Can we do replacements in file names or paths? about metalsmith

[ianstormtaylor]

yup totally possible! you'd just want a way to template the filenames after prompting, if you remove a file from the dictionary and then re-add the same contents under a different key that would do the trick.

i'm actually working on building exactly that (a simple project scaffolder) and hoping to release it real soon :)

[richard-edwards]

Great, please keep me updated if you think of it. I wrote something myself in .NET that does similar things but I'd like to try another route.

[normanrz]

Is it possible to make a new dictionary in a plugin, instead of altering the original? I guess that would allow plugins to safely use http://lodash.com/docs#transform.

[ianstormtaylor]

instead of altering the original build directory? you could change the destination, but that wouldn't create a duplicate. but you can also create any arbitrary nested directories in a plugin that you wanted, just always inside the build directory

[normanrz]

I meant that there is only one files object instance throughout the build process. Plugins are expected to alter this very object (by adding or deleting properties) instead of returning a new instance. Or am I getting this wrong?

[ianstormtaylor]

ah, yeah it's all by reference instead of new instances. although a plugin, if it wanted too, could clone the dictionary itself and then create new directories outside of the the destination directory using Metalsmith#join, but not sure that would really be a good use case