# 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 <slug>`. 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)