.. _theming-pelican: Themes ###### There is a community-managed repository of `Pelican Themes`_ for people to share and use. Please note that while we do our best to review and merge theme contributions, they are submitted by the Pelican community and thus may have varying levels of support and interoperability. Creating Themes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To generate its HTML output, Pelican uses the `Jinja `_ templating engine due to its flexibility and straightforward syntax. If you want to create your own theme, feel free to take inspiration from the `"simple" theme `_. To generate your site using a theme you have created (or downloaded manually and then modified), you can specify that theme via the ``-t`` flag:: pelican content -s pelicanconf.py -t /projects/your-site/themes/your-theme If you'd rather not specify the theme on every invocation, you can define ``THEME`` in your settings to point to the location of your preferred theme. Structure ========= To make your own theme, you must follow the following structure:: ├── static │   ├── css │   └── images └── templates ├── archives.html // to display archives ├── period_archives.html // to display time-period archives ├── article.html // processed for each article ├── author.html // processed for each author ├── authors.html // must list all the authors ├── categories.html // must list all the categories ├── category.html // processed for each category ├── index.html // the index (list all the articles) ├── page.html // processed for each page ├── tag.html // processed for each tag └── tags.html // must list all the tags. Can be a tag cloud. * `static` contains all the static assets, which will be copied to the output `theme` folder. The above filesystem layout includes CSS and image folders, but those are just examples. Put what you need here. * `templates` contains all the templates that will be used to generate the content. The template files listed above are mandatory; you can add your own templates if it helps you keep things organized while creating your theme. .. _templates-variables: Templates and Variables ======================= The idea is to use a simple syntax that you can embed into your HTML pages. This document describes which templates should exist in a theme, and which variables will be passed to each template at generation time. All templates will receive the variables defined in your settings file, as long as they are in all-caps. You can access them directly. Common Variables ---------------- All of these settings will be available to all templates. =============== =================================================== Variable Description =============== =================================================== output_file The name of the file currently being generated. For instance, when Pelican is rendering the home page, output_file will be "index.html". articles The list of articles, ordered descending by date. All the elements are `Article` objects, so you can access their attributes (e.g. title, summary, author etc.). Sometimes this is shadowed (for instance, in the tags page). You will then find info about it in the `all_articles` variable. dates The same list of articles, but ordered by date, ascending. hidden_articles The list of hidden articles drafts The list of draft articles authors A list of (author, articles) tuples, containing all the authors and corresponding articles (values) categories A list of (category, articles) tuples, containing all the categories and corresponding articles (values) tags A list of (tag, articles) tuples, containing all the tags and corresponding articles (values) pages The list of pages hidden_pages The list of hidden pages draft_pages The list of draft pages =============== =================================================== Sorting ------- URL wrappers (currently categories, tags, and authors), have comparison methods that allow them to be easily sorted by name:: {% for tag, articles in tags|sort %} If you want to sort based on different criteria, `Jinja's sort command`__ has a number of options. __ https://jinja.palletsprojects.com/en/latest/templates/#sort Date Formatting --------------- Pelican formats the date according to your settings and locale (``DATE_FORMATS``/``DEFAULT_DATE_FORMAT``) and provides a ``locale_date`` attribute. On the other hand, the ``date`` attribute will be a `datetime`_ object. If you need custom formatting for a date different than your settings, use the Jinja filter ``strftime`` that comes with Pelican. Usage is same as Python `strftime`_ format, but the filter will do the right thing and format your date according to the locale given in your settings:: {{ article.date|strftime('%d %B %Y') }} .. _datetime: https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#datetime-objects .. _strftime: https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-strptime-behavior index.html ---------- This is the home page or index of your blog, generated at ``index.html``. If pagination is active, subsequent pages will reside in ``index{number}.html``. ====================== =================================================== Variable Description ====================== =================================================== articles_paginator A paginator object for the list of articles articles_page The current page of articles articles_previous_page The previous page of articles (``None`` if page does not exist) articles_next_page The next page of articles (``None`` if page does not exist) dates_paginator A paginator object for the article list, ordered by date, ascending. dates_page The current page of articles, ordered by date, ascending. dates_previous_page The previous page of articles, ordered by date, ascending (``None`` if page does not exist) dates_next_page The next page of articles, ordered by date, ascending (``None`` if page does not exist) page_name 'index' -- useful for pagination links ====================== =================================================== author.html ------------- This template will be processed for each of the existing authors, with output generated according to the ``AUTHOR_SAVE_AS`` setting (`Default:` ``author/{slug}.html``). If pagination is active, subsequent pages will by default reside at ``author/{slug}{number}.html``. ====================== =================================================== Variable Description ====================== =================================================== author The name of the author being processed articles Articles by this author dates Articles by this author, but ordered by date, ascending articles_paginator A paginator object for the list of articles articles_page The current page of articles articles_previous_page The previous page of articles (``None`` if page does not exist) articles_next_page The next page of articles (``None`` if page does not exist) dates_paginator A paginator object for the article list, ordered by date, ascending. dates_page The current page of articles, ordered by date, ascending. dates_previous_page The previous page of articles, ordered by date, ascending (``None`` if page does not exist) dates_next_page The next page of articles, ordered by date, ascending (``None`` if page does not exist) page_name AUTHOR_URL where everything after `{slug}` is removed -- useful for pagination links ====================== =================================================== category.html ------------- This template will be processed for each of the existing categories, with output generated according to the ``CATEGORY_SAVE_AS`` setting (`Default:` ``category/{slug}.html``). If pagination is active, subsequent pages will by default reside at ``category/{slug}{number}.html``. ====================== =================================================== Variable Description ====================== =================================================== category The name of the category being processed articles Articles for this category dates Articles for this category, but ordered by date, ascending articles_paginator A paginator object for the list of articles articles_page The current page of articles articles_previous_page The previous page of articles (``None`` if page does not exist) articles_next_page The next page of articles (``None`` if page does not exist) dates_paginator A paginator object for the list of articles, ordered by date, ascending dates_page The current page of articles, ordered by date, ascending dates_previous_page The previous page of articles, ordered by date, ascending (``None`` if page does not exist) dates_next_page The next page of articles, ordered by date, ascending (``None`` if page does not exist) page_name CATEGORY_URL where everything after `{slug}` is removed -- useful for pagination links ====================== =================================================== article.html ------------- This template will be processed for each article, with output generated according to the ``ARTICLE_SAVE_AS`` setting (`Default:` ``{slug}.html``). The following variables are available when rendering. ============= =================================================== Variable Description ============= =================================================== article The article object to be displayed category The name of the category for the current article ============= =================================================== Any metadata that you put in the header of the article source file will be available as fields on the ``article`` object. The field name will be the same as the name of the metadata field, except in all-lowercase characters. For example, you could add a field called `FacebookImage` to your article metadata, as shown below: .. code-block:: md Title: I love Python more than music Date: 2013-11-06 10:06 Tags: personal, python Category: Tech Slug: python-je-l-aime-a-mourir Author: Francis Cabrel FacebookImage: http://franciscabrel.com/images/pythonlove.png This new metadata will be made available as `article.facebookimage` in your `article.html` template. This would allow you, for example, to specify an image for the Facebook open graph tags that will change for each article: .. code-block:: html+jinja page.html --------- This template will be processed for each page, with output generated according to the ``PAGE_SAVE_AS`` setting (`Default:` ``pages/{slug}.html``). The following variables are available when rendering. ============= =================================================== Variable Description ============= =================================================== page The page object to be displayed. You can access its title, slug, and content. ============= =================================================== tag.html -------- This template will be processed for each tag, with output generated according to the ``TAG_SAVE_AS`` setting (`Default:` ``tag/{slug}.html``). If pagination is active, subsequent pages will by default reside at ``tag/{slug}{number}.html``. ====================== =================================================== Variable Description ====================== =================================================== tag The name of the tag being processed articles Articles related to this tag dates Articles related to this tag, but ordered by date, ascending articles_paginator A paginator object for the list of articles articles_page The current page of articles articles_previous_page The previous page of articles (``None`` if page does not exist) articles_next_page The next page of articles (``None`` if page does not exist) dates_paginator A paginator object for the list of articles, ordered by date, ascending dates_page The current page of articles, ordered by date, ascending dates_previous_page The previous page of articles, ordered by date, ascending (``None`` if page does not exist) dates_next_page The next page of articles, ordered by date, ascending (``None`` if page does not exist) page_name TAG_URL where everything after `{slug}` is removed -- useful for pagination links ====================== =================================================== period_archives.html -------------------- This template will be processed for each year of your posts if a path for ``YEAR_ARCHIVE_SAVE_AS`` is defined, each month if ``MONTH_ARCHIVE_SAVE_AS`` is defined, and each day if ``DAY_ARCHIVE_SAVE_AS`` is defined. =================== =================================================== Variable Description =================== =================================================== period A tuple of the form (`year`, `month`, `day`) that indicates the current time period. `year` and `day` are numbers while `month` is a string. This tuple only contains `year` if the time period is a given year. It contains both `year` and `month` if the time period is over years and months and so on. period_num A tuple of the form (``year``, ``month``, ``day``), as in ``period``, except all values are numbers. =================== =================================================== You can see an example of how to use `period` in the `"simple" theme period_archives.html template `_. Objects ======= Detail objects attributes that are available and useful in templates. Not all attributes are listed here, this is a selection of attributes considered useful in a template. .. _object-article: Article ------- The string representation of an Article is the `source_path` attribute. ====================== =================================================== Attribute Description ====================== =================================================== author The :ref:`Author ` of this article. authors A list of :ref:`Authors ` of this article. category The :ref:`Category ` of this article. content The rendered content of the article. date Datetime object representing the article date. date_format Either default date format or locale date format. default_template Default template name. in_default_lang Boolean representing if the article is written in the default language. lang Language of the article. locale_date Date formatted by the `date_format`. metadata Article header metadata `dict`. save_as Location to save the article page. slug Page slug. source_path Full system path of the article source file. relative_source_path Relative path from PATH_ to the article source file. status The article status, can be any of 'published' or 'draft'. summary Rendered summary content. tags List of :ref:`Tag ` objects. template Template name to use for rendering. title Title of the article. translations List of translations :ref:`Article ` objects. url URL to the article page. ====================== =================================================== .. _PATH: settings.html#PATH .. _object-author_cat_tag: Author / Category / Tag ----------------------- The string representation of those objects is the `name` attribute. =================== =================================================== Attribute Description =================== =================================================== name Name of this object [1]_. page_name Author page name. save_as Location to save the author page. slug Page slug. url URL to the author page. =================== =================================================== .. [1] for Author object, coming from `:authors:` or `AUTHOR`. .. _object-page: Page ---- The string representation of a Page is the `source_path` attribute. ===================== =================================================== Attribute Description ===================== =================================================== author The :ref:`Author ` of this page. content The rendered content of the page. date Datetime object representing the page date. date_format Either default date format or locale date format. default_template Default template name. in_default_lang Boolean representing if the article is written in the default language. lang Language of the article. locale_date Date formatted by the `date_format`. metadata Page header metadata `dict`. save_as Location to save the page. slug Page slug. source_path Full system path of the page source file. relative_source_path Relative path from PATH_ to the page source file. status The page status, can be any of 'published', 'hidden' or 'draft'. summary Rendered summary content. tags List of :ref:`Tag ` objects. template Template name to use for rendering. title Title of the page. translations List of translations :ref:`Article ` objects. url URL to the page. ===================== =================================================== .. _PATH: settings.html#PATH Feeds ===== The feed variables changed in 3.0. Each variable now explicitly lists ATOM or RSS in the name. ATOM is still the default. Old themes will need to be updated. Here is a complete list of the feed variables:: FEED_ATOM FEED_RSS FEED_ALL_ATOM FEED_ALL_RSS CATEGORY_FEED_ATOM CATEGORY_FEED_RSS AUTHOR_FEED_ATOM AUTHOR_FEED_RSS TAG_FEED_ATOM TAG_FEED_RSS TRANSLATION_FEED_ATOM TRANSLATION_FEED_RSS Inheritance =========== Since version 3.0, Pelican supports inheritance from the ``simple`` theme, so you can re-use the ``simple`` theme templates in your own themes. If one of the mandatory files in the ``templates/`` directory of your theme is missing, it will be replaced by the matching template from the ``simple`` theme. So if the HTML structure of a template in the ``simple`` theme is right for you, you don't have to write a new template from scratch. You can also extend templates from the ``simple`` theme in your own themes by using the ``{% extends %}`` directive as in the following example: .. code-block:: html+jinja {% extends "!simple/index.html" %} {% extends "index.html" %} Example ------- With this system, it is possible to create a theme with just two files. base.html """"""""" The first file is the ``templates/base.html`` template: .. code-block:: html+jinja {% extends "!simple/base.html" %} {% block head %} {{ super() }} {% endblock %} 1. On the first line, we extend the ``base.html`` template from the ``simple`` theme, so we don't have to rewrite the entire file. 2. On the third line, we open the ``head`` block which has already been defined in the ``simple`` theme. 3. On the fourth line, the function ``super()`` keeps the content previously inserted in the ``head`` block. 4. On the fifth line, we append a stylesheet to the page. 5. On the last line, we close the ``head`` block. This file will be extended by all the other templates, so the stylesheet will be linked from all pages. style.css """"""""" The second file is the ``static/css/style.css`` CSS stylesheet: .. code-block:: css body { font-family : monospace ; font-size : 100% ; background-color : white ; color : #111 ; width : 80% ; min-width : 400px ; min-height : 200px ; padding : 1em ; margin : 5% 10% ; border : thin solid gray ; border-radius : 5px ; display : block ; } a:link { color : blue ; text-decoration : none ; } a:hover { color : blue ; text-decoration : underline ; } a:visited { color : blue ; } h1 a { color : inherit !important } h2 a { color : inherit !important } h3 a { color : inherit !important } h4 a { color : inherit !important } h5 a { color : inherit !important } h6 a { color : inherit !important } pre { margin : 2em 1em 2em 4em ; } #menu li { display : inline ; } #post-list { margin-bottom : 1em ; margin-top : 1em ; } Download """""""" You can download this example theme :download:`here <_static/theme-basic.zip>`. .. Links .. _`Pelican Themes`: https://github.com/getpelican/pelican-themes