Using Metalsmith - Adding Reading Time

The Plugin

After installing the plugin with npm:

npm install metalsmith-word-count --save

I required the plugin in build.js

var tags = require('metalsmith-word-count');

Incorporating this plugin was as simple as it gets. All I had to do was place it once the html files were ready, after .use(markdown):

Metalsmith(__dirname)
  // plugins
  .use(markdown())
  .use(wordcount())
  // plugins continued

Displaying the information in the post.jade template, after published date:

.published #{moment(publishDate).format("Do MMM YYYY")}
  if modifyDate && moment(publishDate).isBefore(modifyDate)
    span  - updated #{moment(modifyDate).format("Do MMM YYYY")}
.wordcount #{readingTime} read

The reading time information is formatted nicely by default and more options are available if necessary.

What Next?

Next I will look into including a new 'Post Type' a.k.a Collection for my projects/portfolio.

More info

How I built this site using Node.js
Using Metalsmith - Adding Tags
metalsmith-word-count