How to override article.tt in Middleman Blog Gem?

#1

The middleman blog gem creates new articles based on lib/middleman-blog/commands/article.tt Current format is is;

---
title: <%= @title %>
date: <%= @date.strftime('%F %R %Z') %>
tags:
---

What is the best way to override that if I wanted default front matter to be something else like;

---
layout: blog
author: Dave
---

(Other than opening the gem and changing it there.)

#2

Read the docs here: http://middlemanapp.com/basics/blogging/#generating-articles
You can create your own template and store it with the project.

#3

Thanks for your help!

That solved the majority of my questions, but what would you suggest for dynamically creating front matter variables?

For example;

---
layout: <%= @layout_from_flag %>
month: <%= @month %>
---
#4

AFAIK there is no solution for that, unfortunately. The less elegant workaround/solution is to set the metadata in the page code, after frontmatter. This is described here: Generate extra data for resources . I remember there was some confusion about when to use metadata and when data – some of this is read-only AFAIR, in case of problems google this forum for more info.

But I think in most cases you can avoid the need to use variables in frontmatter. Where I need them mostly is to dynamically set the page title and other HTML-metadata, but instead fighting with Middleman’s metadata I just use a capture helper.

In my layout.erb I have:

<html>
<head>
<% if content_for?(:head_assets) %>
<%= yield_content :head_assets %>
<% else %>
  <title><%= current_page.data.title %></title>
  <%= feed_tag :atom, "#{blog.options.prefix.to_s}/feed.xml", title: "Atom Feed" %>
  <meta name="description" content="<%= data.project_config.site_description %>" />
  <meta property="og:title" content="<%= current_page.data.title %>" />
  <meta property="og:description" content="<%= data.project_config.site_description %>" />
<% end %>

and some of my pages use static title, some create it dynamically:

<% content_for :head_assets do %>
  …
<% end %>

Where would values of @month come from?