A Custom Workflow to Publish from Obsidian to Blot.im

This is the first post to this blog using a custom workflow that uses:

• Obsidian for markdown file curation.
• A custom tag to identify files intended for publication.
• A Node.js script to copy files and assets to a Dropbox folder.
• Blot.im to sync from the Dropbox folder and publish the blog.

How the post appears in Obsidian

The Node.js script for identifying and copying out files for publication

// Note this will delete the destination folder and contents recursively before recreating.

// Run with node obsidian-to-blot.js "<SOURCE DIR>" "<SOURCE ASSETS DIR>"  "<DROPBOX OUTPUT FOLDER>"


var fs = require('fs')
var path = require('path')

const argsArray = process.argv.slice(2)

if (argsArray.length === 3) {
const pagesFolder = argsArray[0]
const assetsFolder = argsArray[1]
const destinationFolder = argsArray[2]

console.log('pagesFolder: ' + pagesFolder)
console.log('assetsFolder: ' + assetsFolder)
console.log('destinationFolder: ' + destinationFolder)

console.log('Deleting destination folder: ' + destinationFolder)

fs.rmdirSync(destinationFolder, { recursive: true })

console.log('Creating destination folder: ' + destinationFolder)

if (!fs.existsSync(destinationFolder)) {
  fs.mkdirSync(destinationFolder)
}

// Create destination assets folder if it doesn't exist

const destinationAssetsFolder = destinationFolder + '/assets'

if (!fs.existsSync(destinationAssetsFolder)) {
  fs.mkdirSync(destinationAssetsFolder)
}

fs.readdir(pagesFolder, function (err, list) {
  if (err) {
    throw err
  }

  list.forEach(function (textFilePath, i) {
    textFilePath = path.resolve(pagesFolder, textFilePath)

    let textFileName = path.basename(textFilePath)

    let textFileText = fs.readFileSync(textFilePath, 'utf8')

    const textFileLines = textFileText.split(/\r?\n/)

    let isPublic = false

    for (let i = 0; i < textFileLines.length; i++) {
      // Only search first few lines of text for public tag

      if (i > 10) {
        break
      }

      let lineText = textFileLines[i]

      if (lineText) {
        lineText = lineText.trim()

        // Check line is not empty

        if (lineText.length > 0) {
          // Check line is not comment

          if (lineText.indexOf('#_PublicPage') != -1) {
            isPublic = true
          }
        }
      }
    }

    if (isPublic) {
      console.log('Found public page: ' + textFileName)
    }

    if (isPublic) {
      // Parse asset links from file

      var originalLinkRegex = /!\[(.*)]\(\.\.\/assets\/(.+)\)/g

      while ((result = originalLinkRegex.exec(textFileText))) {
        // Extract components from link names

        const linkFull = result[0]
        const linkText = result[1]
        const linkFileName = result[2]

        console.log('Captured asset linkFull: ' + linkFull)
        console.log('Captured asset linkText: ' + linkText)
        console.log('Captured asset linkFileName: ' + linkFileName)

        // Obsidian will URL encode the file URL so decode this as not compatible with blot

        const linkFileNameUrlDecoded = decodeURIComponent(linkFileName)

        console.log('linkFileNameUrlDecoded: ' + linkFileNameUrlDecoded)

        // If the asset referenced by the link, copy it out to the blot folder.
        // The file name must start with an underscore so that it does not appear as a blog entry
        // in it's own right

        if (
          fs.existsSync(
            path.resolve(assetsFolder + '/' + linkFileNameUrlDecoded),
          )
        ) {
          console.log('Copying asset: ' + linkFileNameUrlDecoded)

          fs.copyFileSync(
            path.resolve(assetsFolder + '/' + linkFileNameUrlDecoded),
            path.resolve(
              destinationFolder + '/assets/_' + linkFileNameUrlDecoded,
            ),
          )
        }
      }

      // Replace the links with a format and path compatible with blot.
      // Again, the link to the asset must begin with an underscore.

      let modifiedFileText = textFileText.replace(
        originalLinkRegex,
        '![$1](assets/_$2)',
      )

      // Write out the file to the destination folder

      console.log('Copying text file: ' + textFileName)

      fs.writeFileSync(
        path.resolve(destinationFolder + '/' + textFileName),
        modifiedFileText,
      )
    }
  })
})
}

Note: In the above delete '_' in the string '#_PublicPage'. As this blog page is dependant on this this tag, it can't exist without modification in the above code snippet.