Trying to create a website from my markdown notes
Like I already said, I want to create a Digital Garden. However I am having some trouble creating one. My workflow isn't working like expected.
This is frustrating to not be able to achieve something I though to be simple. I was about to cancel that project honestly. But I can't just give up like that, even if it's hard. I didn't tried everything yet and I don't want to regret it later.
I need to see the bigger picture in order to know what to do. First looking at what's wrong and then trying to look for solutions. So that's what I did.
Original plan
In order to write my wiki I planned to use Vim. More specifically a plugin named Vimwiki. I've been using Obsidian for years now. But I always felt distracted by the UI. There was too much to do. Way too much to pay attention to.
I wanted my note taking app to by as simple as possible. I then found out about Vim and Vimwiki thanks to Veronica Explains. Since then I've been learning about how to use Vim. Which is not easy at all but I am trying my best. Vimwiki let me create links between notes. Which is useful to create a wiki (obviously).
I can now modify the markdown files that form my wiki. I planned to use them to create a website. For that job Eleventy was choose. It's a static site generator that converted my notes into HTML files. This also a software that discovered in one of Veronica's Video.
Then I planned to simply publish those HTML file on neocities. I can always just grab those HTML files and put them elsewhere if I ever want to. It could be cool to be able to self-host my website for example. But for now let's concentrate on creating those pages.
Problems encountered
But obviously things didn't go as planned.
First of all I have some trouble using Vimwiki. I don't understand how to explore my files easily in it. Renaming a file doesn't update the links in other file properly. There is still a lot of shortcuts I don't know. So using the app is not fluid at all.
There is another problem that is very troublesome. When I generate my website using eleventy it doesn't convert wikilinks. That mean that my pages aren't connected to one another. For now I've been modifying the links manually. But that solution isn't viable.
What Solutions?
Renaming my files isn't that important right now. But I'll still look for a solution since it could be very useful. Because this problem will become more important as my wiki grow in size. I should read the documentation to find something about it.
Eleventy is my top priority right now. Because it's a need to have links in a wiki. One solution I was thinking about was to create a python script. The script would convert the Wikilinks into HTML ones. It's a simple solution but one that could work.
I'm quite happy about how this project is turning out. Despite all the problems I'm facing.
I started to like the Vim editor even if it's really hard to use. It was quite scary at first but I will learn how to use it eventually. I don't think I will go back to Obsidian. Even if I can't do something as simple as renaming a file yet...
If you have ANY advice on Vim, Vimwiki or Eleventy please send me an email! I would be MORE than happy to get any kind of help.
Thanks for reading my struggles! Have a nice day :)