A Ruby script to facilitate starting to write a new Jekyll post and automatically do all the things related to preparing that.

write.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require 'optparse'
require 'ostruct'
require 'pp'


class Article

  attr_accessor :options, :file

  def initialize(arguments)
    @options = parse arguments
    @file = File.open(filename, "a")
  end

  def save
    add_frontmatter if file_blank?
    add_image_markup if images?
    file.close
    reload_jekyll
    do_work
  end

private

  def title
    options[:title]
  end

  def description
    options[:description]
  end

  def images?
    options[:images]
  end

  def draft?
    options[:draft]
  end

  def any_images_to_add?
    entries = Dir.entries(images_dir)
    exclusions = %w{ . .. OpenGraph.png }

    (entries - exclusions).any?
  end

  def file_blank?
    File.zero?(filename)
  end

  def add_frontmatter
    file.puts(frontmatter)
  end

  def add_image_markup
    setup_source_image_directory
    setup_article_image_directory

    puts "\n\nIt puts the images in the directory, and hits enter when ready..."
    puts "\n(Don't forget 'OpenGraph.png')\n\n"
    `say 'Add your images'`
    gets

    file.puts(image_markup) if any_images_to_add?
  end

  def setup_source_image_directory
    if Dir.exists?(images_source_dir)
      system("open #{images_source_dir}")
    end
  end

  def setup_article_image_directory
    unless Dir.exists?(images_dir)
      Dir.mkdir(images_dir)
    end
    system("open #{images_dir}")
  end

  def image_markup
    image_markup = ["\n\n## Image Pull Options\n\n* pull\n* pull-full\n* pull-left\n* pull-right\n* pull-clean\n* pull-seprate\n\n"]
    counter = 0

    Dir.foreach(images_dir) do |item|
      skippable = ['.', '..', '.DS_Store', 'OpenGraph.png']
      next if skippable.include?(item)
      counter += 1
      image_markup << image_markup_for(item, counter)
    end

    if image_markup.size > 1
      return image_markup.join("\n\n")
    else
      return ''
    end
  end

  def do_work
    # Open Safari & Text Editor
    system("open -a safari #{local_web_address}")
    system("subl #{filename}")
  end

  def reload_jekyll
    # Jekyll isn't good at recognizing new files, so let's ditch any
    # existing instances and start fresh

    # Unless Jekyll is already running, let's start it up
    jekyll_instances = (`ps aux | grep [j]ekyll`).split(/\n/)

    jekyll_instances.each do |instance|
      instance =~ /\w+\s+(\d+)\s.+/i
      pid = $1
      `kill -9 #{pid}`
    end

    system("jekyll serve --watch --detach")
    # Wait a moment for everything to propogate
    sleep 5 # seconds
  end

  def frontmatter
    str = <<-eot
---
title: #{title}
date: #{date_slug} 00:00:00 -06:00
author: Garrett Dimon
author_handle: garrettdimon
description: #{description}
layout: post
image: #{opengraph_image}
#{draft? ? 'state: draft' : ''}
---

eot
  end

  def image_markup_for(image, counter)
    str = <<-eot
<span class=\"ref\">#{counter}</span>

<figure class=\"pull\">
  <img src=\"/images/#{slug}/#{image}\" alt=\"\" />
  <figcaption>
    <b>#{counter}</b>
    Description
  </figcaption>
</figure>

eot
  end

  # ex. "/Users/garrettdimon/Sites/garrettdimon.com/blog/images/2015-06-22-article-name-like-this"
  def images_dir
    "#{directory}/images/#{slug}"
  end

  def opengraph_image
    # https://garrettdimon.com/blog/images/2015-06-14-milestone-overview-calendar/MilestonesCalendar.png
    "https://garrettdimon.com/images/#{slug}/OpenGraph.png"
  end

  # ex. "./blog/_posts/2015-06-22-article-name-like-this.markdown"
  def filename
    section_folder = draft? ? "drafts" : "posts"
    "./_#{section_folder}/#{slug}.markdown"
  end

  # ex. "2015-06-22-article-name-like-this"
  def slug
    "#{date_slug}-#{title_slug}"
  end

  # ex. "article-name-like-this"
  def title_slug
    # Strip _'s, replace spaces with '-', and ditch non-alphanumerics
    @ts ||= title.
              downcase.
              gsub('_', '').
              gsub(' ', '-').
              gsub(/[^a-z0-9-]/, '')

  end

  # ex. "2015-06-22"
  def date_slug
    @ds ||= Time.now.strftime '%Y-%m-%d'
  end

  # ex. "2015/06/"
  def archive_folder_slug
    @as ||= Time.now.strftime '%Y/'
  end

  # ex. "/2015/article-name-like-this"
  def archive_path
    @ap ||= "#{archive_folder_slug}#{title_slug}/"
  end

  # This is the working directory for compiling images that will be used in the
  # post. If it's present, it will automatically be opened in Finder for easy
  # drag and drop into the new post directory.
  def images_source_dir
    "/Users/garrettdimon/Desktop/NewArticleImages/"
  end

  # For know what URL to open in the browser for previewing the new post.
  def local_web_address
    "http://127.0.0.1:4000/"
  end

  def directory
    Dir.pwd
  end

  def parse(options)

    args = OpenStruct.new
    args.title = ""
    args.description = "#TODO"
    args.images = false
    args.draft = false

    opt_parser = OptionParser.new do |opts|
      opts.banner = "Usage: write.rb [options]"

      opts.on("-t", "--title=TITLE", "Title of the article") do |t|
        args.title = t
      end

      opts.on("-d", "--desc=DESCRIPTION", "Meta description for article") do |s|
        args.description = d
      end

      opts.on("-f", "--draft", "If the article should be a draft for now") do |f|
        args.draft = true
      end

      opts.on("-i", "--images", "If the article includes images") do |i|
        args.images = true
      end

      opts.on("-h", "--help", "Prints this help") do
        puts opts
        exit
      end
    end

    opt_parser.parse!(options)
    return args
  end

end

article = Article.new(ARGV).save