Setting Up a Pelican Site

Installation

1. Conda/Pip Install

After getting your virtualenv setup, run 'pip install pelican'. Also include additional packages:

pip install Markdown beautifulsoup4 typogrify Pillow webassets

or

conda create -n website python=python3
conda install -c conda-forge pelican
conda install -c conda-forge pyaml 
conda install -c anaconda markdown
conda install -c anaconda beautifulsoup4 
conda install -c conda-forge pillow
conda install -c conda-forge gettext 
conda install -c damianavila82 piexif # for
pip install pyexif
conda install -c conda-forge ghp-import
conda install -c anaconda pil

for helping to write in Markdown and writing pretty text.

2. Start up pelican:

First you will need to create a separate branch that you work on. This branch contains your actual markdown files, which are rendered and then copied OVER to your master branch during the Publishing section. This then renders html using git.

git checkout - <source_branch>
pelican-quickstart

then go through the directions and create your project.

3. Installing common pelican-themes and pelican-plugins:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/getpelican/pelican-themes
git clone --recursive https://github.com/getpelican/pelican-plugins

Choosing Your Hosting Server

There are a couple of options, but you should decide how you want to host your site because then it will be built into your pelican project directory.

  1. Github Pages: This is the free and most convenient way to do things.

  2. S3 by Amazon: Costs money.

  3. Heroku, PythonAnywhere, and More:

Installing and Choosing Themes/Plugins

You need to install the pelican themes and the pelican plugins, if you want to use the open source themes and plugins developed. Then you can add code to your python files to add certain plugins:

PLUGIN_PATHS = ['path/to/pelican-plugins']
PLUGINS = ['assets', 'sitemap', 'gravatar']
JINJA_ENVIRONMENT = {'extensions': ['jinja2.ext.i18n']}

Pushing Content to Cloud

1. Via Fab (Old)

'pip install ghp-import fabric'

  1. Using ghp-import:

First run install by 'pip install ghp-import'

Then you can run code like:

$ ghp-import -m 'commit message' -b master output
$ git push --all
  1. Using fab:

First install fabric by running 'pip install fabric'. Then insert code into your fabfile.py:

def publishghp(msg):
    preview() #builds publishconf.py
    local("git add -A") #will commit allll files, be careful
    local("git commit -m '%s'"%msg)
    local("ghp-import -m '%s' -b master output"%msg)
    local("git push --all")

and then run 

$ fab publishghp:"commit message"

to create commits up to the cloud.

2. Via Git Directly

Before doing anything, check locally if files look right:

make html && make serve

First just push all your stuff to your path.

git add -A && git commit -a -m 'first commit' && git push --all

Then:

make github

Adding Pages of Static Content

Here you want to add a homepage, about me page and other static pages that are relevant to your site. Create a directory inside /content/pages/ to hold your static pages. Separate blog content and other content and use pelicanconf.py along w/ plugins to play around with the visuals and presentation of the site.

Adding Articles To Your Blog

To add articles to your blog, create /content/blog/ directory and create subdirectories in there. For example, I have academic, coding, and travel as my subdirectories in my blog. Then adjust your pelicanconf.py file for these blog posts.

Adding Gallery / Images To Your Blog

Adding images to your blog require the following packages: - exeif - Pillow - Knowledge of modifying Pelican templates

Modifying Pelican Templates:

https://kwkelly.com/blog/adding-galleries-to-pelican-and-bootstrap/ http://duncanlock.net/blog/2013/05/29/better-figures-images-plugin-for-pelican/

References:

  1. https://www.notionsandnotes.org/tech/web-development/pelican-static-blog-setup.html
  2. http://terriyu.info/blog/posts/2013/07/pelican-setup/
  3. http://beneathdata.com/how-to/how-i-built-this-website/
  4. Pelican-plugins: https://github.com/getpelican/pelican-plugins
  5. Pelican-themes: https://github.com/getpelican/pelican-themes
  6. Walkthru of Pelican w/ Python3.7: https://rsip22.github.io/blog/create-a-blog-with-pelican-and-github-pages.html