Blog Configuration

StartupFast comes with a blog system preconfigured, it uses markdown to create blog posts and JSON to manage authors, this lead to a robust yet fast system to build your blog. It is already SEO optimized so you can focus on writing your posts.

Directories Structure

Under the root of your app you will find the content/blog folder, his purpose is to manage your blog posts and authors.

content/
  blog/
    posts/      # Blog posts in .md format
    authors.json # Author informations

Creating Blog Posts

1. Create a new markdown file in content/blog/posts/ with the format your-post-slug.md
2. Add the following frontmatter at the top of your markdown file:

1---
2title: Your Post Title
3description: A brief description of your post
4date: 2024-01-15 # Use YYYY-MM-DD format
5category: Development # Choose or create a category
6author: John Doe # Must match an author in authors.json
7tags: ["tag1", "tag2"] # Optional array of tags
8image: /images/your-post-image.jpg # Optional featured image
9---
10
11Your markdown content goes here...

Post Fields Explained

• title: The main title of your blog post
• description: A brief summary that appears in listings and meta tags
• date: Publication date in YYYY-MM-DD format
• category: The main category for the post
• author: Must match an author name from authors.json
• tags: Optional array of related topics
• image: Optional featured image path (relative to public directory)

Managing Authors

Authors are managed in content/blog/authors.json. The file should contain an object where each key is the lowercase version of the author's name:

1{
2  "john doe": {
3    "name": "John Doe",
4    "description": "Senior Developer at StartupFast",
5    "avatar": "/images/authors/john-doe.jpg"
6  },
7  "jane smith": {
8    "name": "Jane Smith",
9    "description": "Product Manager & Technical Writer",
10    "avatar": "/images/authors/jane-smith.jpg"
11  }
12}

Author Fields

• name: The display name of the author
• description: A brief bio that appears on the author's page
• avatar: Path to the author's profile image (relative to public directory)

Categories

Categories are automatically generated from the category field in your blog posts. To create a new category, simply use it in a post's frontmatter. The system will:

• Create a category page at /blog/category/[category-name]
• Add it to the category list on the blog homepage
• Include it in the sitemap if enabled

URLs and Routing

The blog system creates the following routes automatically:

• Blog homepage: /blog
• Individual posts: /blog/[slug]
• Category pages: /blog/category/[category-name]
• Author pages: /blog/author/[author-name]

Images

1. Place your images in the public/images/ directory
2. Reference them in your markdown using relative paths:
   • Post images: ![Alt text](/images/your-image.jpg)
   • Author avatars: Use the full path in authors.json

SEO Optimization

The blog system automatically handles:

• Meta tags for posts, categories, and author pages
• OpenGraph tags for social sharing
• Article schema markup
• Sitemap generation for all blog content

Markdown Features

Your blog posts support:

• Standard markdown syntax
• GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM)
• Code syntax highlighting
• Tables
• Raw HTML when needed

Example code block with syntax highlighting:

1```javascript
2const example = "This will be highlighted";
3console.log(example);
4```

Related Posts

The system automatically shows related posts:

• On individual post pages, it shows other posts from the same category
• Posts are sorted by date, with newest first
• Related posts include thumbnails and publication dates

Pagination

The blog includes built-in pagination:

• Main blog page: 6 posts per page
• Category pages: 6 posts per page
• Author pages: 6 posts per page

Best Practices

1. Images

   • Optimize images before uploading
   • Use descriptive file names
   • Include alt text for accessibility

2. Content

   • Write clear, descriptive titles
   • Include a meaningful description
   • Use appropriate categories and tags
   • Keep URLs (slugs) short and meaningful

3. Authors

   • Use consistent author names across posts
   • Provide high-quality author avatars
   • Write engaging author bios

4. Categories

   • Use broad, clear category names
   • Be consistent with category naming
   • Don't create too many categories