Dealing with templates in an open source Django project?

[Simon Connah]

Hi,

First of all apologies for posting two messages to this list in a couple of days but I've just got back into Django after a rather long break, and it is taking me a little time to get back in the swing of things.

I'm in the process of making a simple blogging platform which I intend to release as an open source project. It is not designed to be a reusable app used by other Django. Instead, it is intended to be an all in one blogging solution for end users to install and use much like they do with something like Wordpress.

There is one major problem though that I don't know the answer. As I am building the blogging platform, I am of course writing my templates to make sure that everything is working correctly. But a side issue with that is that the templates now contain phrases related to the website I intend to create when the blogging platform is at a reasonable stage of development.

Now, when I open up the Git repository to the public, and people start using they are going to get the templates that I have already created. That will mean that they'll either need to go through them all individually (I doubt they will have heard of grep or similar tools) or just delete them all and start from scratch.

What I would like to see is people release their styles that can then be customised based on my model, form, view architecture and then they can do what they want with the templates. As long as I document the variables used in the templates that shouldn't cause too many problems.

In effect then I have two options. Distribute the code with my already existing templates or have a private repository with my templates and a public repository with no templates and documentation on how to create the templates and either make some styles myself or hope that someone else does.

Ideally, I'd like it to work a little bit like Wordpress where you can install a style very easily I'm just not sure how to go about doing that.

How would you go about this problem? I am both trying to make a blogging platform for my use while at the same time keeping it reasonably open so other people can use it as well. I'm probably missing something obvious here, but I'd appreciate some advice before I get too far into the project so any changes that need to be made will be smaller.

Thank you.

Simon.

[Etienne Robillard]

Hi Simon,

I'll try to help you out with that.

Have you considered using Django models to allow end users to create, edit and customize templates within the Django admin?

This should be pretty easy to do.

All you need is to define some models for your customized templates and then the user can configure the styling within the Django admin.

HTH,

Etienne

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[Simon Connah]

Hi Etienne,

Thank you for your reply. I have to apologise because I think I am a bit stupid. I'm not sure what you mean.

I think I might understand what you mean to a degree, but I'm not sure how to go about it. In effect, I should layout a basic template for general use and then create admin views which allow users to customise the specifics of the templates. Is that what you meant?

If it is, then it is indeed an interesting idea I hadn't considered. I'm not entirely sure how I would go about doing that at the moment. I'd have to think.

If you meant something else, then please let me know if I have misunderstood what you mean.

Simon.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/django-users/cda864be-eb13-57ba-b79b-6fb1c5be2c7f%40yandex.com.

[Etienne Robillard]

Hey man,

First of all you're definitely not stupid. :-)

Second, I think you're starting pretty well to understand what I'm trying to explain.

I do admit however that I haven't myself experimented with this type of functionality, but I really think it should be possible to define some specific Django models to let the user customize the look and feel of your interface via the admin site.

You could start progressively by letting the user choose from a list a custom CSS file to use for its blogging site.

Then you could perhaps let the user choose a specific header and footer for his theme.

There's no limit in what you can do.

Just let your imagination flows in and use your Django programming skills to let your users manage their blogging site the way they want.

You could even define some specific Javascript fields for allowing users to enable or disable some more advanced functionality...

Anyways, that's all I can think off right now...

Have fun,

Etienne

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[Simon Connah]

Hi Etienne,

Thank you for the reply. I think I get what you mean now. It would certainly solve a lot of issues so thank you for the idea. I'd have to rejig a few things to make sure it works correctly but I think once it is all configured it would be a much more stable system. I appreciate the help :).

Simon.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/django-users/f2b61f84-dfd3-a669-a3b3-c34f26a4e61a%40yandex.com.