Updating my Jekyll blog from an iPad
I just bought the new iPad Pro, and I plan to use it when I travel to AWS re:Invent to write blog posts.
Equipment
- iPad Pro 12.9” (633g)
- Smart Folio (240g)
- Microsoft Universal Foldable Keyboard (180g)
With around 1kg, it’s a great setup to carry and work on the go.
Bear
First I looked for an application to write/edit markdown content.
I studied a few (iA Writer, Editorial, Textastic…) but I liked the look and feel of Bear and the fact that they have a Mac App with easy sync.
Working Copy
The next step is to commit the new post to git, where my continuous deployment workflow will kick in.
So I needed a git client on iOS, and all my research pointed to the same direction: Working Copy.
I had never used a graphic git client before.
However, I liked how easy it was to set up with my GitHub account and start cloning my repositories.
Siri Shortcuts
Now I have everything I need to add a new post.
But I like to automate things, so I wanted to make it even easier.
So I created a Siri Shortcut that does all the heavy lifting:
- Parse markdown for images, resize them and copy to the repository
- Parse markdown for tags
- Generate front matter block (title, tags, feature image…)
- Copy markdown file to the repository
You can check the full shortcut with comments here.
This way I just have to export the text bundle from Bear to my shortcut and voilà!
Preview
When I first push the post is hidden, I can check everything looks good by using the direct link and make further modifications or unhide it with another commit.
