fddl

A markdown-based static site generator written in Swift. Perfect for blogs, personal sites, portfolios, documentation, project pages, family sites, and more.

This project is a project I'm using in conjunction with NotebookLM to help me learn Swift. It is not in a state where I would consider it to be production ready, but it does currently work.

Features

• Markdown Processing: Converts markdown files to HTML with YAML frontmatter support
• Shortcodes: Add dynamic content like YouTube videos, alerts, and retro effects
• Template System: YAML-configured templates with variable substitution
• Plugins: Extend functionality with sitemaps, RSS feeds, and search indexes
• Multiple Layouts: Support for different page layouts (page, post, etc.)
• Flexible Navigation: Easy customization of navigation menus in templates
• Asset Management: Automatically copies CSS, JavaScript, and images to output
• Build Tracking: Increments build numbers and includes them in generated pages
• CLI Interface: Simple command-line tool for site generation

Use Cases

• Personal blogs and websites
• Project documentation
• Portfolio sites
• Family photo galleries
• Recipe collections
• Knowledge bases
• Any content-focused website!

Installation

Build from Source

swift build -c release
cp .build/release/fddl /usr/local/bin/

Quick Start

# Generate site from current directory
fddl generate

# Check version and build number
fddl version

Project Structure

your-site/
├── contents/                 # Your markdown content
│   ├── index.md
│   └── blog/
│       └── first-post.md
└── templates/
    └── default/             # Template name
        ├── template.yml     # Template configuration
        ├── html.yml         # HTML output configuration
        ├── views/           # View templates
        │   ├── page.html
        │   └── post.html
        └── assets/          # Static assets
            ├── css/
            │   └── theme.css
            ├── javascript/
            │   └── theme.js
            └── images/

Configuration

template.yml

name: "default"
version: "1.0"
defaultLayout: "page"
outputs:
  - html

html.yml

format: html
extension: .html
outputPath: "output"
view: "views/page.html"

layouts:
  page: "views/page.html"
  post: "views/post.html"

Markdown Files

---
title: "My Page Title"
description: "A brief description"
layout: page
tags:
  - example
---

# Content Goes Here

Your markdown content here.

Template Variables

• {{page.title}} - Page title
• {{page.content}} - Rendered HTML
• {{page.description}} - Page description
• {{site.name}} - Site name
• {{site.buildID}} - Build number
• {{site.generatedDate}} - Generation date

Customizing Navigation

Navigation is simple to customize in your view templates. Just edit the navigation section in your template files:

<nav>
  <a href="/">Home</a>
  <a href="/blog/">Blog</a>
  <a href="/about.html">About</a>
  <a href="/projects/">Projects</a>
  <a href="/contact.html">Contact</a>
</nav>

You can create different navigation menus for different layouts (page vs. post) by editing the respective view files in templates/default/views/.

Example: Blog with Categories

<nav>
  <a href="/">Home</a>
  <a href="/blog/">All Posts</a>
  <a href="/recipes/">Recipes</a>
  <a href="/travel/">Travel</a>
  <a href="/about.html">About</a>
</nav>

Then organize your content:

contents/
├── index.md
├── about.md
├── blog/
│   └── post-1.md
├── recipes/
│   └── chocolate-cake.md
└── travel/
    └── paris-trip.md

Future Features

• API JSON output (api.yml)
• 404 error page (404.yml)
• Sitemap generation (sitemap.yml)
• RSS 2.0 feed (rss.yml)
• macOS Services menu integration
• Watch mode and development server

Requirements

• Swift 5.10+

License

MIT License