Blogging with org-mode and ox-hugo again

For a few years (a few years ago) I wrote all my blog posts using one big Org mode outline and let ox-hugo generate the Markdown files for Hugo. I eventually decided it was a layer of abstraction that I didn’t need, so I fell back to writing in Markdown directly.

I’m really into using Emacs for everything again (still?), so I dusted off and updated my old ox-hugo config and here I am, typing this with Emacs in a big Org mode outline.

I have a (ya)snippet for generating the posts, like so:

# -*- mode: snippet -*-
# name: Hugo blog post
# key: blog
# uuid: blog
# --
**** TODO ${1:title}
:PROPERTIES:
:EXPORT_FILE_NAME: index.md
:EXPORT_HUGO_BUNDLE: `(format-time-string "%Y-%m-%d")`-${1:$(replace-regexp-in-string " " "-" (downcase yas-text))}
:EXPORT_HUGO_SLUG: ${1:$(replace-regexp-in-string " " "-" (downcase yas-text))}
:EXPORT_HUGO_CUSTOM_FRONT_MATTER: :coverCaption ""
:END:

#+begin_description

#+end_description

$0

The snippet prompts for a title, then creates the appropriate properties for the post.

One nice thing about this is that once the Markdown is generated, I no longer need the .org file. Writing this way is a bonus, but not a requirement.