Pop Blog

Google Analytics Plugin

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 01:08:00 GMT

pop-ga by George Ornbo is a Google Analytics plugin for pop. It can be installed using npm:

npm install -g pop-ga

And then used by updating your _config.json:

, "require": ["pop-ga"]

Next, call the plugin's helper with your Google Analytics ID:

!{ga('UA-345678-90')}

Pop 0.1.1

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 01:08:00 GMT

Pop 0.1.1 has been released. This version improves the build process by making it use more events rather than counting down the number of files that have been processed.

This should make the site build process more stable.

Pop 0.1.0

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 01:08:00 GMT

I've released Pop 0.1.0. This cements the basic functionality that I want to include in Pop for the near future.

This release includes a tags page for the built-in site generator, and a helper called postsForTag.

Pop 0.0.9

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 01:07:00 GMT

Pop 0.0.9 is out:

Added centralised logging (mainly so I can turn off logs in tests)
Defaults post author to LOGNAME
Escapes post file names

Pop 0.0.8

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 01:07:00 GMT

I've just released Pop 0.0.8, which adds:

An option to _config.json for the port the local server uses
RSS feed helper

RSS Feeds

You can get RSS feeds "for free" by adding an autoGenerate option to _config.json:

"autoGenerate": [{"feed": "feed.xml"}, {"rss": "feed.rss"}]

The helper itself is fairly easy to use:

/**
 * RSS Jade template.
 *
 * @param {String} Feed URL
 * @param {Integer} Number of paragraphs to summarise
 * @param {String} Optional description
 *
 * @return {String}
 */
rss: function(feed, summarise, description) {

I've checked a few example feeds with the W3C validation service.

Pop 0.0.7

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 01:07:00 GMT

Pop 0.0.7 is out:

Added generators
Plugins can add their own generators through myPlugin.generators
SiteBuilder should trigger the server properly

Using Generators

Generating a site with Pop generally works like this:

pop new new_site

Generators can now be used to generate different kinds of sites:

pop new pop-gallery new_site

This example requires pop-gallery.

Writing Generators

Basic usage is to make a CommonJS module with a generator property:

module.exports = {
  generator: {
    run: function(helpers, pathName) {
    }
  }
};

The parameters will be passed by Pop. The helpers value contains the internal cli_tools.js module, and pathName is the destination path for the site.

A full example is available here: pop-gallery.

Pop 0.0.6

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 01:07:00 GMT

Pop 0.0.6 adds the following features and enhancements:

A new command-line option, render, makes Pop only render files that match a pattern
Character and word truncation helpers have been added
The Atom feed can now summarise posts based on paragraph length

Pop 0.0.5

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 01:07:00 GMT

Pop 0.0.5 has been released. This version introduces a plugin architecture and post-filters.

Post-Filters

A post-filter can alter HTML after it has been generated by the template engine. The structure is the same as helpers and pre-filters. Add a file to _lib/post-filters.js:

module.exports = {
  /**
    * Converts Alex's name to something more suitable.
    *
    * @param {String} The HTML to transform
    * @return {String} The transformed HTML
    */
  myFilter: function(html) {
    return html.replace(/Alex/, 'Super Douche');
  }
};

Using Plugins

Plugins are bundles of helpers, pre-filters, and post-filters that are loaded using the config file. Here's an example, from this site:

{  "url": "http://popjs.com/"
 , "title": "Pop Blog"
 , "permalink": "/:year/:month/:day/:title"
 , "paginate": 10
 , "exclude": ["\\.swp"]
 , "require": ["pop-disqus"]
 , "autoGenerate": [{"feed": "feed.xml"}] }

The require property loads the plugin found in the CommonJS module pop-disqus. This plugin is available through npm.

Writing Plugins

Create a CommonJS module with a suitable package.json that exports an object with one or more of these properties:

helpers
filters
postFilters

All the usual rules apply. Get started by looking at pop-disqus. Write tests, even if they're basic!

Pop 0.0.3

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 01:07:00 GMT

Pop version 0.0.3 is out.

Atom feed helper takes less options (the variables are all in config)
Atom feed uses config.perPage
Post file names with extra dots will be parsed correctly
YAML front-matter will be extracted less greedily
YAML front-matter can now contain a summary property to make it easier to display post summaries in lists
Trailing slashes will be removed from config.url

Pop 0.0.4

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 01:07:00 GMT

Pop 0.0.4 is out:

Running pop will generate a site in the current directory and exit
Running pop on a path that doesn't look like a Pop site will print an error rather than a confusing stack trace
Pop server mode will watch all subdirectories for changes, so things like stylesheets (including Stylus files) will automatically regenerate the changed file

Pop 0.0.2

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 01:07:00 GMT

Pop version 0.0.2 has been released. This version adds additional default styles to the site generator (blockquotes, pagination), and adds post summary support.

Writing YAML front-matter like this:

      ---
      layout: post
      title: Amazing Facts About Lions
      summary: Above all, lions are amazing creatures.
      author: Dave Grohl
      tags:   
      - releases
      ---

      Post content here.

This will make post.summary available to templates. It gets processed with markdown or textile, depending on the format of the post, and also applies helpers. I've added this to the hNews() helper when used to generate summaries.

Pop Released

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 01:07:00 GMT

Pop version 0.0.1 has been released:

GitHub: alexyoung / pop

This includes stextile, which is a rough-and-ready Textile parser. Pop also supports Markdown.

Pop sites use Jade and Stylus. These are CSS selector-based shorthands for quickly writing HTML and CSS.