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To generate its Gemtext output, Gemican uses the Jinja[1] 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[2].
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:
gemican content -s gemicanconf.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.
To make your own theme, you must follow the following structure:
├── static
│ ├── css
│ └── images
└── templates
├── archives.gmi // to display archives
├── period_archives.gmi // to display time-period archives
├── article.gmi // processed for each article
├── author.gmi // processed for each author
├── authors.gmi // must list all the authors
├── categories.gmi // must list all the categories
├── category.gmi // processed for each category
├── index.gmi // the index (list all the articles)
├── page.gmi // processed for each page
├── tag.gmi // processed for each tag
└── tags.gmi // must list all the tags. Can be a tag cloud.
The idea is to use a simple syntax that you can embed into your Gemtext 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.
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 Gemican is rendering the home page,
output_file will be "index.gmi".
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
=============== ===================================================
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[3] has a number of options.
Gemican 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[4] object. If you need custom formatting for a date different than your settings, use the Jinja filter `strftime` that comes with Gemican. Usage is same as Python strftime[5] 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') }}
This is the home page or index of your blog, generated at `index.gmi`.
If pagination is active, subsequent pages will reside in `index{number}.gmi`.
====================== ===================================================
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
====================== ===================================================
This template will be processed for each of the existing authors, with output generated according to the `AUTHOR_SAVE_AS` setting (Default: `author/{slug}.gmi`). If pagination is active, subsequent pages will by default reside at `author/{slug}{number}.gmi`.
====================== ===================================================
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
====================== ===================================================
This template will be processed for each of the existing categories, with output generated according to the `CATEGORY_SAVE_AS` setting (Default: `category/{slug}.gmi`). If pagination is active, subsequent pages will by default reside at `category/{slug}{number}.gmi`.
====================== ===================================================
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
====================== ===================================================
This template will be processed for each article, with output generated according to the `ARTICLE_SAVE_AS` setting (Default: `{slug}.gmi`). 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 Image to your article metadata, as shown below:
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 Image: gemini://franciscabrel.com/images/pythonlove.png
This new metadata will be made available as article.image in your article.gmi template. This would allow you, for example, to specify an image to link to at a specific location:
=> {{ article.image }} Article image
This template will be processed for each page, with output generated according to the `PAGE_SAVE_AS` setting (Default: `pages/{slug}.gmi`). The following variables are available when rendering.
============= ===================================================
Variable Description
============= ===================================================
page The page object to be displayed. You can access its
title, slug, and content.
============= ===================================================
This template will be processed for each tag, with output generated according to the `TAG_SAVE_AS` setting (Default: `tag/{slug}.gmi`). If pagination is active, subsequent pages will by default reside at `tag/{slug}{number}.gmi`.
====================== ===================================================
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
====================== ===================================================
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.gmi template[6]
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.
The string representation of an Article is the source_path attribute.
====================== ===================================================
Attribute Description
====================== ===================================================
author The Author of this article.
authors A list of Authors of this article.
category The 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 Tag objects.
template Template name to use for rendering.
title Title of the article.
translations List of translations objects.
url URL to the article page.
====================== ===================================================
The string representation of those objects is the name attribute.
=================== =================================================== Attribute Description =================== =================================================== name Name of this object. page_name Author page name. save_as Location to save the author page. slug Page slug. url URL to the author page. =================== ===================================================
The string representation of a Page is the source_path attribute.
===================== ===================================================
Attribute Description
===================== ===================================================
author The 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 Tag objects.
template Template name to use for rendering.
title Title of the page.
translations List of translations objects.
url URL to the page.
===================== ===================================================
Each variable explicitly lists ATOM or RSS in the name. ATOM is still the default. 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
Gemican 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 Gemtext 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:
{% extends "!simple/index.gmi" %}
{% extends "index.gmi" %}
Gemtext is a bit more difficult to template than HTML because whitespace, and especially newlines, are significant in Gemtext, while in HTML only the tags generally determine how the content is rendered. This requires special attention when templating for Gemican themes.
Take this template code which conditionally lists a capsule's pages:
{% if DISPLAY_PAGES_ON_MENU %}
### Pages
{% for p in pages %}
=> {{ SITEURL }}/{{ p.url }} {% if p == page %}👉 {% endif %}{{ p.title }}
{% endfor %}
{% endif %}
The indentation improves the readability of the template, but it is preserved in the output, resulting in invalid Gemtext. By default, Jinja is configured to strip newlines after, and whitespace to the left of, block statements, so those can be indented without consequence, but the content cannot:
{% if DISPLAY_PAGES_ON_MENU %}
### Pages
{% for p in pages %}
=> {{ SITEURL }}/{{ p.url }} {% if p == page %}👉 {% endif %}{{ p.title }}
{% endfor %}
{% endif %}
Another consideration is newlines (or lack thereof) within a conditional. If the content is supposed to be on its own line, you generally want to include the newline within the block.
This code will result in `SITENAME` and `SITESUBTITLE` being smushed together on the same line (assuming both conditions are met):
{% if page_name == 'index' %}# {{SITENAME}}{% endif %}
{% if SITESUBTITLE %}### {{ SITESUBTITLE }}{% endif %}
For this reason, when text is supposed to be on a line of its own it is important to include the newlines:
{% if page_name == 'index' %}
# {{SITENAME}}
{% endif %}
{% if SITESUBTITLE %}
### {{ SITESUBTITLE }}
{% endif %}
1: https://palletsprojects.com/p/jinja/
2: https://github.com/khoulihan/gemican/tree/master/gemican/themes/simple/templates
3: https://jinja.palletsprojects.com/en/latest/templates/#sort
4: https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#datetime-objects
5: https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-strptime-behavior