Readtime plugin for pelican

Plugin for Pelican that computes a piece of content's read time.

It adds a readtime and readtime_string attributes to every article and/or page, with the time estimation for reading the article.

Setting Up

Adding ‘ReadTime’ to the list of plugins:

In pelicanconf.py:

PLUGINS = [
    ... ,
    'readtime'
]

1. Words Per Minute Only

In your settings you would use assign the READTIME_WPM variable to an integer like so:

In pelicanconf.py:

READTIME_WPM = 180

Every article’s read time would be calculated using this average words per minute count. (See the Usage section for how to use the calculated read times in templates). This is the simplest read time method.

2. Words Per Minute per language

This is the preferred method if you are dealing with multiple languages. Take a look at the following settings

In pelicanconf.py:

READTIME_WPM = {
    'default': {
        'wpm': 200,
        'min_singular': 'minute',
        'min_plural': 'minutes',
        'sec_singular': 'second',
        'sec_plural': 'seconds'
    },
    'es': {
        'wpm': 220,
        'min_singular': 'minuto',
        'min_plural': 'minutos',
        'sec_singular': 'segundo',
        'sec_plural': 'segundos'
    }
}

In this example the default reading time for all articles is 200 words per minute. Any articles in spanish will be calculated at 220 wpm. This is useful for information dense languages where the read time varies rapidly.

Chances are the average reading time will not vary rapidly from language to language, however using this method also allows you to set plurals which make templating easier in the long run.

Usage

Four variables are accessible through the read time plugin: readtime, readtime_string, readtime_with_seconds, and readtime_string_with_seconds

{% if article.readtime %} This article takes {{article.readtime}} minute(s) to read.{% endif %}
// This article takes 4 minute(s) to read.

{% if article.readtime_string %} This article takes {{article.readtime_string}} to read.{% endif %}
// This article takes 4 minutes to read.

{% if article.readtime_with_seconds %}
  This article takes {{article.read_with_seconds[0]}} minutes(s) and {{article.read_with_seconds[1]}} second(s) to read.
{% endif %}
// This article takes 4 minutes and 21 second(s) to read.

{% if article.readtime_string_with_seconds %} This article takes {{article.readtime_string_with_seconds}} to read.{% endif %}
// This article takes 4 minutes, 1 second to read.

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