---
layout: post
title: Integrating Jekyll with Decap CMS
date: 2024-04-07T20:36:00.000Z
permalink: jekyll
---
## Introduction

Yesterday, I rewrote my blog to use Jekyll. I was previously using a backwards stupid method to fetch new posts on each page load from the server filesystem. If this content changed often it may have been a viable strategy but the posts are static and logically should be in the filesystem

## Jekyll

I rewrote the blog in Jekyll, a tool based on ruby. It reads all the markdown files in a directory, and can conditionally render these in a [liquid](https://liquidjs.com/tutorials/intro-to-liquid.html) template. I remember my initial experiences with a similar language, jinja, in python. Initially I DESPISED jinja. The syntax felt overly verbose, and I didn't enjoy writing it. However, after actually reading the documentation, liquid has been a joy to write in.

Jekyll has a large ecosystem of premade themes available for a quick portfolio job or the graphic design hater amongst us. As well as this, it also features plugins, such as automatic RSS and sitemap generators. I think you should give serious consideration to migrating away from other SSGs.

## Automatic page updates

I recently included [Decap CMS](https://decapcms.org/docs/intro/) as a post editor and creator. I prefer it to writing directly in my code editor, and it authenticates directly with github so I don't have to handle authentication. However, Decap doesn't directly modify the filesystem on the server, and after doing some research, found a tool that some sysadmins may not be using!

### But what might this be tyler, you beautiful man?

[Github webhooks](https://docs.github.com/en/webhooks/about-webhooks) automatically make a POST request to my backend on each repository push. After this, I run an express.js server that recieves the POST, proxied over nginx. Through this, I pull on the repository, execute jekyll build and reload the nginx config to make it flush its cache.

All in all, I find this to be an excellent workflow, and one that may work for any sysadmins working with clients that are not to be trusted with a code editor and don't know what a darn geethub is.

## But I hate managed services! I hate you!

That's okay too! Decap, while previously a netlify offering, allows for external oauth implementations for self hosted services like gitlab, as well as [github](https://github.com/vencax/netlify-cms-github-oauth-provider). The entire stack is self hosted on my server, and if I wished to, the repo could also be hosted on gitea or gitlab, meaning the entire stack would be managed by me. Think Linus would be proud?

## Conclusion

This was just a short writeup. Now that writing articles will be easier than ever, I hope to upload more frequently in the coming months. Now get off your ass and make some shit. 

Tyler