SeeEmEss

A simple CMS framework built on Eleventy with an admin interface for managing blog content. It is by-design simple.

Features

• Admin interface for creating and editing posts
• Image upload with automatic resizing
• Git-based publishing workflow
• Configurable content sections
• Eleventy filters for dates and content formatting

Caveats

This is an opinionated project that is extremely limited. It relies on GitHub. The admin interface has no authentication mechanism, so it can only run locally with changes are published via GitHub actions.

If you think want this SeeEmEssOpen be better, I'm happy to review pull requests.

Installation

npm install seeemess

Usage

1. Set up Eleventy filters

In your eleventy.config.js:

import filters from 'seeemess/filters';

export default function(eleventyConfig) {
  // Add SeeEmEss filters
  filters(eleventyConfig);

  // Your other config...
}

2. Create admin entry point

Create admin/start.js in your project:

import { startAdminServer } from 'seeemess';

startAdminServer({
  sections: [
    { id: 'posts', name: 'Blog Posts', folder: 'posts', tag: 'post' },
    { id: 'news', name: 'News', folder: 'news', tag: 'news' }
  ]
});

3. Add npm script

In your package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "admin": "node admin/start.js"
  }
}

4. Run the admin

npm run admin

The admin interface will be available at http://localhost:3000.

Configuration Options

startAdminServer({
  // Required: Define your content sections
  sections: [
    { id: 'posts', name: 'Blog Posts', folder: 'posts', tag: 'post' }
  ],

  // Optional: Override defaults
  cmsRoot: process.cwd(),           // Project root directory
  contentDir: './content/blog',     // Where posts are stored
  publicDir: './public',            // Where images are uploaded
  port: 3000                        // Admin server port
});

Available Filters

When you import seeemess/filters, the following Eleventy filters are added:

• readableDate - Format dates for display
• htmlDateString - Format dates for HTML datetime attributes
• head - Get first N items from array
• min - Get minimum value
• getKeys - Get object keys
• filterTagList - Filter out system tags
• capitalize - Title case text
• sortAlphabetically - Sort strings alphabetically
• thumbSuffix - Add size suffix to image filenames
• smartQuotes - Convert straight quotes to typographic quotes

Optional: AI Synopsis Generation

The admin interface includes a "Generate Synopsis" button that uses Ollama to automatically generate post summaries.

Requirements:

1. Install Ollama: https://ollama.ai/download
2. Pull the llama3 model: ollama pull llama3
3. Ensure Ollama is running when using the admin

If Ollama is not available, the button will show an error but the rest of the admin works normally.

Project Structure

Your project should have this structure:

your-site/
├── admin/
│   └── start.js          # Admin entry point
├── content/
│   └── blog/             # Your posts (organized by section folders)
├── public/               # Uploaded images
├── _includes/            # Your Eleventy layouts
├── eleventy.config.js
└── package.json

License

MIT