Blogs

A blog is a content type whose entries are posts. Each post is written by one person, who is its author, and its date is the day it was first published. The people a site names as its bloggers write their own posts in the console; three widgets show them on pages.

Make a blog type

Mark a content type with blog: true:

yaml

name: { ro: Jurnal, en: Journal }
title: title
blog: true
fields:
  - { id: title, type: text, label: { ro: Titlu, en: Title }, required: true }
  - { id: intro, type: textarea, label: { ro: Pe scurt, en: In short } }
  - { id: cover, type: image, label: { ro: Imagine, en: Image } }
  - { id: body, type: richtext, label: { ro: Text, en: Text } }
template: |
  <article>
    <h2><portal-field name="title"></portal-field></h2>
    <p><portal-field name="_author"></portal-field> · <portal-field name="_published"></portal-field></p>
    <portal-field name="body"></portal-field>
  </article>

A blog type’s template may place two values a post has besides its fields: _author, the author’s name, and _published, the day it was first published. Give the type a display page on each site that shows its posts, so each post has its own address.

The author of a post is the person who created it. Marking an existing type blog: true makes whoever created its entries their authors, administrators included. A post whose author was erased from the portal has no author.

The console’s content type builder keeps blog: true as the file says it; set it in the file.

Name the bloggers

A site, or a library, names its bloggers under permissions.blog, as it names its editors:

yaml

permissions:
  edit: [group:Redactori]
  blog: [group:Angajati]

Bloggers find Content in the console, with the site’s blog types alone. There they write, publish, unpublish and delete their own posts, and bring back an earlier version of them; they never see or change anyone else’s posts or any other content. The site’s editors see and change every post. A post is published as soon as its blogger publishes it: there is no review before it shows. Name as bloggers the people you trust to speak on the site.

Someone who stops being a blogger, or a type that stops being a blog, leaves the posts where they are: they stay published, with their author, and the site’s editors look after them.

Show a blog

yaml

regions:
  main:
    - id: blog
      app: portal
      widget: blog
      preferences: { type: journal, limit: 10, summary: intro }

• type: the blog type whose posts it shows.
• library: a library this site may show, to show the library’s posts rather than the site’s own.
• limit: how many posts it shows, newest first (1 to 50; 10 when left out).
• summary: a text or textarea field of the type, shown under each post.
• image: an image field of the type.

Each post shows its title, linked to its own page, its author with their handle, and its date; the summary and the image show in the page’s language when the field has one. A post published again keeps its first date and its place.

A blog lists a post only when its site has a display page for its type that the viewer may see: without one, the blog shows nothing.

Add ?author= and a handle to the page’s address, such as /blog?author=ana.pop, to show one author’s posts; every blog on that page then shows only theirs, with a link back to all posts. A handle nobody has shows no posts.

Show several blogs

The blogs widget shows the newest posts of several sites and libraries together:

yaml

- id: all-blogs
  app: portal
  widget: blogs
  preferences: { from: [main, intranet, "@stiri"], limit: 20 }

• from: the sites, and the libraries this site may show (as @ and their id), whose posts it reads: 20 at most; this site when left out.
• limit: how many posts it shows (1 to 50; 10 when left out).

A post shows only when its site has a display page for its type that the viewer may see; it links to that page, on its own site’s address, and says which site it is on. A post nobody may see from here is left out, and so are the posts of a site with no address of its own.

Recent bloggers

The bloggers widget lists who first published posts lately, the latest first, with how many posts each:

yaml

- id: bloggers
  app: portal
  widget: bloggers
  preferences: { from: [main], days: 30, limit: 10, page: /blog }

• from and limit as for blogs.
• days: how far back it looks (1 to 365; 30 when left out).
• page: a page of this site holding a blog widget; each name leads to that page with the person’s posts. Pick a blog of the same type and site as the posts counted, or a name may lead to an empty list.

It counts only posts the viewer may see, and lists only people whose account is active.

Who sees what

A blog shows the same posts to everyone who may see its page, and may be kept in a cache like any other page; a post published, unpublished or deleted shows at once. The blogs and bloggers widgets depend on who is looking, so a page with either is made for each person. Comments, ratings and the activity work on posts as on any entry; the activity names a post’s author.