microblog.py

Simple and stylish text-to-html microblog generator.

Requirements

python3 make date

date is date from GNU Core Utilities.

Usage

Invoke make.

This script reads content from a text file and applies the content to an html template. It will format hashtags, links, and images automatically. The template must contain three placeholders, in order, for the post count, tag cloud, and timeline content.

Writing Content

See example.txt.

The content file is a plain text file of posts. Each post has two types of information: timestamp and message. For example:

Thu Mar 17 11:11:11 PM EDT 2022
Today I ate ice cream.
It was strawberry flavored. 
#TouchingGrass

Thu Mar 16 2:22:22 PM EDT 2022
I took these pictures.
./images/1.jpg ./images/2.jpg ./images/3.jpg

• the first line of the file must be empty (newline character only).
• the two last lines of the file must be empty
• html can be placed in the message for embedded videos and rich text

Generation

Send three arguments minimum to python. The fourth argument for an e-mail address is optional.

python microblog.py ./template.html ./content.txt user@mailhost.tld

The resulting web page is outputted from standard output. Therefore:

python microblog.py ./template.html ./content.txt user@mailhost.tld >  result.html

Use the Makefile (or another script) to simplify invocation.

Anything else

This is a script I wrote for personal use. The output can be seen on https://likho.neocities.org/microblog/index.html. I figure someone else may want to use it for their own personal websites, so it is published.

It works for me and my workflow; therefore, it is simple and involves little lines of code. But I am still open to comments, questions, or suggetions.