the blog content out of the top-level directory. |
| 183 | This results in the following structure (shortened for brevity): | ||
| 26 | 184 | ||
| 27 | ** TODO Build & Deploy | 185 | #+begin_src txt |
| 186 | .build/ | ||
| 187 | content/ | ||
| 188 | blog/ | ||
| 189 | example-blog-post.org | ||
| 190 | index.org | ||
| 191 | wiki/ | ||
| 192 | example-wiki-post.org | ||
| 193 | index.org | ||
| 194 | index.org | ||
| 195 | other-example-page.org | ||
| 196 | theme/ | ||
| 197 | static/ | ||
| 198 | styles.css | ||
| 199 | robots.txt | ||
| 200 | templates/ | ||
| 201 | base.html | ||
| 202 | blog.html | ||
| 203 | index.html | ||
| 204 | page.html | ||
| 205 | post.html | ||
| 206 | wiki.html | ||
| 207 | build.sh | ||
| 208 | publish.el | ||
| 209 | #+end_src | ||
| 210 | |||
| 211 | This is simply my preferred structure and you can alter it to fit your needs. | ||
| 212 | The key here really is that you can customize at will, as long as the | ||
| 213 | =publish.el= file matches. | ||
| 214 | |||
| 215 | ** Build & Deploy | ||
| 216 | |||
| 217 | Once you're content with the status of the project, you're ready to build and | ||
| 218 | deploy the blog. | ||
| 219 | |||
| 220 | My process utilizes a =build.sh= script that combines the steps I take every | ||
| 221 | time. | ||
| 28 | 222 | ||
| 29 | #+begin_src sh | 223 | #+begin_src sh |
| 30 | touch build.sh && chmod +x build.sh && nano build.sh | 224 | touch build.sh && chmod +x build.sh && nano build.sh |
| 31 | #+end_src | 225 | #+end_src |
| 32 | 226 | ||
| 227 | Within this script, I do the following: | ||
| 228 | |||
| 229 | 1. Remove any files within the =.build= directory that I use to store published | ||
| 230 | files. | ||
| 231 | 2. Set the environment variable to =prod= to ensure the =base_url= matches my | ||
| 232 | configuration in =publish.el=. | ||
| 233 | 3. Build the site with Emacs & =publish.el=. | ||
| 234 | 4. Use =scp= to copy files to my site's public directory on my server. | ||
| 235 | |||
| 33 | #+begin_src sh | 236 | #+begin_src sh |
| 34 | rm -rf .build/* && \ | 237 | rm -rf .build/* && \ |
| 35 | ENV=prod emacs --script publish.el && \ | 238 | ENV=prod emacs --script publish.el && \ |
| 36 | scp -r .build/* ubuntu:/var/www/cleberg.net/ | 239 | scp -r .build/* ubuntu:/var/www/cleberg.net/ |
| 37 | #+end_src | 240 | #+end_src |
| 38 | 241 | ||
| 242 | *** Time to Build | ||
| 243 | |||
| 244 | My only current complaints are: | ||
| 245 | |||
| 246 | 1. Errors messages are not helpful. It takes work to determine what the error is | ||
| 247 | and where it's coming from. I generally have to sit and watch the build | ||
| 248 | process to see the file that weblorg pubslishes right before the error | ||
| 249 | occurred. | ||
| 250 | 2. The build process re-builds every single file on each run, which takes a long | ||
| 251 | time for a blog of my size. See below for the last time I measured. | ||
| 252 | |||
| 39 | #+begin_src sh | 253 | #+begin_src sh |
| 40 | > time ./build.sh | 254 | > time ./build.sh |
| 41 | 255 | ||
| 42 | ./build.sh 35.46s user 0.59s system 85% cpu 41.965 total | 256 | ./build.sh 35.46s user 0.59s system 85% cpu 41.965 total |
| 43 | #+end_src | 257 | #+end_src |
| 258 | |||
| 259 | Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed using weblog and will continue to use it going forward until I find something better. | ||