This VS Code Extension DRASTICALLY CHANGES How I Manage My Markdown Blog

I found a new extension for VS Code that makes my markdown blog workflow SO MUCH BETTER!

Front Matter adds a headless CMS interface to your markdown content and frontmatter. You can:

- define types for your posts
- scaffold new posts
- manage media
- so much more!

**QUESTIONS ABOUT MY SETUP**

**STAY IN TOUCH 👋**

**DISCORD**

**TIMESTAMPS**
00:00 - Intro
00:12 - Existing Markdown Blog Setup
01:55 - Front Matter VS Code Extension
02:30 - Viewing Frontmatter Metadata
03:55 - Working with Tags
05:05 - Front Matter Preview
06:10 - Creating New Content with Front Matter
07:55 - Wrap Up

[grizfan]

The timing on this couldn't have been better. I'm literally making a boilerplate 11ty project and was looking for an easier way to more consistently manage front matter. This will make that work a lot easier, thanks!

[developerpranav]

Damn this is OP markdown extension. I'll probably use this if I ever get to making my own blog :D

[jsricochet]

Thanks James. I'm in the process of creating a Blog with Astro too. This plugin is definitely going to make my life easier👍

[roncanfil]

Good plugin! Although, as soon you create your workflow to add new blog posts, I'd use Obsidian instead of VSCode to create/edit posts, by using Templates + Dataview to list the blog posts

[FlorianBinder]

That is pretty cool. I have to try this!

[anasouardini]

Maybe it's just me, but it's not that big of a deal.
I'm not saying it's useless, but let me share my setup:

1. The slug is grabbed from the name of the markdown file. And with vim motion, you can "sluggify" the title in no time.
2. The tags take 2 seconds to type, the TS schema is a must IMO
3. the auto completion helps finding the images objectively faster than a mouse.
4. The preview is good though, I haven't figured out how to it without scripting too much.

In general, it doesn't really matter since the extension mostly helps with stuff that you do once in a while, it doesn't really add up.

[alexandersedeke]

Thank you very much. This is super useful. Currently I use Netlify CMS for this, which also manages my posts and merges changes either directly into my Github repository, or does this via a MR to simulate a managed flow.

[waleedmumtaz]

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing, James. Will surely be using this!

Couple of questions:
1. Since you mentioned in the video that you moved from a CMS to add markdown in your source code. Is it better to use markdown files and content related to it (such as cover images) within your source code? I was wondering, in the future, how would you manage hundreds of markdown files and images related to each of them.

2. I think you had built your site with SvelteKit earlier. Any specific reason moving to Astro?

Thanks, love you content! ❤️

[JeffBarron]

i use obsidian for markdown and obsidian templates for front-matter

[AmodeusR]

Could you (or someone else) explain in detail how do you make blog posts with md files? I was thinking of making a blog, but I didn't know the most ideal or practical way of doing it.

[bobbysilver]

As a relative beginner to SSG's I am tinkering with Jekyll. Even though I write some markdown I am also able to add in html tags into the page, (mainly because I don't know enough markdown yet). Will this vs code extension work for these jekyll files?
If so, will they also work if I name the file with a .html extension? (Will vs code do anything funky if I name the file with a .html extension?)

This was a great vid. Many thanks.

[Rapid-eraser]

I think using an structured interface defeats the purpose of having a markdown file :P Its like eating a vegan stake :P You would like to eat a stake but you are stubborn enough to call it vegan :P