mdgo

mdgo is a library and a program to write static web server with embedded files using markdown markup language.

For working with asciidoc markup language with Go see ciigo.

mdgo as command

mdgo provide a command line interface (CLI) can convert, generate, and/or serve a directory that contains markup files, as HTML files.

Usage

$ mdgo [-template <file>] [-exclude <regex>] convert <dir>

Scan the "dir" recursively to find markup files (.md) and convert them into HTML files. The template "file" is optional, default to embedded HTML template.

$ mdgo [-template <file>] [-out <file>] [-exclude <regex>] generate <dir>

Convert all markup files inside directory "dir" recursively and then embed them into ".go" source file. The output file is optional, default to "mdgo_static.go" in current directory.

$ mdgo [-template <file>] [-address <ip:port>] [-exclude <regex>] serve <dir>

Serve all files inside directory "dir" using HTTP server, watch changes on markup files and convert them to HTML files automatically. If the address is not set, its default to ":8080".

mdgo as library

This section describe step by step instructions on how to build and create pages to be viewed for local development using mdgo.

First, clone the mdgo repository. Let says that we have cloned the mdgo repository into $HOME/go/src/git.sr.ht/~shulhan/mdgo.

Create new Go repository for building a website. For example, in directory $HOME/go/src/remote.tld/user/mysite. Replace "remote.tld/user/mysite" with your private or public repository.

$ mkdir -p $HOME/go/src/remote.tld/user/mysite
$ cd $HOME/go/src/remote.tld/user/mysite

Initialize the Go module,

$ go mod init remote.tld/user/mysite

Create directories for storing our content and a package binary.

$ mkdir -p cmd/mysite
$ mkdir -p _contents

Copy the example of stylesheet and HTML template from mdgo repository,

$ cp $HOME/go/src/git.sr.ht/~shulhan/mdgo/_example/index.css ./_contents/
$ cp $HOME/go/src/git.sr.ht/~shulhan/mdgo/_example/html.tmpl ./_contents/

Create the main Go code inside cmd/mysite,

package main

import (
	"git.sr.ht/~shulhan/mdgo"
	"github.com/shuLhan/share/lib/memfs"
)

var mysiteFS *memfs.MemFS

func main() {
	opts := &mdgo.ServeOptions{
		Mfs:          mysiteFS,
		Address:      ":8080",
		HtmlTemplate: "_contents/html.tmpl",
		Root:         "_contents",
	}
	err := mdgo.Serve(opts)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
}

Create a new markup file index.md inside the "_contents" directory. Each directory, or sub directory, should have index.md to be able to accessed by browser,

#  Test

Hello, world!

Now run the ./cmd/mysite with DEBUG environment variable set to non-zero,

$ DEBUG=1 go run ./cmd/mysite

Any non zero value on DEBUG environment signal the running program to watch changes in ".md" files inside "_contents" directory and serve the generated HTML directly.

Open the web browser at localhost:8080 to view the generated HTML. You should see "Hello, world!" as the main page.

Thats it!

Create or update any ".md" files inside "_contents" directory, the program will automatically generated the HTML file. Refresh the web browser to load the new generated file.

Deployment

First, we need to make sure that all markup files inside "_contents" are converted to HTML and embed it into the static Go code.

Create another Go source code, lets save it in internal/generate.go with the following content,

package main

import (
	"git.sr.ht/~shulhan/mdgo"
)

func main() {
	opts := &mdgo.GenerateOptions{
		Root:           "./_contents",
		HTMLTemplate:   "_contents/html.tmpl",
		GenPackageName: "main",
		GenVarName:     "mysiteFS",
		GenGoFileName:  "cmd/mysite/static.go",
	}
	mdgo.Generate(opts)
}

And then run,

$ go run ./internal

The above command will generate Go source code cmd/mysite/static.go that embed all files inside the "_contents" directory.

Second, build the web server that serve static contents in static.go,

$ go build cmd/mysite

Third, test the web server by running the program and opening localhost:8080 on web browser,

$ ./mysite

Finally, deploy the program to your server.

NOTE: By default, server will listen on address 0.0.0.0 at port 8080. If you need to use another port, you can change it at cmd/mysite/main.go.

That's it!

Limitations and Known Bugs

mdgo will not handle automatic certificate (e.g. using LetsEncrypt), its up to the user how the certificate are gathered, generated, or served.

Using symlink on ".md" file inside content directory is not supported yet.

Resources

The source code for this software can be viewed at https://git.sr.ht/~shulhan/mdgo under custom BSD license.

Credits

This software use the following third party libraries,

• github.com/yuin/goldmark. MIT License. Copyright (c) 2019 Yusuke Inuzuka
• github.com/yuin/goldmark-meta. MIT License. Copyright (c) 2019 Yusuke Inuzuka