Jekyll Post Generator

Jekyll Post Generator

An easy way to create new blog posts for your Jekyll site without manually creating files and front matter. Now uses your existing draft template from _drafts/post-template.md to ensure consistency.

Quick Installation

# From your Jekyll blog root directory
./install.sh    # Sets up and configures all tools
./setup_aliases.sh    # Optional: Create global aliases

Usage

Option 1: Interactive Mode (Full Template)

cd arshad115.github.io
python3 new_post.py
# or
./new_post.sh

Option 2: Quick Command-Line Mode

cd arshad115.github.io
python3 quick_post.py "Post Title" "Category" "tag1,tag2"

Option 3: Copy Draft Template Directly

cd arshad115.github.io
python3 draft_to_post.py "Post Title"

Option 4: Use Global Aliases (Recommended)

# Run once to set up aliases (from your blog directory)
./setup_aliases.sh

# Then restart terminal and use anywhere:
new-post          # Interactive mode
quick-post "Title" "Category" "tags"  # Quick mode
draft-post "Title"  # Copy draft template
blog-dir          # Navigate to blog directory

The setup script automatically detects your blog directory and creates portable aliases.

Features

• ✅ Portable and self-contained - No hardcoded paths, works anywhere
• ✅ Uses your draft template automatically loads _drafts/post-template.md
• ✅ Interactive prompts for all post details
• ✅ Automatic filename generation with proper date format (YYYY-MM-DD-title-slug.md)
• ✅ Smart slugification converts titles to URL-friendly slugs
• ✅ Category suggestions based on existing posts
• ✅ Template-based front matter uses your existing structure
• ✅ Tag support with comma-separated input
• ✅ Image support for headers and teasers
• ✅ File existence check prevents accidental overwrites
• ✅ Auto-open file on macOS after creation
• ✅ Multiple creation modes - interactive, quick, or template copy
• ✅ Jekyll validation ensures scripts run in proper blog directory

Generated Front Matter

The script generates posts with this front matter structure:

---
title: "Your Post Title"
excerpt: "Brief description"
category: Software
tags:
  - Tag1
  - Tag2
header:
  image: "header-image-url"
  teaser: "teaser-image-url"
toc: true
toc_sticky: true
comments: true
date: 2025-01-15
last_modified_at: 2025-01-15
author_profile: true
read_time: true
share: true
---

Example Usage

🚀 Jekyll Post Generator
========================================
📝 Post Title: My Awesome New Blog Post
📂 Existing categories: Software, Tutorial, DevOps
📂 Category (default: Software): Tutorial
🏷️  Tags (comma-separated, or press Enter to skip):
   Tags: Docker, Kubernetes, DevOps
📄 Excerpt (optional): Learn how to deploy apps with Docker and Kubernetes
🖼️  Header Image URL (optional): https://example.com/header.jpg
🖼️  Teaser Image URL (optional): https://example.com/teaser.jpg

✅ Post created successfully!
📁 File: _posts/2025-01-15-my-awesome-new-blog-post.md
🌐 URL slug: my-awesome-new-blog-post

File Structure

• new_post.py - Interactive post creator with full template integration
• quick_post.py - Command-line post creator with simplified template
• draft_to_post.py - Direct copy of draft template with date updates
• new_post.sh - Shell wrapper for easier execution
• setup_aliases.sh - Sets up convenient shell aliases
• POST_GENERATOR_README.md - This documentation

Template Integration

All scripts now automatically use your existing _drafts/post-template.md:

• new_post.py - Uses template with interactive customization
• quick_post.py - Uses template with simplified prompts (removes images/excerpt)
• draft_to_post.py - Direct template copy with only title and date changes

This ensures all your posts maintain the same structure and formatting as your established template.

Requirements

• Python 3.x
• Jekyll blog with _posts directory structure
• _drafts/post-template.md template file (automatically detected)