tumblelog: a static microblog generator

tumblelog is a static microblog generator. There are two versions available, one written in Perl and one written in Python. Which version you use is up to you; I make an effort to keep the output of both versions identical.

The input is a single "Markdown" file divided into pages by starting a line with a date followed by a title. Each date page can further be split up into multiple articles using a single % on a line by itself.

Parameters to control the blog are given via command line arguments. The program creates the blog HTML5 pages and both a JSON and RSS feed.

Python Version Quick Start

Install sass and pip3 for Linux:

sudo apt install -y git sass python3-pip

For macOS:

brew install sass
brew install pip3

Then:

git clone https://github.com/john-bokma/tumblelog.git
cd tumblelog
python3 -m venv venv
pip3 install commonmark
pip3 install regex
source venv/bin/activate
mkdir htdocs

Generate a stylesheet. I use steel for example. See the directory styles for others you can use (except the ones that start with an underscore).

sass --sourcemap=none -t compressed styles/steel.scss htdocs/steel.css

To generate a version of the example site that does not use tags use:

python3 tumblelog.py --template-filename tumblelog.html \
        --output-dir htdocs/ \
        --author 'Test' --name 'Test Blog' --description 'This is a test' \
        --blog-url 'http://localhost:8000/' --css steel.css \
        tumblelog.md

To generate a version of the example site that uses tags (recommended) use:

python3 tumblelog.py --template-filename tumblelog-tags.html \
        --output-dir htdocs/ \
        --author 'Test' --name 'Test Blog' --description 'This is a test' \
        --blog-url 'http://localhost:8000/' --css steel.css --tags \
        tumblelog-tags.md

To view the generated site at http://localhost:8000/ enter:

cd htdocs
python3 -m http.server

Documentation

• Installation of the Perl version: to be written, for now see: Create a static tumblelog with Perl

• Installation of the Python version

• Testing tumblelog

• Getting started

• Using a Makefile

• Keeping your tumblelog under version control

Style Examples

A screenshot of four of the twelve styles that come with tumblelog.

The screenshots directory has 1:1 examples of themes that come with tumblelog.

Blogs

• Plurrrr: a tumblelog - by John Bokma

If you want your tumblelog generated site listed here, please let me know.

Docker (Experimental)

This assumes you have already used Sass to create a CSS file and copied it into a directory for your website.

To create a Perl image use:

docker build --tag tumblelog/perl -f perl.Dockerfile .

To run the container use (version with tags):

docker run --rm --volume "`pwd`:/data" --user `id -u`:`id -g` \
       tumblelog/perl --template-filename tumblelog-tags.html \
       --output-dir htdocs/ \
       --author 'Test' --name 'Test Blog' --description 'This is a test' \
       --blog-url 'http://localhost:8000/' --css steel.css --tags \
       tumblelog-tags.md

To create a Python image use:

docker build --tag tumblelog/python -f python.Dockerfile .

To run the container use (version with tags):

docker run --rm --volume "`pwd`:/data" --user `id -u`:`id -g` \
       tumblelog/python --template-filename tumblelog-tags.html \
       --output-dir htdocs/ \
       --author 'Test' --name 'Test Blog' --description 'This is a test' \
       --blog-url 'http://localhost:8000/' --css steel.css --tags \
       tumblelog-tags.md

Both containers run in a GMT timezone. To change this set the TZ variable, e.g. TZ="Europe/Amsterdam". See Timezones in Alpine Docker Containers.