About PyBlosxom

What is PyBlosxom

PyBlosxom is a lightweight weblog system. It was originally a Python clone of Blosxom but has since evolved into a weblog system of its own reminiscent of Blosxom.

PyBlosxom focuses on three things:

simplicity

PyBlosxom stores all data on the file system in plain text files. This allows you to use any text editor to create, update and manipulate entries. You can also use existing text-manipulation tools, version control, scripts, grep, ... for managing your blog.

PyBlosxom can run as a CGI script, WSGI component or you can use it to statically compile your website into HTML/XML files.

Your workflow is your workflow.

extensibility

PyBlosxom has a plugin framework enabling you to augment and enhance PyBlosxom’s default behavior. Plugins are written in Python. We maintain a list of plugins in the plugin registry on the website.

Plugins aren’t hard to write. We’re happy to help you write plugins.

community

There are several hundred PyBlosxom users out there all of whom have different needs. PyBlosxom is used on a variety of operating systems in a variety of environments. We have the standard open source project fare: mailing lists, IRC channel, wiki, ...

PyBlosxom is built to let you use existing text-manipulation tools without having to build the whole ecology from scratch.

PyBlosxom can be run as:

• a “static renderer” and compile your blog
• a CGI script
• a WSGI application

Why you might not want to use PyBlosxom

PyBlosxom is a small open source project and while there is a community, it’s pretty small. PyBlosxom’s features are great but make it a niche weblog engine.

PyBlosxom is a file-based weblog system. Each blog entry is a separate file stored in a directory hierarchy on your file system. By default, the hierarchy is a category tree meaning each blog entry belongs in a single category. By default, mtimes are used as the blog entry timestamp. There are plugins that change this behavior, but require extra configuration to use.

There are a lot of other weblog systems out there. If it’s apparent that PyBlosxom won’t work for you, don’t force it—use something else.

Overview of PyBlosxom

Entries, categories, storage:

• PyBlosxom stores everything as files on the file system—there is no database.
• Each blog entry is a file.
• Blog entry files are stored in a directory hierarchy in your datadir.
• Each subdirectory in your datadir corresponds to a category of your blog.

Themes:

• Themes in PyBlosxom are called flavours.
• A flavour consists of a set of templates.
• Flavours are stored in a directory called the flavourdir.
• PyBlosxom comes with several flavours: html, rss20, and atom.
• The PyBlosxom website maintains a flavour registry for flavours contributed by people like you.
• There’s more information in the chapter on Flavours and Templates in the docs.

Plugins:

• PyBlosxom has a plugin system.
• Plugins are written in Python.
• Plugins are loaded using the plugin_dirs and load_plugins configuration variables.
• For more information on using plugins see the Plugins chapter in the docs.
• For more information on writing plugins see the Writing Plugins chapter in the docs.
• The PyBlosxom website maintains a plugin registry for plugins submitted by people like you.

Project details, contact information, and where to go for help

See http://pyblosxom.bluesock.org/contact for details on the mailing lists, IRC, source code, issue tracker, and everything else.

Requirements

• Python 2.4 or higher, but not Python 3
• (optional) Sphinx for building documentation
• (optional) other things depending on what plugins you install

How to install PyBlosxom

Read the INSTALL document as well as other documents in the docs/ directory.

If you’re upgrading from a previous PyBlosxom version, read the UPGRADE document as well as CHANGELOG which covers what’s new in this version and what you’ll need to change in your blog.

How to find comprehensive documentation

There’s a series of text files in the docs/ directory which comprise the current state of the PyBlosxom manual at the time of this release.

The most current version of the manual can be found on the PyBlosxom website .

How to report bugs, send in patches, fix problems

We really appreciate people helping out.

If you discover a problem with PyBlosxom, please let us know on IRC (#pyblosxom on irc.freenode.net) or on the mailing lists.

If you can additionally fix it, attach a patch file to the bug or send the patch as an attachment to the pyblosxom-devel mailing list. When sending a patch, please make sure to describe the details of the problem you are fixing.

How to run unit tests

Tests are written with the Python unittest module.

To run core tests, do this:

python setup.py test

This will build PyBlosxom, then run the tests.

To run plugin unit tests do this:

PYTHONPATH=. python plugins/testrunner.py

That will run all the plugins tests.

If you would like to add tests to the test suite, please do and send us patches!