Usage

How to use and configure Ter.

Sep 26, 2022

Upd: Nov 13, 2022

1Quick start
2Command line usage
3Configuration
4Content
5Deploy

Quick start #

Install deno #

Ter is built with Deno, so you’ll need to have it installed. Once the deno command is available to run in your terminal, follow along.

Build a site #

Navigate to a directory with some markdown files and run Ter to build a site.

This command will recursively search for all *.md files in the current directory and generate a site into the _site directory:

deno run -A --unstable https://deno.land/x/ter/main.ts

If your markdown files are not in root directory, or if you want a different name for the output directory, adjust accordingy, for example:

deno run -A --unstable https://deno.land/x/ter/main.ts --input pages --output _dist

To start a local server with live refresh, pass the --serve flag:

deno run -A --unstable https://deno.land/x/ter/main.ts --serve

Command line usage #

Run Ter with the --help flag to see usage reference.

deno run https://deno.land/x/ter/main.ts --help

Ter -- tiny wiki-style site builder

USAGE:
  ter [options]

OPTIONS:
  --input     Source directory (default: .)
  --output    Output directory (default: _site)
  --config    Path to config file (default: .ter/config.json)
  --serve     Serve locally and watch for changes (default: false)
  --port      Serve port (default: 8080)
  --drafts    Render pages marked as drafts (default: false)
  --debug     Verbose output and statistics (default: false)

Configuration #

Ter reads a JSON configuration file at .ter/config.json before building a site.

Alternative location can be specified with with the --config CLI flag. If the file does not exist, Ter will create it with default options on first build.

Options #

Key	Description
title	Title of your site.
description	Description of your site.
url	Published URL address of your site.
rootCrumb	Label used for root crumb label (default: “index”).
authorName	Your name.
authorEmail	Your email.
authorUrl	Your home page.
lang	Optional. Locale used for formatting dates.
navLinks	Optional. Object of navigation links in form of `{label: path, ...}`.
codeHighlight	Optional. Use syntax highlighting in code blocks (default: false).
head	Optional. String to inject at the bottom of `<head>` tag.

Example #

{
  "title": "Your Blog Name",
  "description": "I am writing about my experiences as a naval navel-gazer",
  "url": "https://example.com/",
  "rootCrumb": "index",
  "authorName": "Your Name Here",
  "authorEmail": "youremailaddress@example.com",
  "authorUrl": "https://example.com/about-me/",
  "lang": "en",
  "navLinks": { "about": "/about", "contact": "/contact" },
  "codeHighlight": true,
  "head": "<script src='https://microanalytics.io/js/script.js' id='XXXXXXXX'></script>"
}

Content #

Index pages #

Ter recursively recreates the source file system on the rendered site and each directory gets an index file listing its content. For example, if the source looks like this:

content
├── index.md
├── about-me.md
└── life
    ├── failed-startup-ideas.md
    └── thoughts-on-life.md

… the life directory will get an life/index.html page with an index of its content.

If a directory contains an index.md file, its content will be injected into the rendered index.html above the index list. This can be useful for describing what the directory content is about or calling out individual pages.

Index sorting #

Items in the index are sorted in the following order:

files with pinned: true in the frontmatter are listed at the top and get an ★ symbol;
directories (child index pages);
rest of markdown files, sorted by date.

Markdown frontmatter #

Ter extracts YAML frontmatter delimited by --- from markdown files. Here’s an example:

---
title: My page
description: Here’s my description
date: 2022-01-29
tags:
  - myTag
  - otherTag
property: value
---

## My content

Some properties are utilized when building a site. All of them are optional.

Property	Default	Description
title		page title
description		page description
tags		page tags
date		page publish date in YYYY-MM-DD format
dateUpdated		page last update date in YYYY-MM-DD format
pinned	false	page is listed at the top of index lists
unlisted	false	page is excluded from all index lists
draft	false	file is ignored during site generation
log	false	if set on an index page (index.md), all child pages are rendered inline
toc	false	affects rending of table of contents
showHeader	true	affects rendering of page header with title, description, date and tags
showTitle	true	affects rendering of page title
showDescription	true	affects rendering of page description
showMeta	true	affects rendering of page date and tags

Ignoring files #

Any files and folders that start with an _ or . (hidden) are ignored. For example, if there is a _drafts folder in the content directory, it will be skipped during site generation.

In addition, any markdown file with draft: true in the frontmatter will be ignored. To render files with draft: true, pass --drafts flag to the main command. For example:

deno run -A --unstable https://deno.land/x/ter/main.ts --serve --drafts

Dead internal links #

Ter automatically finds non-working internal links and lets you know about them after building a site. Here’s an example output:

[...]
Dead links:
/overview -> /non-existent-page-name
/overview -> /some-dead-link

Deploy #

Ter generates a static site which can be deployed anywhere.

Note

If using non-default input and output folders, update the build command and output directory accordingly.

Vercel #

To deploy on Vercel, use the following build and output configuration.

Build command #

deno run -A --unstable https://deno.land/x/ter/main.ts

Output directory #

_site

Install command #

curl -fsSL https://deno.land/x/install/install.sh | DENO_INSTALL=/usr/local sh

Deno Deploy #

For Deno Deploy, we can use a GitHub Action to automatically build the site and then deploy it with Deno’s deployctl.

Firstly, create a new project on Deno Deploy. Select “Deploy from GitHub”, link the repository, and use the production branch. For deployment mode, select “GitHub Actions”.

Next, create a .github/workflows/deno-deploy.yml file in the repository and make changes according to your setup.

GitHub Action (deno-deploy.yml) #

name: Deploy to Deno Deploy

on:
  push:
    # Change if using a different production branch
    branches: [ main ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  deploy:
    name: Deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      id-token: write
      contents: read

    steps:
      - name: Clone repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Setup Deno
        uses: denoland/setup-deno@v1.1.0

      - name: Build site
        # Change if using non-default input/output directories
        run: deno run -A --unstable main.ts

      - name: Deploy to Deno Deploy
        uses: denoland/deployctl@v1
        with:
          # Replace with the project name on Deno Deploy
          project: my-ter-site
          entrypoint: https://deno.land/std/http/file_server.ts
          # Change if using non-default output directory
          root: _site