oliverdavies.uk/content/node.d6363924-78ee-4086-8cf0-41e07c030fd4.yml

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      <p>Static site generators <a href="/presentations/sculpin">like Sculpin</a> don't have a database like Drupal.</p>

      <p>The files are the database.</p>

      <p>In [my website repository][3], the <code>source/_presentations</code> directory contains the files for my presentation pages, so these could be considered the presentations table and rows.</p>

      <p>But, because my content is in plain text files, they're very easy and quick to search in a text editor or on the command line using tools like <code>grep</code>.</p>

      <p>It's very easy and fast for me to find an old daily email, blog post or article I've written when I need to.</p>

      <p>This is also why I use <a href="/presentations/rst2pdf">rst2pdf for my presentation slides</a> and write them in reStructured text. It's very fast to find and re-use content.</p>

      <h2 id="counting-my-presentations">Counting my presentations</h2>

      <p>Another example is being able to quickly count the number of presentations I've given.</p>

      <p>Here's an example of the front matter section from one of my presentations:</p>

      <pre><code class="markdown">events:
        - name: PHP South West
          date: 2024-02-14
          location: Bristol, UK
          urls:
            video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axy6ltc9meA
            demo: https://phpsw-sculpin-demo.oliverdavies.uk
        - name: BrumPHP
          date: 2024-05-23
          location: Birmingham, UK
          url: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brumphp-23rd-may-2024-tickets-803037766577
        - name: PHP Berkshire
          date: 2024-08-28
          location: Reading, UK
          urls:
            slides: /files/presentations/sculpin/php-berkshire.pdf
            website: https://www.meetup.com/php-berkshire/events/301850284
        - name: PHP Thames Valley
          date: 2026-03-20
          location: Oxford, UK
          urls:
            slides: /files/presentations/sculpin/php-thames-valley.pdf
            code: https://code.oliverdavies.uk/opdavies/sculpin-demo/src/branch/php-thames-valley
            website: https://www.meetup.com/php-thames-valley/events/305915971
      </code></pre>

      <p>Each presentation has a list of events, as most presentations I've given multiple times.</p>

      <p>Each event has a <code>date</code> that I can extract with <code>grep</code>:</p>

      <pre><code class="plain">grep -r "date:" source/_presentations/*.md

      source/_presentations/tdd-test-driven-drupal.md:    date: 2020-12-08
      source/_presentations/tdd-test-driven-drupal.md:    date: 2023-10-17
      source/_presentations/tdd-test-driven-drupal.md:    date: 2024-05-10
      source/_presentations/tdd-test-driven-drupal.md:    date: 2024-11-20
      source/_presentations/test-drive-twig-with-sculpin.md:    date: 2015-07-25
      source/_presentations/things-you-should-know-about-php.md:    date: 2019-01-28
      source/_presentations/things-you-should-know-about-php.md:    date: 2022-03-09
      source/_presentations/things-you-should-know-about-php.md:    date: 2023-01-12
      source/_presentations/upgrading-your-site-drupal-9.md:    date: 2020-09-02
      source/_presentations/upgrading-your-site-drupal-9.md:    date: 2020-09-23
      source/_presentations/upgrading-your-site-drupal-9.md:    date: 2021-04-22
      source/_presentations/using-illuminate-collections-outside-laravel.md:    date: 2017-12-21
      source/_presentations/using-illuminate-collections-outside-laravel.md:    date: 2018-08-28
      source/_presentations/working-without-workspace.md:    date: 2023-04-06
      source/_presentations/working-with-workspace.md:    date: 2020-08-11
      source/_presentations/working-with-workspace.md:    date: 2020-09-09
      source/_presentations/working-with-workspace.md:    date: 2021-02-02
      </code></pre>

      <p>To count them, I can add <code>| wc -l</code> to count the number of lines.</p>

      <p>But what if I have presentations in the future I don't want to count?</p>

      <p>To show just the dates, I can pipe the output to <code>awk</code> and only print the last item:</p>

      <pre><code class="plain">grep -r "date:" source/_presentations/*.md | awk '{ print $NF }'

      2020-12-08
      2023-10-17
      2024-05-10
      2024-11-20
      2015-07-25
      2019-01-28
      2022-03-09
      2023-01-12
      2020-09-02
      2020-09-23
      2021-04-22
      2017-12-21
      2018-08-28
      2023-04-06
      2020-08-11
      2020-09-09
      2021-02-02
      </code></pre>

      <p>I can sort them by adding <code>| sort</code>, but that doesn't matter in this case.</p>

      <p>To remove any future presentations, I can pass the current date to <code>awk</code>, filter based on the date and count the number of lines in the result:</p>

      <pre><code class="plain">grep -r "date:" source/_presentations/*.md | awk -v today="$(date +%Y-%m-%d)" '{ if ($NF &lt; today) print $NF }' | wc -l

      104
      </code></pre>

      <p>This isn't how I'm calculating this on my website (I'm using a <a href="/daily/2025/05/02/extend">custom Twig extension in Sculpin</a> for that), but this is an example of how multiple command line utilities can work together to perform a task - made possible using the static files from my website.</p>

              
    format: full_html
    processed: |
      <p>Static site generators <a href="/presentations/sculpin">like Sculpin</a> don't have a database like Drupal.</p>

      <p>The files are the database.</p>

      <p>In [my website repository][3], the <code>source/_presentations</code> directory contains the files for my presentation pages, so these could be considered the presentations table and rows.</p>

      <p>But, because my content is in plain text files, they're very easy and quick to search in a text editor or on the command line using tools like <code>grep</code>.</p>

      <p>It's very easy and fast for me to find an old daily email, blog post or article I've written when I need to.</p>

      <p>This is also why I use <a href="/presentations/rst2pdf">rst2pdf for my presentation slides</a> and write them in reStructured text. It's very fast to find and re-use content.</p>

      <h2 id="counting-my-presentations">Counting my presentations</h2>

      <p>Another example is being able to quickly count the number of presentations I've given.</p>

      <p>Here's an example of the front matter section from one of my presentations:</p>

      <pre><code class="markdown">events:
        - name: PHP South West
          date: 2024-02-14
          location: Bristol, UK
          urls:
            video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axy6ltc9meA
            demo: https://phpsw-sculpin-demo.oliverdavies.uk
        - name: BrumPHP
          date: 2024-05-23
          location: Birmingham, UK
          url: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brumphp-23rd-may-2024-tickets-803037766577
        - name: PHP Berkshire
          date: 2024-08-28
          location: Reading, UK
          urls:
            slides: /files/presentations/sculpin/php-berkshire.pdf
            website: https://www.meetup.com/php-berkshire/events/301850284
        - name: PHP Thames Valley
          date: 2026-03-20
          location: Oxford, UK
          urls:
            slides: /files/presentations/sculpin/php-thames-valley.pdf
            code: https://code.oliverdavies.uk/opdavies/sculpin-demo/src/branch/php-thames-valley
            website: https://www.meetup.com/php-thames-valley/events/305915971
      </code></pre>

      <p>Each presentation has a list of events, as most presentations I've given multiple times.</p>

      <p>Each event has a <code>date</code> that I can extract with <code>grep</code>:</p>

      <pre><code class="plain">grep -r "date:" source/_presentations/*.md

      source/_presentations/tdd-test-driven-drupal.md:    date: 2020-12-08
      source/_presentations/tdd-test-driven-drupal.md:    date: 2023-10-17
      source/_presentations/tdd-test-driven-drupal.md:    date: 2024-05-10
      source/_presentations/tdd-test-driven-drupal.md:    date: 2024-11-20
      source/_presentations/test-drive-twig-with-sculpin.md:    date: 2015-07-25
      source/_presentations/things-you-should-know-about-php.md:    date: 2019-01-28
      source/_presentations/things-you-should-know-about-php.md:    date: 2022-03-09
      source/_presentations/things-you-should-know-about-php.md:    date: 2023-01-12
      source/_presentations/upgrading-your-site-drupal-9.md:    date: 2020-09-02
      source/_presentations/upgrading-your-site-drupal-9.md:    date: 2020-09-23
      source/_presentations/upgrading-your-site-drupal-9.md:    date: 2021-04-22
      source/_presentations/using-illuminate-collections-outside-laravel.md:    date: 2017-12-21
      source/_presentations/using-illuminate-collections-outside-laravel.md:    date: 2018-08-28
      source/_presentations/working-without-workspace.md:    date: 2023-04-06
      source/_presentations/working-with-workspace.md:    date: 2020-08-11
      source/_presentations/working-with-workspace.md:    date: 2020-09-09
      source/_presentations/working-with-workspace.md:    date: 2021-02-02
      </code></pre>

      <p>To count them, I can add <code>| wc -l</code> to count the number of lines.</p>

      <p>But what if I have presentations in the future I don't want to count?</p>

      <p>To show just the dates, I can pipe the output to <code>awk</code> and only print the last item:</p>

      <pre><code class="plain">grep -r "date:" source/_presentations/*.md | awk '{ print $NF }'

      2020-12-08
      2023-10-17
      2024-05-10
      2024-11-20
      2015-07-25
      2019-01-28
      2022-03-09
      2023-01-12
      2020-09-02
      2020-09-23
      2021-04-22
      2017-12-21
      2018-08-28
      2023-04-06
      2020-08-11
      2020-09-09
      2021-02-02
      </code></pre>

      <p>I can sort them by adding <code>| sort</code>, but that doesn't matter in this case.</p>

      <p>To remove any future presentations, I can pass the current date to <code>awk</code>, filter based on the date and count the number of lines in the result:</p>

      <pre><code class="plain">grep -r "date:" source/_presentations/*.md | awk -v today="$(date +%Y-%m-%d)" '{ if ($NF &lt; today) print $NF }' | wc -l

      104
      </code></pre>

      <p>This isn't how I'm calculating this on my website (I'm using a <a href="/daily/2025/05/02/extend">custom Twig extension in Sculpin</a> for that), but this is an example of how multiple command line utilities can work together to perform a task - made possible using the static files from my website.</p>

              
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