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Making GitHub part of my publishing workflow

How I'm using a github repo as a notebook, and the first steps towards hosting my blog on github.

I'm currently testing if GitHub can become part of my publishing workflow. GitHub is not for everyone (I mean, it's a tool designed for developers, not publishers), but it does have a number of nice features that could nicely fit in my web publishing workflow.

For example, it has a nice web-based editor, with markdown capabilities. It has webhooks that can trigger third party apps and services, and a powerful API -in addition to git and everything that comes with it, like versioning. And GitHub Pages is a nice hosting platform for static sites like this blog.

I'm experimenting in two directions.

vrypan/notebook

First, I created a new repo, vrypan/notebook where I just host notes in markdown files. As simple as that, I just create (either on my laptop and push through git, or through the GitHub web interface) text files written in markdown. I'm only using this for a day, but I think it suits me. An added (but very important) bonus is I can use an iOS app like Git2Go to create and edit pages on my iPhone.

blog.vrypan.net

Second, I created a private repo where I host the source (markdown files, templates, etc, required by bucket3) of my blog. When I want to create a new post or edit an old one, I can now do this through the web inetrface of github.com. Then, I pull localy, regenerate the site using bucket3, and upload the new version to my webserver.

TODO

  1. Host the static site on GitHub Pages
  2. Use webhooks and some scripts running at a raspberry pi at home to automate the proccess: I want to edit a post on GitHub and have RPi pull the changes, run bucket3 and upload the new posts.

BTW, this post was written using github.com ;-)

Credits: The Labtocat was created by JohnCreek.