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Getting Started documentation overhaul

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Justin Mayer 2013-04-16 19:45:46 -07:00
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@ -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
installing Pelican. Assuming you've followed the virtualenvwrapper
`installation <http://virtualenvwrapper.readthedocs.org/en/latest/install.html>`_
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::
a virtual environment for Pelican via virtualenv_ before installing Pelican.
Assuming you have virtualenv_ installed, 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.
We're going to assume that virtualenv_ and virtualenvwrapper_ are installed and
configured; if you've installed Pelican outside of a virtual environment,
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::
Once Pelican has been installed, you can create a skeleton project via the
``pelican-quickstart`` command, which begins by asking some questions about
your site::
$ pelican-quickstart
Once you finish answering all the questions, you can begin 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 some content to generate, you can convert it to HTML via the
following command::
Once you finish answering all the questions, your project will consist of the
following hierarchy (except for "pages", which you can optionally add yourself
if you plan to create non-chronological content)::
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
instead::
change is detected (which is handy when testing locally), use the following
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
following syntax (give your file the ``.rst`` extension)::
If you are writing your content in reStructuredText format, you can provide
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
``Markdown`` package, which can be done via ``pip install Markdown``. Metadata
syntax for Markdown posts should follow this pattern::
or ``.mkd``). Markdown generation requires that you first explicitly install
the ``Markdown`` package, which can be done via ``pip install Markdown``.
Metadata syntax for Markdown posts should follow this pattern::
Title: My super title
Date: 2010-12-03 10:20
Tags: thats, awesome
Category: yeah
Category: Python
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
interprets the HTML in a very straightforward manner, reading meta data out
of ``meta`` tags, the title out of the ``title`` tag, and the body out of the
Pelican can also process HTML files ending in ``.html`` and ``.htm``. Pelican
interprets the HTML in a very straightforward manner, reading metadata from
``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.
``tags`` can be specified either with the ``tags`` metadata, as is standard in
Pelican, or with the ``keywords`` metadata, as is standard in HTML. The two can
be used interchangeably.
With HTML, there is one simple exception to the standard metadata: ``tags`` can
be specified either via the ``tags`` metadata, as is standard in Pelican, or
via the ``keywords`` metadata, as is standard in HTML. The two can be used
interchangeably.
Note that, aside from the title, none of this metadata is mandatory: if the date
is not specified and DEFAULT_DATE is 'fs', Pelican will rely on the file's
"mtime" timestamp, and the category can be determined by the directory in which
the file resides. For example, a file located at ``python/foobar/myfoobar.rst``
will have a category of ``foobar``. If you would like to organize your files in
other ways where the name of the subfolder would not be a good category name,
you can set the setting ``USE_FOLDER_AS_CATEGORY`` to ``False``.
Note that, aside from the title, none of this article metadata is mandatory:
if the date is not specified and ``DEFAULT_DATE`` is set to ``fs``, Pelican
will rely on the file's "mtime" timestamp, and the category can be determined
by the directory in which the file resides. For example, a file located at
``python/foobar/myfoobar.rst`` will have a category of ``foobar``. If you would
like to organize your files in other ways where the name of the subfolder would
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``
setting can be used to specify how many words from the beginning of an article
are used as the summary. Summaries can also be specified inline with the body
using the :ref:`Summary Plugin <plugin-summary>`.
If you do not explicitly specify summary metadata for a given post, the
``SUMMARY_MAX_LENGTH`` setting can be used to specify how many words from the
beginning of an article are used as the summary.
You can also extract any metadata from the filename through a regular
expression to be set in the ``FILENAME_METADATA`` setting.
All named groups that are matched will be set in the metadata object. The
default value for the ``FILENAME_METADATA`` setting will only extract the date
from the filename. For example, if you would like to extract both the date and
the slug, you could set something like:
``'(?P<date>\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2})_(?P<slug>.*)'``
expression to be set in the ``FILENAME_METADATA`` setting. All named groups
that are matched will be set in the metadata object. The default value for the
``FILENAME_METADATA`` setting will only extract the date from the filename. For
example, if you would like to extract both the date and the slug, you could set
something like: ``'(?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/