Panda: a simple blog engine in Haskell
Features
simple file structure
db
|---- blog
| |---- 08-09-01 first post
| |---- 09-09-02 learn javascript.html
|
|---- tag
| |---- programming
| |---- funny
|
|---- static
|---- About
simple config file
blog_title = C大调
blog_subtitle = 野猫不吃薯片
host_name = jinjing.blog.easymic.com
author_email = nfjinjing@gmail.com
navigation = About
per_page = 7
sidebar = Blogroll.md
favicon = panda_icon.png
standard web technology
extend/customize with pure css and javascript ( note the custom part in css and js from the last section )
hacker friendly
- posts are in plain text
- SCM for publishing / data managing ( not really a feature, but a design goal from the beginning )
- blindly follows the KISS principle from code to UI: be a simple blog, no more no less
Demo
blog
My blog source is available as a git repo:
git clone git://github.com/nfjinjing/jinjing-blog.git
Or browser online
config
jinjing's blog config file
Install
Quick setup
Note: only version 1.4.19 has been successfully tested, 1.4.20 is bugged for reasons unknown.
install ghc
install darcs for cabal-install
darcs get --partial http://darcs.haskell.org/cabal-install/
cd cabal-install
sh bootstrap.sh
install panda
cabal update; cabal install panda
bootstrap
# panda is a kibro project
kibro new myblog
cd myblog
# get a template to start
git clone git://github.com/nfjinjing/panda-template.git db
sh db/extra/scripts/bootstrap.sh
run
kibro start
It should be running on [http://127.0.0.1:3000](http://127.0.0.1:3000) now.
Since Panda is based on Kibro, it helps to read how Kibro works.
Goodies
Install Ruby / Rake, then rake -T to see a list of helper commands.
Config
Edit db/config/site.txt
blog_title = My shiny blog
host_name = yourhost.com
author_email = your_mail@yourhost.com
Restart required. (hint: rake r)
User's guide
posts
All posts are placed in db/blog folder, with naming convention [yy-mm-dd title], in Markdown format by default.
Markdown supports embedding HTML snippets, so embedding youtube video is a peace of cake.
You can create static pages, in db/static, and link to them via /static/static_file_name inside your blogs.
For example db/static/About, where you can put some profile in.
tagging
Create a file in db/tag, the name of the file will be the name of the new tag.
edit the tag file, insert the full name of a blog post, e.g. 08-09-04 Welcome to Panda
html / tex / restructured text format
Just create the file in blog as usual with an extension (e.g. html, rst, tex ), and you are all set.
customize navigation bar
see example in config/site:
navigation = About, Gallery
Multiple renderer supported, use extension as hints.
Note, the navigation configuration requires the full name of your static page, so you should include extension in configuration as well.
see example in config/site, config/sidebar/Blogroll.md
sidebar = Blogroll.md
Sidebar items are html snippets plugged into view. You can create these plugins in multiple formats, use extension.
styling
Styling is done by editing public/theme/blueprint/css/custom.css, see the default custom.css for inspiration.
theming
New theme can be created without touching Panda code, example blueprint theme in db/config/theme/blueprint.txt
container = container
header = column span-12 first
navigation = column span-12 first large
main = column span-9 first
sidebar = column span-3 last
footer = footer
css = screen, blueprint-wp, custom
js = jquery-1.2.6.min, jquery.getUrlParam, jquery.highlight-2, custom
These are custom class names for each element block.
You can create new themes by adding theme definition files in db/config/theme, put theme resources under db/public/theme/your_theme_name and place
theme = your_new_theme
inside site.txt.
note: css and js are required to be placed under db/public/theme/your_theme_name/css and db/public/theme/your_theme_name/js, leave out the file extensions in site.txt.
syntax highlighting
<object
type="text/html" \
data="http://www.flickr.com/slideShow/index.gne \
?user_id=56167317@N00&tags=cat-hack" \
width="500" height="500">
</object>
Highlight for HTML is enabled by default, see public/theme/blueprint/js/custom.js for more language support.
Highlight style is configured at config/theme/blueprint.txt, just change highlight/default to any css inside theme/blueprint/css/highlight.
analytics
Google analytics is available, put your tracker_id in site.txt, if you don't want analytics, ignore the setting.
Once site module is introduced, those js code could be configured to be gone forever, but not yet in the current release.
final note
try to use <h3> for heading in your posts, at least wordpress is using this convention. <h1> is not styled in the blueprint theme, so they look kind of unfitted. But this does not stop anyone from styling <h1>, <h2> if wished.
Links
