LyXBlog

LyXBlog

Script for publishing LyX articles on a Jekyll-based Blog.

Download

About

This is a little script which converts a LyX file into an HTML file and "publishes" it on a local copy of your Jekyll-based blog. This script can be integrated in LyX.

Features

LyXBlog supports:

  • images with or without captions
  • math through MathJax
  • bibliography
  • labels for equations, sections, images
  • custom labels (\label{label_name{text_when_referenced}})
  • style attribute for injecting <style>...</style> in HTML
  • raw blocks for injecting raw text such as Jekyll-specific tags (e.g. {% highlight python %})

Usage

LyXBlog [--update] [--args_from_file] <input file> <blog base dir> <assets relative dir>

where:

  • --update is used when you want to update an article and it's OK to overwrite existing files
  • --args_from_file lets you drop the last two arguments (<blog base dir> <assets relative dir>) and specify them in the front matter of the input file
  • input file is the LyX file to publish
  • blog base dir is the base dir of the local copy of your blog (e.g. c:\my_projects\blog)
  • assets relative dir is the relative dir (e.g. assets) of the directory where to put the images

Requirements

lyx.exe and pandoc.exe must be in your search path and the script requires Python 3.

Dependencies

  • pandocfilters
  • ruamel_yaml

Front matter

Every LyX file needs to contain a double front matter. The first part is a front matter for LyxBlog itself and the second one for Jekyll. The second front matter will be copied (almost) verbatim into the HTML file.

IMPORTANT: You need to insert (as TeX code (CTRL-L)) the double front matter between \begin{comment} and \end{comment}, right at the beginning of the file. You need the package verbatim for the comment environment.

Here's an example of double front matter:

\begin{comment}
---
html_file_name:        distributional_rl         # required
args:
    blog_base_dir:     D:\--- New Projects\mtomassoli.github.io
    assets_rel_dir:    assets
style: >
          article { text-align: justify; }
          article p { hyphens: auto; }
          figure { margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; }
          figure figcaption { text-align: justify; text-align-last: center; margin: 0 5%; }
---
layout:         post
title:          Distributional RL
date:           2017-12-02
summary:        An intuitive explanation of Distributional RL.
---
\end{comment}
  • html_file_name is used by LyXBlog to name the HTML file (but the date will be added to the name as required by Jekyll). Use the basename of the file without any extension just like in the example above.
  • args is used to supply the last two arguments to LyXBlog when you're using --args_from_file.
  • style is used to inject additional styling information to the final HTML file. I think the ones in the example above are good defaults.

Editing in LyX

See distributional_rl.lyx to see what you can do. The only missing feature is the use of labels in paragraphs. You just name the label using the format some_label_name{the part about distributions} and then you reference to it with something like

As we saw in <ref-to-label>

This will give you something equivalent to

As we saw in [the part about distributions](link)

What the script does

The script does the following:

  1. converts article.lyx to article.tex with lyx.exe
  2. extracts the double front matter from article.tex and look for:
    • html_file_name
    • args (blog_base_dir, assets_rel_dir)
    • date in Jekyll front matter
  3. converts article.tex to article.html with pandoc.exe
  4. handles the images in article.lyx by copying them to the directory
    <blog base dir>\<assets relative dir>\<%date>-<%html_file_name>
    and fixing the references to the images
  5. handles all the labels and references
  6. adds Jekyll front matter to article.html
  7. if present, adds the content of the style attribute to article.html
  8. copies the final HTML file into _post* with its proper name:
    <%date>-<%html_file_name>.html

LyX Integration

Configuring LyX

  • Add the package verbatim needed for the environment comment by going to Document->Settings...->LaTeX Preamble and adding the following:
    \usepackage{verbatim}
  • Go to Document->Settings...->Language and select Unicode (utf8) under Encoding.

Calling the script from LyX

Go to Tools->Preferences... and create the following two (fake) file formats:

Remember to click on New and Apply.

Then create the following two converters, one with and the other without --update:

The field Converter deserves an explanation:

  • I'm calling python.exe with the full path because LyX modifies its private search path to make it point to its copy of Python 2.
  • If you are on Windows, you need to use "/" for the Python path and "\" for the other paths. This is a "portability issue", AFAICT.
  • $$r$$i is the full path of the LyX document.

NOTE: If you want, you can drop the last two arguments and use --args_from_file instead. This is especially useful if you have more blogs and want to select the destination blog directly in the LyX file.

Remember to click on Add, Apply and Save.

After you've done all that, you can run the script from File->Export.

An easy way to start blogging on GitHub Pages

Installation

  1. install ruby
  2. install bundler by executing
    gem install bundler
  3. fork a theme
  4. rename your fork to <Your GitHub Username>.github.io
  5. clone the fork:
    git clone https://github.com/<Your GitHub Username>/<Your GitHub Username>.github.io
  6. go inside the local dir of the just-cloned repository
  7. execute bundle install

Now you can see your local blog by executing bundle exec jekyll serve and by going to http://127.0.0.1:4000.

Configuration

  • Do not activate MathJax from your theme (if it supports it). That will probably interfere with this script which takes care of MathJax on its own.
  • Modify the CSS files of your theme as you see fit. For instance, I reduced the font-size of the code listing and made the margins wider to gain space:
    • in _code.scss:
      pre,
code {
  font-family: $monospace-font-family;
  font-size: 0.89rem;
}
    
figure.highlight {
  margin-left: 0px;
  margin-right: 0px;
}

.highlight .p {              // for the parentheses!
  font-size: 1.00125rem;     /* 1.125 * "code.font-size" */
  line-height: 1;
}
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