HubPress

What Is HubPress?

HubPress is a free, open source tool you can use to build a rich, AsciiDoc based blog using GitHub Pages!

Created and maintained by Anthonny Quérouil (twitter @anthonny_q).

Note	While HubPress may appear feature-complete, it is actually in Tech Preview. Bugs are inevitible, so if you find something is not behaving the way you think it should, please raise a bug and the project team will address it as soon as possible.

Documentation is rapidly evolving as the project gains momentum. Check back regularly for more tips on how to use HubPress. If you see something wrong with the documentation, please raise a bug. Your help with improving every aspect of HubPress is greatly appreciated. Pull Requests are always welcome.

Browser compatibility

HubPress is compatible with Chrome Desktop, Firefox Desktop, and Chrome for Android.

Chrome Beta for Android will be fully compatible soon, but is not currently supported because of bugs with IndexedDB. While using HubPress Preview, use Chrome for Android only.

Getting Started

Installation

Fork the repository

Click the Fork icon to create a copy of this repository within your GitHub account.

Use the github.io domain

If you have never used your GitHub Pages domain before, you can use this procedure to quickly set up HubPress. With this method, only a few steps are required to get HubPress deployed and ready for use.

Important

If you are currently using your username.github.io GitHub Pages domain for another project, or if you want to use a custom domain name, skip to the next procedure for instructions.

1. Rename your repository to <username>.github.io

2. Set values in hubpress/config.json

   

   The following parameters are mandatory :

   • username, which is your GitHub user name,

   • repositoryName, which is the new name of the repository fork, <username>.github.io.

3. Commit the changes, and open the GitHub Pages domain: https://<username>.github.io/.

4. The following screen indicates you have correctly configured HubPress

   

Use a Custom Domain or GitHub Page Domain Already In Use

If you want your blog to be available on a custom domain, or you are already using your GitHub Pages domain to host another project, some extra configuration is required.

1. In the repository settings, set the default branch to gh-pages :

   

2. Switch your repository to the branch gh-pages

   

3. Set the required values in `hubpress/config.json

   

   The following parameters are mandatory :

   • username, which is your GitHub user name,

   • repositoryName, which is the repository fork. For example, hubpress.io if you did not rename it.

4. Commit the changes, and open the GitHub Pages domain: https://<username>.github.io/<repositoryName>/.

5. The following screen indicates you have correctly configured HubPress

   

Administration Console

The HubPress Administration Console is available at /hubpress

• https://<username>.github.io/hubpress/ for GitHub Hosted blogs, or

• https://<username>.github.io/<repositoryName>/hubpress/ for Domain Hosted blogs.

Log Into the Administration Console

Enter your GitHub credentials to log into HubPress Admin.

Once you authenticate, a personal token is created for future calls from HubPress to the GitHub API.

This is synchronized across all sessions of HubPress, so if you open the Administration Console on your PC and then your Tablet, the token is applicable to all devices.

Settings Page

You can configure basic blog settings (such as CNAME and Pagination) and social media accounts you want to connect to your blog.

Meta

This section contains basic information configured in the /hubpress/config.json file.

The following fields are configurable:

Git CNAME

Lets you specify a custom domain name for your blog. See Setting Up A Custom Domain for instructions about setting up a CNAME for your blog.

Live Preview Render Delay

Controls how long the live render takes to refresh, in milliseconds. For fast typists, setting this field to a value over 2000 (two seconds) will result in a smoother editing experience because the live preview will not be regenerated so frequently. Setting this value below 2000 will result in the live preview refreshing faster, but may result in some visible cursor delay when typing.

Site

Title and Description

The Title and Description fields allow you to give your blog a name, and tell visitors what they can expect from your blog posts.

The Logo and Cover Image fields can be used the following ways:

• A HTML link to an image hosting service. For example gravatar.

• A link to an image committed to the /images directory of your blog repository.

Note	See the /images/README.adoc file for tips about embedding images into your blog posts.

Theme

The Theme is selectable from the list of themes stored in the /themes directory. Specify it according to it is spelled in it’s containing folder.

Google Analytics

The Google Analytics field takes the unique Google Analytics code generated for the site.

Disqus Shortname

The Disqus shortname field takes your Disqus URL/shortname that is specified when you register a new site for Disqus. Only the shortname is required, not a link to your profile page.

Social Network

All fields in this group require full URLs to your public profile page. The way these values are rendered on your blog depends on the theme selected.

Managing Posts

When you first start HubPress, the Posts view is empty. As you create blog posts, the page populates with the list of posts on the left, and a live preview of the blog post itself on the right.

Writing A Blog Post with HubPress

Note	If you have never used AsciiDoc before to write content, the AsciiDoctor Writer’s Guide should be your first stop in your journey. The guide provides both basic and advanced mark-up examples for you to copy and use.

HubPress Editor displays the AsciiDoc code on the left, and the live preview on the right.

Blog Title, and Headings

The blog title is always Level 1 in an AsciiDoc post. For example, = Blog Title sets the name of the Blog Post to Blog Title.

A = Blog Title is required for saving it successfully.

If you want a first-level heading you use == First Level Heading, and so on to create other nested headings.

HubPress Parameters

HubPress allows you to alter characteristics of each blog post using attributes.

:hp-image: for Blog Post Cover Images

If you want to add a cover image to your Blog Post, set the hp-image attribute.

1. :hp-image: Example

= Blog Title
:hp-image: a-cover-image.jpg

Note

Because HubPress defaults the /images directory as the root for all images, you only need to declare the filename of the image. Because of this, you may want to consider creating a /covers directory in your repository to group the cover images together. Naming the cover images consistently will make it very easy to apply to every post. If you have a theme to your blog, this allows your readers to get a visual clue as to what the post is about.

The themes that currently support blog post cover images are:

• Saga

:published_at: to alter the Publication Date

By default, the publication date is the date you created the Blog Post. You can force the publication date by adding the :published_at: attribute.

1. :published_at: Example

= Blog Title
:published_at: 2015-01-31

:hp-tags: for Metadata Tags

Note	Categories are not supported.

Add tags by using the hp-tags attribute.

1. :hp-tags: Example

= Blog Title
:hp-tags: HubPress, Blog, Open Source,

:hp-alt-title: to Specify an Alternative Title

Specify an alternative title using the hp-alt-title attribute.

The alternative title is used instead of the HTML file name generated by HubPress.

1. :hp-alt-title: Example

= 大千世界
:hp-alt-title: My English Title

Adding Images

Push Images to GitHub Repository

You can use Git command line or a Git app to add images to your blog posts:

1. Commit images to the /images directory.

2. In your blog post, use the following basic AsciiDoc syntax:

   image::<filename>[]

3. See http://asciidoctor.org/docs/asciidoc-writers-guide/ for complex examples of Image syntax.

If you are embedding images from a hosted source — such as instagram, another GitHub repository, or any photo hosting sites — put the full URL to the image in place of the <filename>.

Hosted Image Embed

image::http://<full path to image>[]

Using GitHub Issues as an Image Hosting Container

You can use a single issue as an image container for a blog post containing many issues by uploading multiple images as comments. Alternatively, you can use multiple issues to store individual images. Whatever works best for you, and your organization style. Watch this five minute video for a demonstration about how to use GitHub Issues and Cloud Hosting services as embed targets, and some bonus tips on using the image AsciiDoc syntax.

Embedding Videos

HubPress allows you to embed video directly into your blog post by using a quick notation in your blog post. You don’t need to put it the full URL: all you need is the unique video ID.

video::[unique_youtube_video_id][youtube | vimeo]

YouTube Video Embed

video::KCylB780zSM[youtube]

Vimeo Video Embed

video::67480300[vimeo]

Updating HubPress

Because HubPress is hosted on GitHub, you can update by pulling down the latest changes from the HubPress master repository.

To learn how to do this correctly (there’s a trick to it the first time you pull changes from upstream), you can watch the following video to learn the correct process.

Updating HubPress

Troubleshooting

If something is not working as you expect, some of these tips may help.

Resetting Blog Database on Android

Sometimes the HubPress local database becomes out-of-sync with your published blog. This can happen because you are editing your blog on your PC, then switch over to your tablet.

HubPress works on a locally-stored database specific to your Browser, so if you switch devices — and subsequently switch browsers — you lose the synchronicity between browsers.

To return your instance of HubPress to that of the published blog, clear the browser Cache and Data in Settings > Apps. When you do this, HubPress is forced to rebuild the local database, and will reflect the state of the blog in GitHub.

Credits

Thanks to Jared Morgan for initially tidying up the README you see here, and continuing to be the "docs guy" for HubPress. Thanks to takkyuuplayer, hinaloe to have translated the README into Japanese