My original idea was to write my first blog about the experience of posting a GitHub hosted blog. Like the best laid plans of men and mice - that did not happen. In fact the first four blogs are about the set up and configuration of a blogging application on GitHub. Now at last here in the fifth blog, (yes, Blog Number 5) I can focus on the experience of actually posting a GitHub hosted blog. Whats cool is the simplicity of its blogging work-flow.

How to Create a new GitHub Blog

As a software developer I am used to using Git and GitHub for managing software files as part of software projects. The GitHub blogger can expect to follow the same work-flow. This is because a GitHub bogging application is also managed as a collection of files in a GitHub repository. However in addition to the GitHub type steps - there are also steps specific to using Jeckyl Now as a blogging application.

Create a New Text File for the Blog

The starting point for a new blog is creating a text file with your favorite text editor. Following standard GitHub work-flow this file is created on your local machine - in my case my windows desktop. Every blog gets its own text file.

Follow Blog File Name Convention

All blog files for the Jekyll Now blogging application must follow its file name convention. The file name starts with the blog date, followed by the blog description. The file extension is .md (meaning a file containing MarkDown syntax). For example the file name for this blog is "2015-5-10-posting_first_blog.md".

Save the Blog Text File in _posts directory

The blog file needs to be saved locally in the correct directory. Navigate to the root directory for the GitHub web-site (username.github.io). This directory should contain a _posts directory created by the Jeckyl Now installation. All blogs are saved in this _posts directory.

Add the Front Matter to the Blog File

The first few lines of the blog file is called the front matter - this section is mandatory. The front matter starts and ends with a line containing three dashes ( --- ). In between these lines two additional lines are added. The first additional line starts with the keyword "layout:" and links to a file in the _layout that controls blog layout. The second additional line starts with the keyword "title:" and contains the title of the blog.

Here is the front matter (first four lines) for this blog:

---    
 layout: post    
 title: Posting my First Blog on GitHub    
---     

Note that the title in the front matter does not have to match the description in the blog file name. The title in the front matter gets published as the blog title - it can be changed as required.

Add the Content to the Blog File

The blog content is added after the front matter. Just start typing text - the text you add becomes the body of your blog. Creating a new paragraph is easy - a single blank line creates a new paragraph.

Use MarkDown to enrich and format the Blog

A syntax called MarkDown is used to format the blog. I found MarkDown very intuitive and quick to learn. I use these Markdown cheat sheets as a quick primer on writing in Markdown. The MarkDown syntax is what I like most about this blogging software, its simplicity keeps the focus on the content.

Pre-view the Blog on the local server

Writing a blog is a very interactive process. Before publishing a blog, you must pre-view and check the content and layout many times. This means it is very important to have Jeckyl installed correctly and running locally. To run Jeckyl type the following command in the web-site root directory:

bundle exec jekyll server

...and then open the desktop browser at the local Jeckyl url http://localhost:4000 to pre-view the blog.

Publish the Blog

The final step is to publish the blog. This is done, as per normal GitHub workflow, by pushing the local repository content to GitHub. Once the latest content is live on the GitHub repository, GitHub takes care of generating your web-site. The new blog is now available at your personal GitHub web url.

Conclusion

I have now written five blogs about my GitHub blogging experience. The most frustrating aspect was setting up Jeckyl on my Windows PC. Jeckyl is the software that is required to pre-view blogs on the local machine before publishing to the web. My best discovery was installing the Jeckyl Now Blogging application written by Barry Clark. Barry''s Jeckyl Now is like WordPress for GitHub - its the perfect starting point for GitHub blogging. I like to simplicity of the blogging work-flow such as using text files and MarkDown syntax. Once all the required software is installed I think that this will be a productive and fun way to blog.