## Overview
Sometimes we want to quickly split content into chunks to share on Twitter. I'm going to show you how we can paritally automate this flow using Alfred, a bit of scripting and Typefully.

This automation uses Alfred to consume a markdown file and split it into Twitter sized chunks on your clipboard. You can then use this to insert into Typefully or your favourite Twitter thread creator.

## Step 1. Use Alfred to trigger the process
Create an Alfred workflow that takes in a markdown file and runs a script on it. The script should output the tweets to the clipboard. You can see my Alfred workflow and the script on [GitHub here](https://github.com/rymawby/tiny-automations-source/tree/main/content-to-tweets-converter). ![Alfred Workflow](https://ry.d.pr/7nXeLl.png)

The script should not only split the text into tweet sized chunks but also sanitise the data. My script is very simple it splits into tweet sized chunks and removes markdown image syntax but leaves the image link.

If you wanted to improve on this you could look into using Abstract Syntax Trees or even something like GPT-3.

## Step 2. Add the human touch
Paste into a text editor to view the tweets. I have mine separated by two new lines as the Typefully app uses this to denote a new tweet. You will want to modify and make it more suitable for the Twitter audience. ![Adding the human touch](https://ry.d.pr/iOnWyA.gif)

## Step 3. Paste into your thread maker
I currently use Typefully for my threads. It separates tweet by 2 carriage returns - but this split is triggered when you type the Threads in rather than simply pasting. I use a simple Keyboard Maestro command that types in my clipboard for me.
![Keyboard maestro shortcut for typing your clipboard](https://ry.d.pr/iLqC0r.png)

The script I'm using here is fairly simple but can be improved and iterated upon.

Use Alfred to split your content into Twitter friendly chunks.

Markdown file to Twitter thread using Alfred and Typefully

I wanted to create a system where I could just focus on writing and not have to worry about publishing articles to my site (and the procrastination that comes along with that). I write in Obsidian but you could do this with any editor. I set up Hazel to watch the folder where these articles are written and if the file meets certain criteria it is copied to a different folder which is then uploaded to this site. I'll cover the upload in another article but for this one I want to mainly focus on Hazel and analysing front matter.

Front matter is metadata/text that sits at the very start of a markdown file and describes the file itself and its contents. Hazel analyses any changes made to the markdown file's front matter and if it meets certain criteria it will copy the file to my blog posts folder. The front matter for this article can be seen here.

![This article's front matter](https://ry.d.pr/6Gn2GU.png)

Hazel runs a node script (shown below) that checks if the front matter has a `title`, says `published: true` and for the `date` to be in the past. 

Once the front matter matches the criteria above and hasn't been modified in the past minute Hazel assumes the article is publishable and copies it to my blog build server.

## Automation flow diagram for publishing a blog post from Obsidian using Hazel

![Automation flow diagram for publishing a blog post from Obsidian using Hazel](https://mermaid.ink/svg/pako:eNpVkEFvwjAMhf-K5akSSHBgHJh6mLQB1W47bNphysU0Lo1IkyoNQqzqf59TYBO39-zPL7F7LL1mzDHLeuNMzHuFseaGFeYKd9SJmMG19kXB0M5yJ00QsA2moXBee-vDyD-sFkVRbC8jHZfe6ft-8fK03qwUDsOQZcoptw_U1vC5SdroxeR91xltyE2TfZy80Q_bUS8nr9bvofJWc5gmfByA-RxOwUQGchqOrSaRVfAuQkMxchDgGSRqzEv0XbNMo7JU8mXN3ZhSp0eh9K2Rgix40P7koDKWr2FLnGHDoSGj5XK9cgD_VxMpSx8UKjcId_nSVpvoA-YV2Y5nSMfoP86uxDyGI9-gjSE5R_NHteS-vb_54Rd0RZC8)

```mermaidignore
graph TD

id1(Obsidian)
id2(Hazel)
id3(Blog folder)


id1 -- write and update front matter --> id2
id2 -- front matter criteria matches and hazel copies markdown file --> id3
```

## Step 1: Write.
Write a blog post, much like this one.  Modify the front-matter so that it is valid. Like this:
![Publishable front matter](https://ry.d.pr/kYYxBo.png).

## Step 2: Hazel.
To do this I have used a node script that uses the [front-matter](https://www.npmjs.com/package/front-matter) library to analyse the markdown file I'm editing for matching/valid front matter criteria.

### Hazel setup
![The hazel settings](https://ry.d.pr/WnerYx.png)

And in the embedded script I call my node script containing the front matter check. The variable passed in `$1` is the matching file name.
```bash
cd /Users/me/hazel
output=$(node hazel-check-tiny-automations-blog-frontmatter.js $1);
exit ${output};

```

### Node script
The `console.log(0)` or `console.log(1)` passes `0` or `1` back to the Alfred shell script above and the script exits with either a `0` (successfully matched) or a `1` (no match as yet).
```javascript
var fs = require('fs')
var fm = require('front-matter')
var uri = process.argv[2];

return fs.readFile(uri, 'utf8', function(err, data){
	if (err) throw err

	var content = fm(data);
	var isPublished = content.attributes && content.attributes.published;
	var isDatePast = content.attributes.date && Date.parse(content.attributes.date ) < new Date();
	var hasTitle = content.attributes.title && true;

	if(isDatePast && isPublished && hasTitle){
		console.log(0);
	} else {
		console.log(1);
	}
})

```

Once the above script matches Hazel then copies the file to my posts (which is another automated build system in itself - I will cover this in another post) folder - I also do some renaming of the file so it is suitable for this blog.



Automate blog publishing direct from file Front matter

Learn how to automate with node