Watches a markdown-folder for changes and re-generates .icml (InCopy / Adobe InDesign CC) files on every change

pandoc_watch.js

var exec = require('child_process').exec;
var chokidar = require('chokidar');

/*
 * Watches a folder for changes in markdown (*.md) files and compiles them to ICML (Adobe InDesign CC / InCopy format)
 *
 * Dependencies:
 *  - Install Pandoc: pandoc.org
 *  - Run "npm install chokidar"
 *
 * Infos on how to use the files in InDesign: http://networkcultures.org/digitalpublishing/2014/10/08/markdown-to-indesign-with-pandoc-via-icml/
 *
 * Run this script like this:
 *   - Navigate to the folder containing the script, e.g. "cd /Users/me/scripts"
 *   - Run the script: "node pandoc_watch.js"
*/

// folder to watch, relative to working directory, change it to point
// to your markdown files, can be absolute as well
var folder = '../../Buch/Text';

console.log('Watching folder ' + folder + ' for changes in markdown (*.md) files...');

chokidar.watch(folder)
  .on('change', handleFileChange);

function handleFileChange(file){
  var iExt = file.indexOf(".md");
  if(iExt === -1) { return; }
  console.log('File ' + file + ' has changed, compiling to ICML...');
  var outputFile = file.substring(0, iExt) + ".icml";
  var cmd = 'pandoc -s -f markdown -t icml -o ' + outputFile + " " + file;

  exec(cmd, function(error, stdout, stderr) {
    if(error) {
      console.log('Error converting document: ' + error);
    } else {
      console.log("Done.");
    }
  });

}