mdnet

mdnet is a simple static site generator that converts Markdown files into HTML using specified templates. It's designed to be lightweight and easy to use.

Features

• HTML generation
• RSS Feed generation
• Post metadata via YAML Frontmatter
• Configurable via YAML

Installation

You can install mdnet via pip:

pip install mdnet

Usage

Basic Command

To generate a static site using the default configurations specified in config.yaml:

mdnet

Command-Line Arguments

You can override the default configurations using command-line arguments:

• input_dir: Directory containing the Markdown source files.
• output_dir: Destination directory for the generated HTML files.
• post_template_path: Path to the HTML template for individual posts.
• index_template_path: Path to the HTML template for the main index page.

For example:

mdnet custom_input custom_output custom_post_template.html custom_index_template.html

Optional Arguments

• -t, --tag_template_path: Path to the HTML template for individual tag pages. If provided, tag pages will be generated.
• -a, --all_tags_template_path: Path to the HTML template for the page listing all tags.
• -n, --num_posts: Number of latest posts to display on the main index page. Defaults to 8.
• -p, --all_posts_template_path: Path to the HTML template for the page listing all posts.

Configuration

You can specify default configurations in a config.yaml file. This allows you to run mdnet without having to provide command-line arguments every time.

Example config.yaml:

input_dir: "posts/"
output_dir: "public/"
post_template_path: "templates/post.html"
index_template_path: "templates/index.html"
tag_template_path: "templates/tag.html"
all_tags_template_path: "templates/all_tags.html"
all_posts_template_path: "templates/all_posts.html"
num_posts: 8
rss: true # IF TRUE ALL POSTS MUST HAVE YAML FRONTMATTER
site_title: "My Test Blog"
site_url: "https://mytestblog.com/"
site_description: "The Writings of Me"
timezone: America/Los_Angeles

Frontmatter YAML Parameters

When writing your Markdown files, you can optionally include a frontmatter section at the beginning of each file. This section is written in YAML and allows you to specify metadata for each post. Here are the supported parameters:

• title: The title of the post. If not provided, the filename (without extension) will be used.
  • Format: String
• date: The publication date of the post. If not provided, posts without dates will be considered older.
  • Format: YYYY-MM-DD
• tldr: A short summary or "too long; didn't read" for the post.
  • Format: String
• tags: A list of tags associated with the post.
  • Format: List of strings

Example Frontmatter

---
title: "My First Post"
date: 2023-07-27
tldr: "A brief summary of the post's content."
tags:
  - tutorial
  - markdown
---

Example Project Structure

my_project/
│
├── posts/
│   ├── post1.md
│   ├── post2.md
│   └── ...
│
├── public/
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── css/
│   │   └── style.css
│   ├── posts/
│   │   ├── index.html
│   │   ├── post1.html
│   │   ├── post2.html
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── resources/
│   │   └── rss.xml
│   └── tags/
│       ├── index.html
│       ├── tutorial.html
│       ├── markdown.html
│       └── ...
│
├── templates/
│   ├── post_template.html
│   ├── index_template.html
│   ├── tag_template.html
│   ├── all_tags_template.html
│   └── all_posts_template.html
│
├── resources/
│   └── guids.json
│
└── config.yaml