smalls / smallblog

smallblog

This was kind of a work in progress. Everything checked in is working, but I'm not currently developing this.

A small basic blog system.

Key features include:

• Markdown-formatted posts
• Blogs linked to domains
• Each accounts can have multiple blogs

Getting Started

By default it'll store information in PostgreSQL, so you'll need to have a server running.

Start by creating a database:

bash$ createdb smallblog

You'll need to set several environment variables to configure your test system. I recommend copying env.sh.template to env.sh, and modifying its contents to fit your system and database configuration. Source the file before starting the server:

bash$ . env.sh

Once you've done that, you can create the db schema:

bash$ lein migrate

If you want to use S3 to store images, you'll need to set your bucket permissions (which you can do from the AWS web page, bucket properties -> Edit bucket policy. A policy to allow anyone to read anything from your bucket looks like this:

{
    "Version": "2008-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "AddPerm",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Principal": {
                "AWS": "*"
            },
            "Action": "s3:GetObject",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::smallblog-test/*"
        }
    ]
}

Usage

Running locally just takes one command:

lein run :server

Or, from a REPL (this won't block):

(smallblog.core/start-server false)

I use Heroku for my deployment.

Setup on Heroku

You'll need to enable some addons, my current list:

> heroku addons
logging:basic
pgbackups:auto-month
releases:basic
sendgrid:starter
shared-database:5mb
ssl:piggyback

And enable environment variables particular for your setup. See env.sh.template, or more likely your personal env.sh.

Upgrading on Heroku

As usual, uploading a new version starts with a git push:

git push heroku master

You may need to update the remote schema, as well (this command is safe to run with or without changes):

heroku run lein run :migrate

Notes

Notes, mostly for myself.

Todo

• Analytics
• Form validation
• Better look & feel DONE- Custom domains (one account can have multiple blogs, each with a unique DNS entry) DONE- Store picture in S3 DONE- Post preview on the edit screen

Some postgres commands

to connect:

bash$ psql smallblog -h localhost

to describe a table:

psql> \d+ tablename

License

Copyright (c) 2011-2012, Matt Small

Distributed under the BSD License - see LICENSE.