Example of making and managing a website with emacs org-mode

I use the same elisp I showed earlier to do this. I keep it in my index.org file under the section named COMMENT which isn't included in the html output. I then simply execute the elisp (C-c C-e) when I need to generate the html files.

For some reason my hosting site doesn't allow directory listings (disabled by default and not changeable through .htaccess). I fix this by writing a simple elisp script that makes a sitemap with links to all the files in a given directory.

(progn
  (defun my-ls-html (dir &optional prefix)
    "Return a string of html showing recursive directory listings."
    (let ((out ""))
      (dolist (f (directory-files dir))
        (if (not (or (string= f ".") (string= f "..")
                     (string= "." (substring f 0 1))))
            (let ((ff (concat prefix f)))
              (if (file-directory-p (concat dir "/" f))
                  (setq out (format "%s<li>%s:%s</li>"
                                    out f (my-ls-html 
                                           (concat dir "/" f) 
                                           (concat prefix f "/"))))
                (setq out (format "%s<li><a href=\"%s\">%s</a></li>"
                                  out ff f))))))
      (concat "<ul>" out "</ul>")))

  (with-temp-file "~/data/danamlund.dk/org/index.html"
    (insert (my-ls-html "~/data/danamlund.dk/org"))))

It's not pretty code but it does a simple enough job that it doesn't need to be.

I first define the function which outputs a string, then I write that string to a file using the builtin with-temp-file function.

lftp is just a simple ftp client I found that can mirror upload sites. This feature is simple to decrease the time it takes to upload a change in the website.

lftp itself can be passed, as a parameter, a series of commands to connect and start mirrroring the website. To execute this automatically using emacs I use the shell and comint-send-input commands.

(progn
  (shell "lftp")
  (insert (concat "lftp -c 'open danamlund.dk@danamlund.dk;"
                  "mirror -R -e ~/data/danamlund.dk_tmp /'"))
  (comint-send-input))

This code asks for the password when executed. I could have included the password as a part of the lftp parameter but then I wouldn't be able to safely share my index.orgfile.

Ftp is really slow the more files and directories you have. Mirroring saves some time, the client still need to look through all directories. To speed up ftp mirroring I decided to remove .svn files. Unfortunately lftp doesn't seem to have a feature to ignore certain files, so I fixed this with some shell commands instead. I basically just copied the entire generated website to a temporary location and then removed .svn files using find and xargs.

(progn
  (shell-command "rm -Rf ~/data/danamlund.dk_tmp")
  (shell-command "cp -RLf ~/data/danamlund.dk ~/data/danamlund.dk_tmp")
  (shell-command "find ~/data/danamlund.dk_tmp -name '.svn' | xargs rm -Rf"))

As can be seen in index.org I have combined these features into two operations, one to generate the website and one to upload it. It is usually a good idea to check the website before uploading it to the public.

(progn 
  (require 'org-publish)
  (set-background-color "white")
  (set-foreground-color "black")
  (org-publish-projects
   '(
     ("danamlund.dk-notes"
      :base-directory "~/data/danamlund.dk/org"
      :base-extension "org"
      :publishing-directory "~/data/danamlund.dk"
      :recursive t
      :publishing-function org-publish-org-to-html
      :headline-levels 4
      :auto-preamble t
      
      :headline-level 4
      :section-numbers nil
      :sub-superscript nil
      :style "<link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\" href=\"./css/stylesheet.css\" />"
      :author "Dan Amlund"
      :email "danamlund@gmail.com"
      )
     ("danamlund.dk-static"
      :base-directory "~/data/danamlund.dk/org"
      :base-extension "css\\|js\\|png\\|jpg\\|gif\\|pdf\\|mp3\\|ogg\\|swf\\|deb"
      :publishing-directory "~/data/danamlund.dk"
      :recursive t
      :publishing-function org-publish-attachment
      )))
  (defun my-ls-html (dir &optional prefix)
    "Return a string of html showing recursive directory listings."
    (let ((out ""))
      (dolist (f (directory-files dir))
        (if (not (or (string= f ".") (string= f "..")
                     (string= "." (substring f 0 1))))
            (let ((ff (concat prefix f)))
              (if (file-directory-p (concat dir "/" f))
                  (setq out (format "%s<li>%s:%s</li>"
                                    out f (my-ls-html 
                                           (concat dir "/" f) 
                                           (concat prefix f "/"))))
                (setq out (format "%s<li><a href=\"%s\">%s</a></li>"
                                  out ff f))))))
      (concat "<ul>" out "</ul>")))
  (with-temp-file "~/data/danamlund.dk/org/index.html"
    (insert (my-ls-html "~/data/danamlund.dk/org")))
  (set-background-color "black")
  (set-foreground-color "white"))

(progn
  (shell-command "rm -Rf ~/data/danamlund.dk_tmp")
  (shell-command "cp -RLf ~/data/danamlund.dk ~/data/danamlund.dk_tmp")
  (shell-command "find ~/data/danamlund.dk_tmp -name '.svn' | xargs rm -Rf")
  (shell "lftp")
  (insert (concat "lftp -c 'open danamlund.dk@danamlund.dk;"
                  "mirror -R -e ~/data/danamlund.dk_tmp /'"))
  (comint-send-input))