A little script that I use when I want to add an entry to my pyblosxom blog. Given a title it creates the file for me and deals with adding timestamps and figuring out a filename.

blog.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

# TODO: support specifying categories on the command-line with tab-complete.
# TODO: support specifying extension as a command-line argument
# TODO: support specifying notes_dir as an option
# TODO: published_key, modified_key and timestr as command-line options
# TODO: specify editor on the command-line, or fall back on $EDITOR.
# TODO: support specifying a template to be used to create the file.

import os,sys,datetime,string

notes_dir = os.path.expanduser('~/Desktop/')
ext = 'txt'
published_key = "published"
modified_key = "modified"
timestr = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
now = datetime.datetime.now().strftime(timestr)
editor = 'scribes'

def format_filename(s):
    """Take a string and return a valid filename constructed from the string.
    Uses a whitelist approach: any characters not present in valid_chars are
    removed. Also spaces are replaced with underscores.
    Note: this method may produce invalid filenames such as ``, `.` or `..`
    When I use this method I prepend a date string like '2009_01_15_19_46_32_'
    and append a file extension like '.txt', so I avoid the potential of using
    an invalid filename.
    """
    valid_chars = "-_.() %s%s" % (string.ascii_letters, string.digits)
    s = s.replace('&','and')
    filename = ''.join(c for c in s if c in valid_chars)
    filename = filename.replace(' ','_') # I don't like spaces in filenames.
    filename = filename.lower() # I prefer all lowercase filenames
    return filename

def usage():
    return 'Syntax: blog "title for my new blog post"'

if __name__ == "__main__":
    if len(sys.argv) != 2:
        print usage()
        sys.exit(2)
    title = sys.argv[1]
    filename = format_filename(title)
    path = os.path.join(notes_dir,filename) + '.' + ext
    if os.path.exists(path):
        print 'Path already exists!'
        print path
        sys.exit(2)
    try:
        f = open(path,'w')
        try:
            f.write(title+'\n')
            f.write('#'+published_key+' '+now+'\n')
            f.write('#'+modified_key+' '+now+'\n')
            f.write('\n')
        finally:
            f.close()
    except IOError, e:
          print 'IOError when writing file '+path
          print e
          sys.exit(2)
    os.system(editor+' "'+path+'"')