update_changes_link.md

Question for ChatGPT (gpt-4)

I have a page on my Jekyll blog called changes.md. I want a python script (update_changes_link.py) to automatically update two date strings in a footer.html based on the top-level header in changes.md

I want it to be a simple script that I call, not a formal Jekyll plugin.

In the below example, both instances of "2023-05-19" in footer.html should be changed to "2023-05-22".

file structure:

- _includes/
    - footer.html
- changes.md
- _plugins/
    - update_changes_link.py

footer.html

<hr>
<div class="footer" style="text-align:right;">
    <i>
      <a href="/changes#2023-05-19">Website last updated: 2023-05-19</a>
    <i/>
</div>

excerpt of changes.md

---
layout: page
title: Changes
---


<section id="2023-05-22"></section>

# `2023-05-22`

- Formatting updates to improve performance on mobile (largely shifting some widths to using [Em/em](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Em_(typography)) and adding dynamic changes with `@media screen and (min-width: 500px)` in the CSS). Also learned how to 'Toggle device toolbar' in Chrome DevTools.

<section id="2023-05-19"></section>

# `2023-05-19`

- Updated my `special-box note` (at the top of my homepage) about actively 

Final result (adding only the print)

import re
import os


def find_new_date(changes_md_path):
    # read the changes file
    with open(changes_md_path, 'r') as changes_file:
        changes = changes_file.read()

    # find all dates using a regular expression
    dates = re.findall(r'# `(\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2})`', changes)

    # return the most recent date
    return max(dates)


def update_footer(new_date, footer_html_path):
    # read the footer file
    with open(footer_html_path, 'r') as footer_file:
        footer = footer_file.read()

    # find the old date using a regular expression
    old_date = re.search(
        r'<a href="/changes#(\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2})">Website last updated: (\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2})</a>', footer)

    if old_date:
        # replace all instances of the old date with the new date
        updated_footer = footer.replace(old_date.group(
            1), new_date).replace(old_date.group(2), new_date)

        # write the updated footer back to the file
        with open(footer_html_path, 'w') as footer_file:
            footer_file.write(updated_footer)

        print(f"Updated changes link in the footer from {old_date.group(1)} to {new_date}.")


def main():
    # get paths
    root_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
    changes_md_path = os.path.join(root_dir, '..', 'changes.md')
    footer_html_path = os.path.join(root_dir, '..', '_includes', 'footer.html')

    # get the new date
    new_date = find_new_date(changes_md_path)

    # update the footer
    update_footer(new_date, footer_html_path)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()