Getting Started documentation overhaul

docs/getting_started.rst

@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@ You can install Pelican via several different methods. The simplest is via
 
     $ pip install pelican
 
-If you don't have ``pip`` installed, an alternative method is ``easy_install``::
+If you don't have ``pip`` installed, an alternative method is
+``easy_install``::
 
     $ easy_install pelican
 
@@ -22,18 +23,16 @@ If you don't have ``pip`` installed, an alternative method is ``easy_install``::
 commands with ``sudo`` in order to install Pelican system-wide.)
 
 While the above is the simplest method, the recommended approach is to create
-a virtual environment for Pelican via virtualenv_ and virtualenvwrapper_ before
+a virtual environment for Pelican via virtualenv_ before installing Pelican.
-installing Pelican. Assuming you've followed the virtualenvwrapper
+Assuming you have virtualenv_ installed, you can then open a new terminal
-`installation <http://virtualenvwrapper.readthedocs.org/en/latest/install.html>`_
+session and create a new virtual environment for Pelican::
-and `shell configuration
-<http://virtualenvwrapper.readthedocs.org/en/latest/install.html#shell-startup-file>`_
-steps, you can then open a new terminal session and create a new virtual
-environment for Pelican::
 
-    $ mkvirtualenv pelican
+    $ virtualenv ~/virtualenvs/pelican
+    $ cd ~/virtualenvs/pelican
+    $ . bin/activate
 
 Once the virtual environment has been created and activated, Pelican can be
-be installed via ``pip`` or ``easy_install`` as noted above. Alternatively, if
+be installed via ``pip install pelican`` as noted above. Alternatively, if
 you have the project source, you can install Pelican using the distutils
 method::
 
@@ -54,6 +53,42 @@ If you want to use AsciiDoc you need to install it from `source
 <http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/INSTALL.html>`_ or use your operating
 system's package manager.
 
+Basic usage
+-----------
+
+Once Pelican is installed, you can use it to convert your Markdown or reST
+content into HTML via the ``pelican`` command, specifying the path to your
+content and (optionally) the path to your settings file::
+
+$ pelican /path/to/your/content/ [-s path/to/your/settings.py]
+
+The above command will generate your site and save it in the ``output/``
+folder, using the default theme to produce a simple site. The default theme
+consists of very simple HTML without styling and is provided so folks may use
+it as a basis for creating their own themes.
+
+You can also tell Pelican to watch for your modifications, instead of
+manually re-running it every time you want to see your changes. To enable this,
+run the ``pelican`` command with the ``-r`` or ``--autoreload`` option.
+
+Pelican has other command-line switches available. Have a look at the help to
+see all the options you can use::
+
+    $ pelican --help
+
+Viewing the generated files
+---------------------------
+
+The files generated by Pelican are static files, so you don't actually need
+anything special to view them. You can either use your browser to open the
+files on your disk::
+
+    firefox output/index.html
+
+Or run a simple web server using Python::
+
+    cd output && python -m SimpleHTTPServer
+
 Upgrading
 ---------
 
@@ -69,7 +104,8 @@ perform the same step to install the most recent version.
 Dependencies
 ------------
 
-At this time, Pelican core is dependent on the following Python packages:
+When Pelican is installed, the following dependent Python packages should be
+automatically installed without any action on your part:
 
 * `feedgenerator <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/feedgenerator>`_, to generate the
   Atom feeds
@@ -83,53 +119,57 @@ At this time, Pelican core is dependent on the following Python packages:
 * `unidecode <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/Unidecode>`_, for ASCII
   transliterations of Unicode text
 
-Optionally:
+If you want the following optional packages, you will need to install them
+manually via ``pip``:
 
 * `markdown <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/Markdown>`_, for supporting Markdown as
   an input format
 * `typogrify <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/typogrify>`_, for typographical
   enhancements
 
-Kickstart a blog
+Kickstart your site
-================
+===================
 
-Following is a brief tutorial for those who want to get started right away.
+Once Pelican has been installed, you can create a skeleton project via the
-We're going to assume that virtualenv_ and virtualenvwrapper_ are installed and
+``pelican-quickstart`` command, which begins by asking some questions about
-configured; if you've installed Pelican outside of a virtual environment,
+your site::
-you can skip to the ``pelican-quickstart`` command. Let's first create a new
-virtual environment and install Pelican into it::
-
-    $ mkvirtualenv pelican
-    $ pip install pelican Markdown
-
-Next we'll create a directory to house our site content and configuration files,
-which can be located any place you prefer, and associate this new project with
-the currently-active virtual environment::
-
-    $ mkdir ~/code/yoursitename
-    $ cd ~/code/yoursitename
-    $ setvirtualenvproject
-
-Now we can run the ``pelican-quickstart`` command, which will ask some questions
-about your site::
 
     $ pelican-quickstart
 
-Once you finish answering all the questions, you can begin adding content to the
+Once you finish answering all the questions, your project will consist of the
-*content* folder that has been created for you. (See *Writing articles using
+following hierarchy (except for "pages", which you can optionally add yourself
-Pelican* section below for more information about how to format your content.)
+if you plan to create non-chronological content)::
-Once you have some content to generate, you can convert it to HTML via the
+
-following command::
+    yourproject/
+    ├── content
+    │   └── (pages)
+    ├── output
+    ├── develop_server.sh
+    ├── Makefile
+    ├── pelicanconf.py       # Main settings file
+    └── publishconf.py       # Settings to use when ready to publish
+
+The next step is to begin to adding content to the *content* folder that has
+been created for you. (See *Writing articles using Pelican* section below for
+more information about how to format your content.)
+
+Once you have written some content to generate, you can use the ``pelican``
+command to generate your site, which will be placed in the output folder.
+Alternatively, you can use automation tools that "wrap" the ``pelican`` command
+to simplify the process of generating, previewing, and uploading your site. One
+such tool is the ``Makefile`` that's automatically created for you when you use
+``pelican-quickstart`` to create a skeleton project. To use ``make`` to
+generate your site, run::
 
     $ make html
 
 If you'd prefer to have Pelican automatically regenerate your site every time a
-change is detected (handy when testing locally), use the following command
+change is detected (which is handy when testing locally), use the following
-instead::
+command instead::
 
     $ make regenerate
 
-To serve the site so it can be previewed in your browser at
+To serve the generated site so it can be previewed in your browser at
 http://localhost:8000::
 
     $ make serve
@@ -153,18 +193,29 @@ use rsync over ssh::
 
 That's it! Your site should now be live.
 
-Writing articles using Pelican
+Writing content using Pelican
-==============================
+=============================
+
+Articles and pages
+------------------
+
+Pelican considers "articles" to be chronological content, such as posts on a
+blog, and thus associated with a date.
+
+The idea behind "pages" is that they are usually not temporal in nature and are
+used for content that does not change very often (e.g., "About" or "Contact"
+pages).
 
 File metadata
---------------
+-------------
 
 Pelican tries to be smart enough to get the information it needs from the
 file system (for instance, about the category of your articles), but some
 information you need to provide in the form of metadata inside your files.
 
-You can provide this metadata in reStructuredText text files via the
+If you are writing your content in reStructuredText format, you can provide
-following syntax (give your file the ``.rst`` extension)::
+this metadata in text files via the following syntax (give your file the
+``.rst`` extension)::
 
     My super title
     ##############
@@ -182,23 +233,23 @@ Pelican implements an extension to reStructuredText to enable support for the
     This will be turned into :abbr:`HTML (HyperText Markup Language)`.
 
 You can also use Markdown syntax (with a file ending in ``.md``, ``.markdown``,
-or ``.mkd``). Markdown generation will not work until you explicitly install the
+or ``.mkd``). Markdown generation requires that you first explicitly install
-``Markdown`` package, which can be done via ``pip install Markdown``. Metadata
+the ``Markdown`` package, which can be done via ``pip install Markdown``.
-syntax for Markdown posts should follow this pattern::
+Metadata syntax for Markdown posts should follow this pattern::
 
     Title: My super title
     Date: 2010-12-03 10:20
-    Tags: thats, awesome
+    Category: Python
-    Category: yeah
+    Tags: pelican, publishing
     Slug: my-super-post
     Author: Alexis Metaireau
     Summary: Short version for index and feeds
 
     This is the content of my super blog post.
 
-Lastly, you can use vanilla HTML (files ending in ``.htm`` and ``.html``). Pelican 
+Pelican can also process HTML files ending in ``.html`` and ``.htm``. Pelican
-interprets the HTML in a very straightforward manner, reading meta data out
+interprets the HTML in a very straightforward manner, reading metadata from
-of ``meta`` tags, the title out of the ``title`` tag, and the body out of the 
+``meta`` tags, the title from the ``title`` tag, and the body out from the
 ``body`` tag::
 
     <html>
@@ -215,61 +266,34 @@ of ``meta`` tags, the title out of the ``title`` tag, and the body out of the
         </body>
     </html>
 
-With HTML, there is one simple exception to the standard metadata.
+With HTML, there is one simple exception to the standard metadata: ``tags`` can
-``tags`` can be specified either with the ``tags`` metadata, as is standard in 
+be specified either via the ``tags`` metadata, as is standard in Pelican, or
-Pelican, or with the ``keywords`` metadata, as is standard in HTML. The two can 
+via the ``keywords`` metadata, as is standard in HTML. The two can be used
-be used interchangeably.
+interchangeably.
 
-Note that, aside from the title, none of this metadata is mandatory: if the date
+Note that, aside from the title, none of this article metadata is mandatory:
-is not specified and DEFAULT_DATE is 'fs', Pelican will rely on the file's 
+if the date is not specified and ``DEFAULT_DATE`` is set to ``fs``, Pelican
-"mtime" timestamp, and the category can be determined by the directory in which 
+will rely on the file's "mtime" timestamp, and the category can be determined
-the file resides. For example, a file located at ``python/foobar/myfoobar.rst`` 
+by the directory in which the file resides. For example, a file located at
-will have a category of ``foobar``. If you would like to organize your files in 
+``python/foobar/myfoobar.rst`` will have a category of ``foobar``. If you would
-other ways where the name of the subfolder would not be a good category name, 
+like to organize your files in other ways where the name of the subfolder would
-you can set the setting ``USE_FOLDER_AS_CATEGORY`` to ``False``.
+not be a good category name, you can set the setting ``USE_FOLDER_AS_CATEGORY``
+to ``False``.
 
-If there is no summary metadata for a given post, the ``SUMMARY_MAX_LENGTH`` 
+If you do not explicitly specify summary metadata for a given post, the
-setting can be used to specify how many words from the beginning of an article 
+``SUMMARY_MAX_LENGTH`` setting can be used to specify how many words from the
-are used as the summary. Summaries can also be specified inline with the body 
+beginning of an article are used as the summary.
-using the :ref:`Summary Plugin <plugin-summary>`.
 
 You can also extract any metadata from the filename through a regular
-expression to be set in the ``FILENAME_METADATA`` setting.
+expression to be set in the ``FILENAME_METADATA`` setting. All named groups
-All named groups that are matched will be set in the metadata object. The
+that are matched will be set in the metadata object. The default value for the
-default value for the ``FILENAME_METADATA`` setting will only extract the date
+``FILENAME_METADATA`` setting will only extract the date from the filename. For
-from the filename. For example, if you would like to extract both the date and
+example, if you would like to extract both the date and the slug, you could set
-the slug, you could set something like:
+something like: ``'(?P<date>\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2})_(?P<slug>.*)'``
-``'(?P<date>\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2})_(?P<slug>.*)'``
 
 Please note that the metadata available inside your files takes precedence over
 the metadata extracted from the filename.
 
-Generate your blog
-------------------
-
-The ``make`` shortcut commands mentioned in the *Kickstart a blog* section
-are mostly wrappers around the ``pelican`` command that generates the HTML from
-the content. The ``pelican`` command can also be run directly::
-
-    $ pelican /path/to/your/content/ [-s path/to/your/settings.py]
-
-The above command will generate your weblog and save it in the ``output/``
-folder, using the default theme to produce a simple site. The default theme is
-simple HTML without styling and is provided so folks may use it as a basis for
-creating their own themes.
-
-Pelican has other command-line switches available. Have a look at the help to
-see all the options you can use::
-
-    $ pelican --help
-
-Auto-reload
------------
-
-It's possible to tell Pelican to watch for your modifications, instead of
-manually re-running it every time you want to see your changes. To enable this,
-run the ``pelican`` command with the ``-r`` or ``--autoreload`` option.
-
 Pages
 -----
 
@@ -303,6 +327,7 @@ following syntax: ``|filename|path/to/file``::
     │   ├── cat/
     │   │   └── article2.md
     │   └── pages
+    │       └── about.md
     └── pelican.conf.py
 
 In this example, ``article1.rst`` could look like::
@@ -444,19 +469,4 @@ publishing, for example), you can add a ``status: draft`` attribute to its
 metadata. That article will then be output to the ``drafts`` folder and not
 listed on the index page nor on any category page.
 
-Viewing the generated files
----------------------------
-
-The files generated by Pelican are static files, so you don't actually need
-anything special to see what's happening with the generated files.
-
-You can either use your browser to open the files on your disk::
-
-    firefox output/index.html
-
-Or run a simple web server using Python::
-
-    cd output && python -m SimpleHTTPServer
-
 .. _virtualenv: http://www.virtualenv.org/
-.. _virtualenvwrapper: http://www.doughellmann.com/projects/virtualenvwrapper/