Multi-file posts syntax?
We plan to add support for merging multiple files into a single post on Blot.
My question for you is, what should the syntax be?
We need to indicate that a subfolder's files should be merged into a post, rather than become individual posts.
Let's say you have a folder full of pictures of your trip to Italy. How should you indicate that instead of individual posts, per image, they should be merged into a single post automatically? A few options which come to mind:
- (Pictures from Italy)
- Pictures from Italy (album)
- Pictures from Italy --
- -Pictures from Italy-
- {Pictures from Italy}
- Pictures from Italy.post
- Pictures from Italy >
- Pictures from Italy
- @\Pictures from Italy
- #Pictures from Italy
- # Pictures from Italy
- Pictures from Italy &
- Pictures from Italy +
- + Pictures from Italy
A few constraints:
- use safe, cross-platform characters
- make the resulting folder good to look at
- make it non-language specific if possible (i.e. don't depend on english words)
There's more information about multi-file posts on GitHub, but please feel free to share your thoughts here on there. I'm writing the underlying code required for the feature at the moment, and the syntax can be adjusted down the line before release.
This will be great feature! Just my first thought: avoid prepending with symbols, as it would impact file system alpha ordering. Also, would ampersand character impact URLs?
Answered 2 years ago · Edit answer(Pictures from Italy) will be the safest bet, considering that we already use [square brackets for tags]. Would love that feature, especially if we can reserve a separate "multi-image.html" view for that to offer some code and style optimisation. When do you think you'll be shipping this one?
Answered 2 years ago · Edit answerMy concern with parenthesis is they look too similar to the square brackets – but I agree, a pretty safe bet
I also don't like that it messes with file system sorting, per the other commenter
As for ampersands: none of these control characters would make it into the final URL – the slug would be /pictures-from-italy for every option
I quite like the + suffix, e.g.
Pictures from Italy+
This syntax suggests in a nice way that we're 'adding' together all the files in the subdirectory?
Answered 2 years ago · Edit answeras long as "+" or "&" doesn't interfere with git and filesystems.. I used to achieve similar results with Jekyll using YAML files. One yaml = one post and one benefit of that is that you can re-use same picture or text-file across multiple entries.
iA Writer uses another design, they call it "Content Blocks": /content_bloc_file.md on the separate line of another markdown file will render similar to mustache's {{>tag}}
I’m not sure if this is related to the intention or goal of this feature but I was recently looking into whether I would be able to have certain posts pulled into a single page, or ‘meta-post’. Similar to having a page of tagged posts, but shown in full and in chronological order. But the posts would still exist individually too.
The idea was also to have images included too (as well as text). So to create a page from a collection of files.
I realised it’s probably not possible without creating a custom template, and well beyond my skill level even if that was possible. And I haven’t given it much thought since deciding to abandon the idea.
I’m happy to hear that you are working on something along those lines anyway.
I think a folder name with the word post appended makes most sense to me.
Answered 2 years ago · Edit answer