Slug: wiring-notational-velocity-to-a-github-wiki Date: 2011-02-08 Title: Wiring Notational Velocity to a Github Wiki layout: post

Warning: Serious nerditry to follow.

I use Notational Velocity as my note-taking app. It’s a super-easy app that you can drive with the keyboard and syncs with SimpleNote, so I can also access my notes on my iPhone. Specifically, I use nvalt, a fork of NV which adds some nice Markdown-specific features, including a preview.

I got to thinking about how I’d love to be able to edit a wiki through NV, which led to a brainstorm (in the shower, of course).

Update

I took some time and created a project to make this as easy as possible for any of you nerdy types who want to try this at home: Set up your own Github-backed Notational Velocity.

Notational Velocity works with files

NV has a feature that lets you store your notes as formatted text (markdown) documents on the file system. If you select this option, all your files go in ~/Library/Application Support/Notational Data. I thought “Github has a wiki… that uses files!”

My first step was to init a git repo in NV’s Data directory:

% cd ~/Library/Application Support/Notational Data
% git init
% git add .
% git commit -m "initial add"

Github works with files

Then, I went over to Github and created a private repository for my notes, at https://github.com/sivy/notes-of-interest/wiki. Sorry, it’s private.

Then, I added that repo as a remote on my local repo:

% git remote add origin git@github.com:sivy/Notes-Of-Interest.wiki.git
% git push origin master

I hate updating Github

Like most nerds, I hate doing things manually. I needed to get my changes pushed into the wiki regularly without needing to remember it.

#!/usr/bin/env perl

###
# I have a github wiki wired up to my Notational Velocity file system data store
# It's an amusink little gizmo
#
my $USER='steve';
my $status= `cd /Users/$USER/Library/Application\\ Support/Notational\\ Data/; /usr/local/git/bin/git status`;

if ($status =~ /modified|untracked\ files\ present|deleted/) {
    my $out = `cd /Users/$USER/Library/Application\\ Support/Notational\\ Data/; /usr/local/git/bin/git add .; /usr/local/git/bin/git commit -a -m "NV Wiki Update"; /usr/local/git/bin/git push;`;
    `/usr/local/bin/growlnotify 'NV Wiki Update' -m "Your Notes Wiki was updated:\n$out"`;
} else {
    print "NV Wiki Update: No update needed.\n"
}

Launchd

I use OS X’s built-in scheduler, launchd, to run my updater every minute. I created this XML .plist file and stored it in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.steveivy. updategithubwiki.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>Disabled</key>
	<false/>
	<key>Label</key>
	<string>com.steveivy.updategithubwiki</string>
	<key>ProgramArguments</key>
	<array>
		<string>perl</string>
		<string>/Users/steve/bin/update_gh_wiki.pl</string>
	</array>
	<key>QueueDirectories</key>
	<array/>
	<key>StartInterval</key>
	<integer>300</integer>
	<key>WatchPaths</key>
	<array/>
</dict>
</plist>

Then:

% launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.steveivy.updateghwiki.plist

Note that the perl script pipes the result through Growl, so I don’t have to even think about it - I just know that the wiki has been updated.

Updates

• Updated to correct that the “store notes as files” feature is in the official Notational Velocity app – you don’t need nvalt to get it.
• I’m updating my watcher script to use OS X’s File System Events (launchd’s “watchpaths” feature). Stay tuned for progress.
• Added link to the original Notational Velocity as I seem to have overlooked it.
• While I wrote the launchd plist in Veloci-Wiki to use WatchPaths, Notational Velocity saves so often (a good thing for not losing information) that Github was boing updated every 10-15 seconds. I’ve rewritten the plist to use StartInterval set to 300 (5 minutes) to reduce the amount of traffic.