Testing out a small post to see if this works. If it does, then I can post, sync (via git) and update the blog on the go.
This could be game changing!
That’s how I started this post - and it works spectacularly. The gives me the capability to manage the blog on the go, even from my phone. This automation setup has enabled me to just focus on writing - publishing and version controlling is done automatically and I can go from writing to being live on the web in a couple of taps.
The original article that gave some insights on how this works is rather elaborate (and well written) over here
Here’s how to set it up.
the software
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Working Copy - this is the magic app that enables on the go version controlling from a mobile device. The latest paid version allows you to link a directory to a repo in working copy so that you can make your edits in your favourite editor (like iAWriter) and when you switch to Working Copy. The changes are ready to be pushed to remote (on gitlab)
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iAWriter - you can choose any editor that supports markdown, I personally liked the integration in working copy, given that both apps work off the same, underlying files. Any changes in one app reflect on the other app instantly, giving me the convenience of a distraction free writing environment. The focus mode on this app is just awesome, greying out the rest of the text except for the line that is being typed out. Awesome for being in the moment.
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Gitlab account - you will require this to take care of the back end heavy lifting. Pages in this blog are published using Hugo which is a static site generator. Hugo processes the markdown and templates and renders the pages as static HTML - that is served up at a lightning fast speed when requested. Internally the gitlab setup uses a CI/CD pipeline to rebuild the site every time a new post (or changes) is checked into the main branch. Hugo pulls all the files from the repo and rebuilds the site, which is then served out using gitlab pages to www.
There’s a bigger reason why I like this setup apart from the portability - the fact that I own my content. Over the last 20 + years, I’ve had my blog hosted at three different places - I have lost all of my content on two sites, except for google. I’ve managed to extract content from google in a very convoluted way and have had to jump through hoops to get them out as properly formatted markdown.
The advantage with this is that all your content stays with you - backed up (to iCloud or OneDrive) in my case - this is apart from the repo already being saved on gitlab. Quite difficult (or almost impossible till you do something stupid) to lose the data being stored simultaneously on three different cloud providers.