parse article metadata

2 files changed, 33 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index fc632da..3785100 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1 +1,13 @@
-KISS static blog site generator
+# KISS static blog site generator
+## For blog.node5.net
+
+Made for my speceific use case, but otherwise generalized.
+Each directory is one article, it contains the markdown, and all the needed media for this article.
+The name of the article is derived from the folder name.
+Meta data is defined at the top of the article in YAML format enclosed in `---` 
+Additional meta data may be added, and referenced in the templates.
+```yaml
+---
+Title: Article 1
+Catagory: Hardware
+---
diff --git a/blog_generator.py b/blog_generator.py
index 3c5a4de..981b2b9 100644
--- a/blog_generator.py
+++ b/blog_generator.py
@@ -34,13 +34,17 @@ class Article:
     output_dir_path: str
     output_path: str
     source_file_name: str
-
+    
+    # meta data, can't be required, due to Article.__dict__.keys()
     title: str = None
     description: str = None
-    thumbnail_path: str = None
     created: datetime.date = None
     modified: datetime.date = None
 
+    thumbnail_path: str = None
+
+meta_data_keys = [key for key in Article.__dict__.keys() if not key.startswith('_')]
+
 with open("config.yml", "r") as file:
     config = yaml.safe_load(file)
     logger.debug(f'Config loaded: {config.__repr__()}')
@@ -69,6 +73,19 @@ for article_name in articles_name:
 
     with open(article_source_path, 'r') as file:
         source = file.read()
+    
+    # Check for article META data
+    if source.startswith('---'):
+        meta_data_yml_end_char_index = source.find('---', 3)
+        meta_data_yml = source[3:meta_data_yml_end_char_index]
+        # Strip meta data text from source, before feeding it to the markdown reader
+        source = source[meta_data_yml_end_char_index+3:]
+        meta_data = yaml.safe_load(meta_data_yml)
+        # Gets additional meta data may be added, and referenced in the templates.
+        known_meta_data = {key: value for key, value in meta_data.items() if key in meta_data_keys}
+    else:
+        logger.warn(f'No metadata found in: {article_name}')
+
     try:
         html = markdown.markdown(source)
     except Exception as ex:
@@ -83,7 +100,7 @@ for article_name in articles_name:
 
     article = Article(name=article_name, dir_path=article_dir_path, source_path=article_source_path, source=source,
                       html=html, output_dir_path=article_output_dir_path, output_path=article_output_path, 
-                      source_file_name=article_source_file_name)
+                      source_file_name=article_source_file_name, **known_meta_data)
     articles.append(article)
  
     with open(article.output_path, "a") as file: