Introduction

The jt software (short for "journalling tool") is a helper for maintaining a journal or personal knowledge base. It has been written for the personal use of its authors, but might be useful for others.

The guiding principle for jt is that having longevity for one's data and complete control over it are crucial. Because of these, the approach taken by jt is to build a static web site from source files stored in a version control system. The files will be edited with a text editor chosen by the journal writer, rather than via a custom web, desktop, or mobile application. The built journal is then served with some suitable web server.

The role of jt is to make it easier to create new journal entries (new Markdown files), and to make all the common tasks of maintaining a knowledge base have minimal friction.

Example

The following example creates a new journal, which will be the default journal for the user, and a new journal entry. The entry is a draft until it's finished.

$ jt --dirname ~/Journal init default "My private journal"
$ jt new --tag meta --tag journalling "My first journal entry"
... # text editor is opened so the new entry can be written
$ jt finish 0 first-entry

Acceptance criteria and their verification

This chapter defines detailed acceptance criteria and how they're verified using scenarios for the Subplot tool.

Configuration file handling

These scenarios verify that jt handles its configuration file correctly.

Shows defaults if no configuration file is present

given an installed jt

when I run jt config

then stdout matches regex dirname:.*/\.local.share/jt

then stdout matches regex editor: "/usr/bin/editor"

Gives error if configuration missing file specified

given an installed jt

when I try to run jt --config does-not-exist config

then command fails

then stderr contains "does-not-exist"

Accepts empty configuration file

given an installed jt

given file empty.yaml

when I run jt --config empty.yaml config

then stdout matches regex dirname:.*/\.local.share/jt

then stdout matches regex editor: "/usr/bin/editor"

{}

Accepts configuration file

Note that the configuration file uses a tilde syntax to refer to the user's home directory.

given an installed jt

given file config.yaml

when I run jt --config config.yaml config

then stdout matches regex dirname:.*/.*/journal

then stdout matches regex editor: "emacs"

dirname: ~/journal
editor: emacs

Command line options override configuration file fields

given an installed jt

given file config.yaml

when I run jt --config config.yaml --dirname xxx --editor yyy config

then stdout matches regex dirname: "xxx"

then stdout matches regex editor: "yyy"

Rejects configuration file with extra entries

given an installed jt

given file toomuch.yaml

when I try to run jt --config toomuch.yaml config

then command fails

then stderr contains "unknown_field"

unknown_field: foo

Create a new local journal repository

jt works on a local repository, and it can be created an initialised using the tool.

given an installed jt

when I run jt --dirname jrnl init default "My test journal"

then command is successful

then directory jrnl exists

then there are no uncommitted changes in jrnl

when I run jt --dirname jrnl is-journal

then command is successful

when I try to run jt --dirname bogus is-journal

then command fails

Create a new draft, edit it, then publish it

Verify that we can create a new draft entry for the journal.

given an installed jt

when I run jt --dirname jrnl init default "My test journal"

then command is successful

then there are no drafts in jrnl

then there are no journal entries in jrnl

when I run jt --editor=none --dirname=jrnl new "Abracadabra"

then command is successful

then there is one draft in jrnl

then draft 0 in jrnl contains "Abracadabra"

then draft 0 in jrnl contains "!meta date="

when I run jt --dirname=jrnl list

then stdout matches regex ^0 Abracadabra$

given an executable script append.sh

when I run jt --editor=./append.sh --dirname=jrnl edit 0

then command is successful

then draft 0 in jrnl contains "Open sesame!"

when I run jt --dirname=jrnl finish 0 abra

then command is successful

then there is one journal entry in jrnl, at FILE

then file name <FILE> ends with .mdwn

then journal entry <FILE> contains "Abracadabra"

then journal entry <FILE> contains "Open sesame!"

then there are no drafts in jrnl

then there are no uncommitted changes in jrnl

#!/bin/sh
set -eux
echo "Open sesame!" >> "$1"

Create two drafts

Verify that we can create two draft entries at the same time.

given an installed jt

when I run jt --dirname jrnl init default "My test journal"

then command is successful

then there are no drafts in jrnl

then there are no journal entries in jrnl

when I run jt --editor=none --dirname=jrnl new "Abracadabra"

then command is successful

then there is one draft in jrnl

then draft 0 in jrnl contains "Abracadabra"

when I run jt --editor=none --dirname=jrnl new "Simsalabim"

then command is successful

then there are two drafts in jrnl

then draft 0 in jrnl contains "Abracadabra"

then draft 1 in jrnl contains "Simsalabim"

given an executable script append.sh

when I run jt --editor=./append.sh --dirname=jrnl edit 0

then draft 0 in jrnl contains "Open sesame!"

when I run jt --editor=./append.sh --dirname=jrnl edit 1

then draft 1 in jrnl contains "Open sesame!"

when I run jt --dirname=jrnl finish 0 abra

then command is successful

then there is one journal entry in jrnl, at FILE

then journal entry <FILE> contains "Abracadabra"

then journal entry <FILE> contains "Open sesame!"

then there is one draft in jrnl

when I run jt --dirname=jrnl finish 1 sim

then command is successful

then there are two journal entries in jrnl, at FILE1 and FILE2

then journal entry <FILE1> contains "Abracadabra"

then journal entry <FILE2> contains "Simsalabim"

then there are no drafts in jrnl

then there are no uncommitted changes in jrnl

Remove a draft

Verify that we can remove a draft, and then create a new one.

given an installed jt

when I run jt --dirname jrnl init default "My test journal"

then command is successful

then there are no drafts in jrnl

then there are no journal entries in jrnl

when I run jt --editor=none --dirname=jrnl new "Hulabaloo"

then command is successful

then there is one draft in jrnl

then draft 0 in jrnl contains "Hulabaloo"

then draft 0 in jrnl contains "!meta date="

when I run jt --dirname=jrnl remove 0

then command is successful

then there are no drafts in jrnl

then there are no journal entries in jrnl

when I run jt --editor=none --dirname=jrnl new "Abracadabra"

then command is successful

then there is one draft in jrnl

then draft 0 in jrnl contains "Abracadabra"

then draft 0 in jrnl contains "!meta date="

Override template for new journal entries

Verify that we can have a custom template for new journal entries.

given an installed jt

when I run jt --dirname jrnl init default "My test journal"

then command is successful

given file jrnl/.config/templates/new_entry from new_entry_template

when I run jt --editor=none --dirname=jrnl new "Abracadabra"

then command is successful

then there is one draft in jrnl

then draft 0 in jrnl contains "custom new entry template"

This is a custom new entry template.

Use topic pages

Verify that we can create a new topic page and a new entry referring to that topic page.

given an installed jt

when I run jt --dirname jrnl init default "My test journal"

then command is successful

when I try to run jt --editor=none --dirname=jrnl new --topic foo.bar "Abracadabra"

then command fails

then stderr contains "foo.bar"

when I run jt --editor=none --dirname=jrnl new-topic topics/foo.bar "Things about Foobars"

then command is successful

then file jrnl/topics/foo.bar.mdwn contains "Things about Foobars"

then there are no uncommitted changes in jrnl

when I run jt --editor=none --dirname=jrnl new --topic topics/foo.bar "Abracadabra"

then command is successful

then there is one draft in jrnl

then draft 0 in jrnl links to "topics/foo.bar"

Allow many topics per post

Sometimes a post relates to several topics.

given an installed jt

when I run jt --dirname jrnl init default "My test journal"

then command is successful

when I run jt --editor=none --dirname=jrnl new-topic topics/foo "Foo"

when I run jt --editor=none --dirname=jrnl new-topic topics/bar "Bar"

when I run jt --editor=none --dirname=jrnl new --topic topics/foo --topic topics/bar "Abracadabra"

then command is successful

then there is one draft in jrnl

then draft 0 in jrnl links to "topics/foo"

then draft 0 in jrnl links to "topics/bar"

Colophon

This document is meant to be processed with the Subplot program to typeset into HTML or PDF or to generate a program that automatically verifies that all acceptance criteria are met.

jt—a journalling tool

Table of Contents

Introduction

Example

Acceptance criteria and their verification

Configuration file handling

Shows defaults if no configuration file is present

Gives error if configuration missing file specified

Accepts empty configuration file

Accepts configuration file

Command line options override configuration file fields

Rejects configuration file with extra entries

Create a new local journal repository

Create a new draft, edit it, then publish it

Create two drafts

Remove a draft

Override template for new journal entries

Use topic pages

Allow many topics per post

Colophon

jt&mdash;a journalling tool

Table of Contents

Introduction

Example

Acceptance criteria and their verification

Configuration file handling

Shows defaults if no configuration file is present

Gives error if configuration missing file specified

Accepts empty configuration file

Accepts configuration file

Command line options override configuration file fields

Rejects configuration file with extra entries

Create a new local journal repository

Create a new draft, edit it, then publish it

Create two drafts

Remove a draft

Override template for new journal entries

Use topic pages

Allow many topics per post

Colophon

jt—a journalling tool