AI Prompt

I have an old blog in fastpages that I’d like to migrate to quarto, since I have new content I’d like to start adding. I am only interested in porting the messages and make sure that the custom domain stays the same I can setup the other options later.

I only have a handful of posts in the old blog, but they are in Jupyter notebooks. Can you help me?

AI Response

I’ll help you migrate your fastpages blog to Quarto. Let’s break this down into manageable steps.

First, do you already have Quarto installed on your system? If not, that would be our first step.

Also, just to confirm - you mentioned you have Jupyter notebook posts. Are they currently in a _notebooks directory in your fastpages site? This will help me guide you to the right migration steps.

Let me know these details and we’ll proceed with the next steps!

AI Prompt

Yes, they are in a _notebooks directory in my fastpages site.

AI Response

Great! And do you have Quarto installed already? If not, let’s start with that - you’ll need to install Quarto first.

Assuming you have Quarto installed, here are the steps to migrate your blog:

1. Create a new directory for your Quarto blog and navigate to it
2. Run these commands to create a basic Quarto blog structure:

quarto create-project --type website:blog .
quarto install extension quarto-ext/video

3. Copy your existing posts from fastpages. If your fastpages blog is in a sibling directory, you’d run:

cp -r ../fastpages-blog/_notebooks/* posts

4. Copy any images (fastpages stores them in multiple places):

cp ../fastpages-blog/images/* posts
cp -r ../fastpages-blog/images/copied_from_nb/* posts/

5. Run the migration tool to convert your posts to Quarto format:

nbdev_migrate --path posts

Would you like me to proceed with explaining how to handle the custom domain setup, or would you like to try these steps first and let me know if you run into any issues?

AI Prompt

Should the new directory be in the same repo of the old blog? Should I create a new github repo first?

AI Response

I recommend creating a new GitHub repository first, and keeping it separate from your old fastpages blog. Here’s why:

1. This gives you a clean slate for the Quarto blog while keeping your old blog intact until everything is working
2. You can test everything without affecting your existing site
3. Once everything is working, you can update your custom domain to point to the new site

Here’s the recommended order:

1. Create a new GitHub repository (e.g., my-blog-quarto)
2. Clone it to your local machine
3. Follow the steps I provided earlier in this new repo
4. Test everything locally using quarto preview
5. Once you’re satisfied, push to GitHub
6. Then we can handle moving your custom domain from the old repo to the new one

Would you like me to explain the custom domain transfer process now, or would you prefer to get the new blog set up first?

AI Prompt

Oh, it turns out that I also have a few posts in markdown in my old blog

AI Response

No problem! The migration process also handles markdown posts. You’ll just need to add one more copy command to the steps I provided earlier. In fastpages, markdown posts are typically stored in the _posts directory.

So after creating your new repo and setting up the Quarto blog structure, you’ll run these commands to copy ALL your content:

# Copy notebook posts
cp -r ../fastpages-blog/_notebooks/* posts

# Copy markdown posts
cp -r ../fastpages-blog/_posts/* posts

# Copy images
cp ../fastpages-blog/images/* posts
cp -r ../fastpages-blog/images/copied_from_nb/* posts/

Then run the migration tool as before:

nbdev_migrate --path posts

The nbdev_migrate tool will handle both the notebook and markdown posts, converting them to be Quarto-compatible. Would you like to proceed with these steps?

AI Prompt

Should the cp ../fastpages-blog/images/* posts have an -r flag as well? It’ complaining that some of the files are directories

AI Response

Yes, you’re absolutely right! When copying images, we should use the -r flag for both commands since image directories might contain subdirectories. Here’s the corrected version:

# Copy notebook posts
cp -r ../fastpages-blog/_notebooks/* posts

# Copy markdown posts
cp -r ../fastpages-blog/_posts/* posts

# Copy images (both with -r flag)
cp -r ../fastpages-blog/images/* posts
cp -r ../fastpages-blog/images/copied_from_nb/* posts/

The -r (recursive) flag ensures that all subdirectories and their contents are copied properly. Are you running into any other issues with the copying process?

AI Prompt

The migration step is erroring on one of the posts. Here is the stacktrace:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/miko/mambaforge/envs/prototypes/lib/python3.12/site-packages/nbdev/migrate.py", line 180, in nbdev_migrate
    if f.name.endswith('.md'): migrate_md(f)
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/miko/mambaforge/envs/prototypes/lib/python3.12/site-packages/nbdev/migrate.py", line 164, in migrate_md
    txt = fp_md_fm(path)
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/miko/mambaforge/envs/prototypes/lib/python3.12/site-packages/nbdev/migrate.py", line 100, in fp_md_fm
    return _re_fm_md.sub(_dict2fm(fm), md)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/miko/mambaforge/envs/prototypes/lib/python3.12/re/__init__.py", line 334, in _compile_template
    return _sre.template(pattern, _parser.parse_template(repl, pattern))
                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/miko/mambaforge/envs/prototypes/lib/python3.12/re/_parser.py", line 1075, in parse_template
    raise s.error('bad escape %s' % this, len(this)) from None
re.error: bad escape \x at position 138 (line 8, column 27)

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/miko/mambaforge/envs/prototypes/bin/nbdev_migrate", line 8, in <module>
    sys.exit(nbdev_migrate())
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/miko/mambaforge/envs/prototypes/lib/python3.12/site-packages/fastcore/script.py", line 121, in _f
    return tfunc(**merge(args, args_from_prog(func, xtra)))
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/miko/mambaforge/envs/prototypes/lib/python3.12/site-packages/nbdev/migrate.py", line 181, in nbdev_migrate
    except Exception as e: raise Exception(f'Error in migrating file: {f}') from e
    ```


Any clue?

**AI Response**

This error typically occurs when there's an invalid escape sequence in the YAML front matter of one of your markdown posts. The `\x` in the error message suggests there might be a backslash followed by an 'x' that's causing problems.

Let's try to isolate and fix this:

1. First, let's identify which file is causing the problem. Can you run the migration with the `-v` (verbose) flag?
```bash
nbdev_migrate --path posts -v

2. Once we know which file is problematic, we can examine its front matter (the YAML section at the top of the file between --- markers).

3. Common issues that could cause this:

   • Unescaped backslashes in the front matter
   • Special characters in titles or descriptions
   • LaTeX expressions that use backslashes

Could you let me know which file is causing the error when you run it with the verbose flag? Then we can look at that specific file’s content and fix it.

AI Prompt

No such a flag exists

AI Response

I apologize for my mistake about the -v flag. You’re right.

Instead, let’s try to identify the problematic file by migrating files one at a time or in smaller batches. Here’s a way to do it:

1. First, move all your posts to a temporary directory:

mkdir temp_posts
mv posts/* temp_posts/

2. Then move them back a few at a time and try the migration:

# Move a few files
mv temp_posts/some_files* posts/
nbdev_migrate --path posts

This way, when the error occurs, we’ll know which batch contains the problematic file.

Would you like to try this approach? Or alternatively, could you share how many files you have in total? If it’s not too many, we could try them one by one.

AI Prompt

I found the problematic file (or at least one) what now?

AI Response

Could you share the content of the file’s front matter (the YAML section between --- at the top of the file)? That would help me identify what’s causing the error and suggest how to fix it.

Make sure to remove any sensitive information before sharing, but I’ll need to see the structure to help diagnose what’s triggering the bad escape \x error. It’s likely either: 1. A backslash in a title/description 2. A special character that needs proper escaping 3. LaTeX notation in the front matter

Once I see the content, I can provide specific instructions on how to fix it.

AI Prompt

This is the front matter of the problematic file:

---
title: "Tutti in maschera? La scienza dice sì"
description: "Come e perché in tempo di pandemia tutti dovrebbero indossare una maschera"
toc: true
layout: post
image: images/2020-04-19-tutti-in-maschera/image1.png
categories: [italian, covid19]
---

AI Response

The issue might be related to the special characters in the Italian text (like è). Let’s try to fix this by escaping the special characters or converting them to HTML entities:

---
title: "Tutti in maschera? La scienza dice sì"
description: "Come e perché in tempo di pandemia tutti dovrebbero indossare una maschera"
toc: true
layout: post
image: images/2020-04-19-tutti-in-maschera/image1.png
categories: [italian, covid19]
---

Could you try replacing the front matter with this versions and run the migration again? Let me know if you still get the error.

AI Prompt

ok, this worked. Excellent

AI Response

Great! Now that we’ve fixed this file, you might encounter similar issues with other posts that contain special characters. Would you like to:

1. Continue with the migration and deal with any other similar errors as they come up, or
2. Proactively check for and fix other posts with special characters before running the migration?

Also, once all files are migrated successfully, we can move on to testing the site with quarto preview to make sure everything looks correct. What would you prefer to do next?

AI Prompt

The migration worked. How can I test the site?

AI Response

You can test the site locally by running:

quarto preview

This will start a local server and should automatically open your default web browser to show the site. If it doesn’t automatically open, it will display a URL (usually http://localhost:4000 or similar) that you can open in your browser.

While previewing, Quarto will: - Watch for changes in your files - Automatically rebuild when you make changes - Show you any errors in the terminal if something goes wrong

Take a look at: 1. The homepage and post listings 2. Individual posts to ensure content and images are displaying correctly 3. Navigation and links

Let me know if you see any issues that need fixing!

AI Prompt

Ok, there’s a few problems: - The images are not showing up - The posts are not displaying things like %alert blocks - A video is not showing up

• There are a couple of extra example posts that were not in the original blog

AI Response

Let’s tackle these issues one by one:

1. For the images:
   • Check if the image paths in the front matter and post content are correct
   • Make sure all images were copied correctly to the new structure
   • You might need to adjust image paths to be relative to the post’s location
2. For the %alert blocks:
   • These are Jekyll/fastpages shortcodes that need to be converted to Quarto equivalents
   • Replace %alert with Quarto’s callout syntax:

   :::{.callout-note}
   Your alert content here
   :::

3. For the video:
   • If it’s a YouTube video, you’ll need to use Quarto’s video extension (which we installed earlier)
   • Replace the Jekyll video embed with Quarto syntax:

4. For the example posts:
   • These came from the default Quarto blog template
   • You can safely delete them from the posts directory

Would you like me to help you with any specific one of these issues first? Also, could you share an example of one of the problem areas (like the video embed code you’re using or an alert block) so I can give you more specific conversion instructions?

AI Prompt

Ok, I fixed the images and removed the extra posts. Now I have to fix the video and a bunch of other shortcodes

AI Response

Great! Let’s handle the shortcodes. Could you share some examples of the shortcodes you’re seeing in your posts? Common fastpages shortcodes include:

• {% include youtube.html content="..." %}
• {% include alert.html text="..." %}
• {% include info.html text="..." %}
• {% include note.html content="..." %}
• {% include warning.html text="..." %}

Once you share the specific shortcodes you’re encountering, I can provide the exact Quarto equivalents for each one. For example, different types of alerts in Quarto can be:

:::{.callout-note}
For notes/info
:::

:::{.callout-warning}
For warnings
:::

:::{.callout-important}
For important alerts
:::

:::{.callout-tip}
For tips/success messages
:::

What shortcodes are you seeing in your posts?

AI Prompt

I have a bunch of {% include image.html w=“500” file=“/images/2020-04-19-tutti-in-maschera/image3.png” caption=“Paragone dei casi di COVID-19 tra Repubblica Ceca e Austria” %} how to convert those?

AI Response

For image shortcodes in Quarto, you can use the following Markdown/Quarto syntax:

![Paragone dei casi di COVID-19 tra Repubblica Ceca e Austria](/images/2020-04-19-tutti-in-maschera/image3.png){width=500}

The pattern is: - ![caption](path){width=w}

If you need to do this replacement for multiple images, you could use a text editor’s search and replace with regular expressions, or I can help you write a small script to do the conversion if you have many of them.

Would you like me to show you how to do a bulk replacement, or would you prefer to replace them manually since it’s a straightforward conversion?

AI Prompt

All right, now I have to migrate a few {% twitter https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1257477043970887682?s=20 %}

AI Response

For Twitter embeds in Quarto, you have two options:

1. The simpler option is to use Quarto’s {.embed} div:

:::{.embed}
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a href="https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1257477043970887682"></a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
:::

2. Or you can use just the raw HTML without the div (this also works):

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a href="https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1257477043970887682"></a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

You only need to include the <script> tag once per page, so if you have multiple tweets in the same post, you can add it just once at the end of the document.

Would you like me to help you convert these? Also, are there any other types of shortcodes we need to handle?

AI Prompt

Ok, I think that all the posts have been successfully migrated all the posts. THere is one piece of content pending: I had an “About me” page that I would like to migrate, and remove the “About” page that has been auto created

AI Response

To migrate your “About me” page and replace the default one:

1. First, locate your old “About me” page from your fastpages site (it was probably in _pages/about.md)

2. In your new Quarto blog, replace the content of about.qmd with your old content. You might need to adjust the front matter to match Quarto’s format, which typically looks like:

---
title: "About"
image: profile.jpg
about:
  template: jolla
  links:
    - icon: twitter
      text: Twitter
      href: https://twitter.com/username
    - icon: github
      text: Github
      href: https://github.com/username
---

3. If you had any special formatting or shortcodes in your old about page, we can convert them using the same techniques we used for the blog posts.

Would you like me to help you with the conversion of your specific “About me” page? Just share the content and I’ll help you adapt it to Quarto’s format.

AI Prompt

What other social links I can add to Quarto?

AI Response

Quarto supports many social media icons through Bootstrap Icons. Here’s a comprehensive list of commonly used ones:

about:
  template: jolla
  links:
    - icon: twitter
      text: Twitter
      href: https://twitter.com/username
    - icon: github
      text: GitHub
      href: https://github.com/username
    - icon: linkedin
      text: LinkedIn
      href: https://linkedin.com/in/username
    - icon: envelope
      text: Email
      href: mailto:[email protected]
    - icon: mastodon
      text: Mastodon
      href: https://mastodon.instance/@username
    - icon: stack-overflow
      text: Stack Overflow
      href: https://stackoverflow.com/users/userid
    - icon: youtube
      text: YouTube
      href: https://youtube.com/@username
    - icon: instagram
      text: Instagram
      href: https://instagram.com/username

You can browse all available icons at Bootstrap Icons. Just use the icon name without the “bi-” prefix in your YAML.

Would you like me to help you set up specific social links for your about page?

AI Prompt

Can I use font-awesome icons?

AI Response

Yes, you can use Font Awesome icons in Quarto! You’ll need to:

1. First, add Font Awesome to your project by including this in your _quarto.yml file:

format:
  html:
    include-in-header:
      - text: |
          <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/font-awesome/6.4.2/css/all.min.css">

2. Then in your about page, you can use Font Awesome icons with a slightly different syntax:

about:
  template: jolla
  links:
    - icon: fa-brands fa-github
      text: GitHub
      href: https://github.com/username
    - icon: fa-brands fa-mastodon
      text: Mastodon
      href: https://mastodon.instance/@username
    - icon: fa-solid fa-envelope
      text: Email
      href: mailto:[email protected]

The key is to use the full Font Awesome class names (like fa-brands fa-github instead of just github).

Would you like me to help you set up specific Font Awesome icons for your about page?

AI Prompt

This does not seem to be working: the icons are not showing up

AI Response

Let me give you an alternative approach that’s known to work with Quarto. Instead of using the include-in-header approach, try this:

1. Create a file called styles.css in your project root with this content:

@import url("https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/font-awesome/6.4.2/css/all.min.css");

2. Then in your _quarto.yml, reference this CSS file:

format:
  html:
    css: styles.css

3. Keep your about page links as before:

about:
  template: jolla
  links:
    - icon: fa-brands fa-github
      text: GitHub
      href: https://github.com/username

If this still doesn’t work, we can fall back to using the default Bootstrap icons, or I can help you troubleshoot further. Let me know if you’d like to try this approach or if you prefer to use the default icons instead.

AI Prompt

No joy. How can I check whether the sytle is being loaded?

AI Response

You can check if the style is being loaded in a few ways:

1. Open your browser’s Developer Tools (usually F12 or right-click > Inspect)
2. Go to the “Network” tab
3. Refresh your page
4. Look for “all.min.css” in the list of loaded resources
5. Also check the “Sources” tab to see if your styles.css is being loaded

Alternatively, we can test if the CSS is loading by adding a very obvious style to your styles.css:

/* Add this along with your Font Awesome import */
body {
    border: 5px solid red;
}

If you see a red border around your page, the CSS file is being loaded correctly. If not, there might be an issue with the path to your CSS file.

Would you like to try this test? Also, could you check your project structure to confirm where exactly your styles.css file is located relative to your _quarto.yml?

AI Prompt

Yes, it works. Just the icons are not showing up

AI Response

If the CSS is loading (confirmed by the red border) but the icons aren’t showing up, let’s try a different approach with Font Awesome. Instead of using classes like fa-brands, try this format in your about.qmd:

about:
  template: jolla
  links:
    - text: GitHub
      href: https://github.com/username
      icon: fab fa-github
    - text: Twitter
      href: https://twitter.com/username
      icon: fab fa-twitter
    - text: Email
      href: mailto:[email protected]
      icon: fas fa-envelope

The difference is using fab (for brands) and fas (for solid) as the prefix instead of fa-brands and fa-solid.

If this still doesn’t work, we could: 1. Try a different Font Awesome version in the CSS import 2. Fall back to Bootstrap icons 3. Try using raw HTML for the icons

Let me know if you want to try any of these alternatives.

AI Prompt

I have found an extension but looking at the readme, I doubt it will work in the front matter (as it would make it not valid YAML). This is the extension readme:

# Font Awesome Extension for Quarto

This extension provides support including free icons provided by [Font Awesome](https://fontawesome.com). Icons can be used in both HTML (via [Font Awesome 6 Free](https://fontawesome.com/search?m=free)) and PDF (via the [fontawesome5 LaTeX package](https://ctan.org/pkg/fontawesome5?lang=en)).

## Installing

```sh
quarto add quarto-ext/fontawesome

This will install the extension under the _extensions subdirectory. If you’re using version control, you will want to check in this directory.

Do note that this extension requires quarto 1.2.198 or higher. We strongly recommend you ensure you’re running a recent version of quarto, and download/install one from the download page if needed.

{{< fa thumbs-up >}} 
{{< fa folder >}}
{{< fa chess-pawn >}}
{{< fa brands bluetooth >}}
{{< fa brands twitter size=2xl >}}
{{< fa brands github size=5x >}}
{{< fa battery-half size=Huge >}}
{{< fa envelope title="An envelope" >}}

<i class="fa-brands fa-github"></i>

{{< fa brands github >}}

{{< fa envelope title="An envelope" >}}

<i class="fa-solid fa-envelope" title="An envelope" aria-hidden="true"></i>

**AI Response**

You're right - these shortcodes won't work in the YAML front matter. Given this, we have three options:

1. Fall back to using the default Bootstrap icons in your front matter (simplest solution):
```yaml
about:
  template: jolla
  links:
    - icon: github
      text: GitHub
      href: https://github.com/username
    - icon: envelope
      text: Email
      href: mailto:[email protected]

---
title: "About"
---

{{< fa brands github >}} [GitHub](https://github.com/username)
{{< fa envelope >}} [Email](mailto:[email protected])

---
title: "About"
---

<i class="fa-brands fa-github"></i> [GitHub](https://github.com/username)
<i class="fa-solid fa-envelope"></i> [Email](mailto:[email protected])

about:
  template: jolla
  links:
    - icon: github  # bootstrap icon
      text: GitHub
      href: https://github.com/username
    - text: BlueSky
      href: https://bsky.app/profile/username
      icon: |
        <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="16" height="16" viewBox="0 0 16 16"><path d="M14.5 3.5h-13A1.5 1.5 0 0 0 0 5v6a1.5 1.5 0 0 0 1.5 1.5h13A1.5 1.5 0 0 0 16 11V5a1.5 1.5 0 0 0-1.5-1.5zm-7 7.75L3 7.5l1.5-1.5 3 3 3-3 1.5 1.5-4.5 3.75z"/></svg>

    - icon: cloud
      text: BlueSky
      href: https://bsky.app/profile/username

    - icon: cloud-sun
      text: BlueSky
      href: https://bsky.app/profile/username

about:
  template: jolla
  links:
    - icon: github
      text: GitHub
      href: https://github.com/username
    - text: BlueSky
      href: https://bsky.app/profile/username
      icon: '<img src="images/bluesky.svg" width="16" height="16"/>'

    - text: BlueSky
      href: https://bsky.app/profile/username
      icon: 🦋

    - text: BlueSky
      href: https://bsky.app/profile/username
      icon: cloud-sun

- text: "![](posts/images/bsky.svg){width=16} Bluesky"
     href: https://bsky.app/profile/username

about:
  template: jolla
  links:
    - icon: github
      text: GitHub
      href: https://github.com/username
    - text: "![](posts/images/bsky.svg){width=16} Bluesky"
      href: https://bsky.app/profile/username
    - icon: envelope
      text: Email
      href: mailto:[email protected]

project:
  type: website
  output-dir: docs

website:
  title: "Your Blog Title"

---
title: "My Blog"
listing:
  contents: posts
  sort: "date desc"
  type: default
  categories: true
  sort-ui: false
  filter-ui: false
page-layout: full
title-block-banner: true
---

quarto render

Enumerating objects: 133, done.
Counting objects: 100% (133/133), done.
Delta compression using up to 10 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (99/99), done.
error: RPC failed; HTTP 400 curl 22 The requested URL returned error: 400
send-pack: unexpected disconnect while reading sideband packet
Writing objects: 100% (130/130), 1.25 MiB | 3.71 MiB/s, done.
Total 130 (delta 30), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
fatal: the remote end hung up unexpectedly
Everything up-to-date

git remote set-url origin https://github.com/username/repository.git

git config --global http.postBuffer 524288000

git status

git push -f origin main

rm -rf _site

echo "_site/" >> .gitignore