wordpress-markdown-blog-loader 1.2.0

load markdown blogs into wordpress

wordpress-markdown-blog-loader

This utility loads markdown blogs into Wordpress as a post. It allows you to work on your blog in your favorite editor and keeps all your blogs in git.

features

• converts markdown into plain html, with syntax hightlighting support
• uploads and synchronizes any locally referenced images
• generates an opengraph image including the title, subtitle and author in Binx.io or xebia.com style
• sets the Yoast focus keywords
• sets the canonical url, if specified

caveats

• changing the slug may orphan images
• removing images from the markdown, will leave dangling images in Wordpress
• you cannot edit via WP and via the uploader, without confusing yourself

required Wordpress Plugins

• Yoast SEO
• REST API Meta Support

Furthermore, you have to enable the Rest API for the Custom Field Group for the field show_header_image.

Installation

Install it with pipx or use Docker (see below):

pipx install wordpress-markdown-blog-loader

configuration

to configure the access credentials, you need to add your WordPress application password to the file ~/.wordpress.ini
and add a section for your Wordpress installation:

[DEFAULT]
host = xebia.com

[xebia.com]
username = <your wordpress username>
password = <your application password>

Note that the application password is different from the password you use to login to your WordPress installation.

If the site is served through a CDN, you can also set the api_host which will be used as the hostname to invoke the WP REST API.

Never touch the WP editor again

Once you start to manage your blogs via this uploader, do not edit the blog via one of the WP editors. The editors are weird, because it appears to make a copy of the content on which you get a WYSIWIG viewer. Unfortunately, it does not detect changes in the actual blog content. It will look like your uploaded changes are not applied (but they are).

Using the docker image

To use the docker image as a command line utility, create the following alias:

alias wp-md='docker run -v $HOME:$HOME -v $HOME/.wordpress.ini:/root/.wordpress.ini -v $PWD:/$PWD -w $PWD ghcr.io/binxio/wordpress-markdown-blog-loader:1.2.0

start a new blog

To start a new blog, type:

$ wp-md posts new \
	--title "How to create a WordPress blog without touching WordPress" \
        --subtitle "using the wp-md utility" \
	--author "Mark van Holsteijn" \
	--image ~/Downloads/background-image.jpg \
        --image-credits "image by xyz"
INFO: resizing 1920x1920 to 1200x1200
INFO: cropping to maximum height of 630px
INFO: start editing index.md in ./how-to-create-a-wordpress-blog-without-touching-wordpress

A skaffold frontmatter blog is created, and you can start writing in the index.md.

frontmatter properties

You can set the following properties in the frontmatter:

Name	description
title	of the blog
subtitle	of the blog, used in the og.image
focus-keywords	the SEO focus keywords
excerpt	excerpt of the blog
author	display name of the author in Wordpress
categories	list of wordpress categories for this blog
slug	slug of the blog
date	on which the blog should be published ISO timestamp format
status	draft or publish. if publish, the blog will be published on the date
canonical	url of the blog, to be used in cross posts
image	the banner image of the blog
og.image	the open graph image of the blog, used in links from social media
og.description	the open graph description of the blog, used in links from social media
guid	the physical URL of the blog. Written by wp-md on upload and download
brand	xebia.com or xebia.com. defaults to xebia.com

adding images

To add an image to your blog, add the images in the ./images subdirectory and add a relative reference in markdown. For instance:

![](./images/architecture.png)

uploading a blog

To upload a blog, type:

$ wp-md posts upload --host xebia.com .
INFO: generating og:image based on images/banner.jpg
INFO: generating new image in how-to-create-a-wordpress-blog-without-touching-wordpress/images/og-banner.jpg
INFO: add logo
INFO: add title
INFO: add subtitle
INFO: add author
INFO: og image saved to how-to-create-a-wordpress-blog-without-touching-wordpress/images/og-banner.jpg
INFO: uploaded blog 'How to create a WordPress blog without touching WordPress' as post https://xebia.com/?p=9625
INFO: updating opengraph image to https://xebia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/how-to-create-a-wordpress-blog-without-touching-wordpress-og-banner.jpg
INFO: post available at https://xebia.com/?p=9625
INFO: uploading image as how-to-create-a-wordpress-blog-without-touching-wordpress-og-banner.jpg
INFO: uploading image as how-to-create-a-wordpress-blog-without-touching-wordpress-banner.jpg

updating / publishing a blog

You can update the blog, by uploading it again. If you change the status to 'publish' in the frontmatter metadata, the blog will be published on the specified date.

$ wp-md posts upload --host xebia.com .

updating banner and open graph images

You can update the banner and open graph images as follows:

$ wp-md posts update-banner . new-banner.jpg

downloading an existing blog

to download an existing blog and convert it to markdown, type:

$ wp-md posts download --host xebia.com --directory /tmp 9625
INFO: downloading https://xebia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/how-to-create-a-wordpress-blog-without-touching-wordpress-banner.jpg as banner.jpg
INFO: downloading https://xebia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/how-to-create-a-wordpress-blog-without-touching-wordpress-og-banner.jpg as og-banner.jpg
INFO: writing /tmp/2023/01/how-to-create-a-wordpress-blog-without-touching-wordpress/index.md