📄 PicoBlog 📄

PicoBlog is a zero config policy website blog-post application, where all you have to do is to point it to a directory and it will scan recursively for any *.md files at startup. Those marked with public: true inside the header, will be made available.

This is not a static generator.

Build with .NET MVC - because I'm too old for the other cool site generators.

A beautiful home with huge previews of the post

Posts with a beautiful photo gallery

Example of a markdown file

---
title: New blog post #required unique title
date: 2023-01-29 #published date
public: true #keyword for picoblog to publish as post
poster: cover-image.jpg
draft: true|false #make-post-available-but-hidden-on-front-page
---
This is some awesome content

:::gallery

![img](img1.jpg)

![img](img2.jpg)
:::

Authentication

Its possible to lock down the site with a password that is set with the environment variable PASSWORD=sUp3rS3cr34P4ss!. If this variable is empty, then authorization is turned off. To persist login sessions between server restarts mount /config folder to the container at initialization.

Environment variables

These are listed in picoblog/Config.cs at main · jonasbg/picoblog · GitHub

Variable name	Default value	Description
CONFIG_DIR	/config	When using PASSWORD env variable, mount a CONFIG_DIR so that logins are persisted between container restarts.
DATA_DIR	/data	This is the data path inside the container that Picoblog will traverse for markdown files.
DOMAIN	localhost	This is primarily to support the Open Graph Protocol and link previews of your site.
PASSWORD	empty	Password protected site is off by default. Turn it on by inserting any value for this environment.
PICOBLOG_ENABLE_BACKUP	false	Enables automatic daily backups of posts. Set to true to enable, false to disable.
SYNOLOGY_SIZE	XL	Synology creates default optimized images of your photos. Available sizes are SM,M and XL.
SYNOLOGY_SUPPORT	false	Synology Support is turned off by default, and it will automatically fallback if @eaDir is not found.
TITLE	Picoblog	The title of your blog and RSS feed
DESCRIPTION	A simple zero fraction blogging platform	The description of your blog and RSS feed

Debug and contribute

Docker Compose

docker compose up --build webapi

Install

Build it yourself

docker build . -t jonasbg/picoblog

Docker

The latest build will always be uploaded to dockerhub so download it from there.

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 --cap-drop ALL --read-only -e DOMAIN=pico.blog --name picoblog --volume /image/directory:/data:ro jonasbg/picoblog

Or with password enabled. Tmpfs is mounted as an example. Persist that to a directory on the host to perist login sessions.

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 --cap-drop ALL --read-only -e PASSWORD="myPassword" -e DOMAIN=pico.blog --name picoblog --mount type=tmpfs,destination=/config --volume /image/directory:/data:ro jonasbg/picoblog

Open ➡ localhost:8080.

Restart

Update the docker image to latest version

docker run --rm -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock containrrr/watchtower --run-once picoblog

Install on Synology

sudo docker run \
  --read-only \
  --tmpfs /tmp \
  --tmpfs /var/tmp \
  --volume $(pwd):/data:rw \
  --volume config-volume:/config:rw \
  --security-opt no-new-privileges \
  --user 0 \
  -e PASSWORD=mySecretPassword \
  -e TITLE="Picblog for the masses" \
  -e DESCRIPTION="A secure zero fraction blogging platform" \
  -e PICOBLOG_ENABLE_BACKUP=true \
  -e SYNOLOGY_SUPPORT=true \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  --name picoblog \
  ghcr.io/jonasbg/picoblog:dev

HELM

Install

helm install picoblog oci://ghcr.io/jonasbg/picoblog/picoblog

Download latest version

helm pull oci://ghcr.io/jonasbg/picoblog/picoblog

Restart

kubectl rollout restart deployment/picoblog -n picoblog && kubectl rollout status deployment/picoblog -n picoblog

Extra commands

Some commands that are nice to know about

Find all your drafts for easy editing:

find . -name "*.md" -exec sh -c "grep -H 'draft' '{}'"  \;

Backup your markdown files with git

git add *.md
git commit -m "Backup of markdown files"

Todos

Some important work remains

• Search for .md files at a given interval or events. (Background task initiated on site request within a given interval ie. once every 5min if theres traffic to the site)

• Better mobile responsive support

• Tags in posts. This is not implemented but will be tags: ["tag1", "tag2"]

• Image optimization where SYNOLOGY_SUPPORT is unavailable - or Synology optimized imagere are too optimized for your tasteNote: HEIC is not supported

• Big Picture and carousel mode with basic EXIFsupport such as

  • Camera model

  • Lens model

  • Shutter speed

  • Aperture

  • ISO

  • Location on a mini map

  • Description

  • Tags

• Virtual directory with assets imported from *.md files as a security measurement.