blosxom :: the zen of blogging

All of Blosxom's configuration is held, for simplicity's sake, in the script itself. Now don't be afraid; while there are all manner of funny-looking characters, this is really quite simple and we'll go through it a line at a time. The default looks something like this:

# --- Configurable variables -----
# What's this blog's title?
$blog_title = "My Weblog"; #
# What's this blog's description (for outgoing RSS feed)?
$blog_description = "Yet another Blosxom blog."; #
# What's this blog's primary language (for outgoing RSS feed)?
$blog_language = "en"; #
# Where are this blog's entries kept?
$datadir = "/Library/WebServer/Documents/blosxom"; #
# What's my preferred base URL for this blog (leave blank for automatic)?
$url = ""; #
# Should I stick only to the datadir for items or travel down the
# directory hierarchy looking for items? If so, to what depth?
# 0 = infinite depth (aka grab everything), 1 = datadir only, n = n levels down
$depth = 0; #
# How many entries should I show on the home page?
$num_entries = 40; #
# What file extension signifies a blosxom entry?
$file_extension = "txt"; #
# What is the default flavour?
$default_flavour = "html"; #
# Should I show entries from the future (i.e. dated after now)?
$show_future_entries = 0;
...
# --------------------------------

Each configuration directive consists of a setting name (e.g. $blog_title, an = sign, and the setting's value (e.g. "My Weblog"). In the case of words, the value is kept between double-quotes ("); in the case of numbers, the quotes are absent. To change a setting's value, simply replace the current value with your preferred value. Be sure to leave the double-quotes intact if they're there.

For example, if you were to change your blog's title from the default, My Weblog, to Sam's Insights, that setting line would end up looking like: $blog_title = "Sam's Insights";

All clear? Good. Let's move on to the settings themselves.

$blog_title: The default title of your choosing for this Weblog. This title is available to you in your flavour templates and is the title that appears in your outgoing syndicated RSS feed.

$blog_description: The default description of your choosing for this Weblog. This description is available to your flavour templates and is the description that appears in your outgoing syndicated RSS feed

$blog_language: For use in your syndicated RSS feed, $blog_language signifies the default language for this weblog, the default of en being English. A list of some of the more popular language abbreviations may be found here.

$datadir: The most important setting of the lot, $datadir tells the Blosxom script where to find your weblog posts. This should be the full path to the folder you created when installing Blosxom.

$url: Leave this blank if Blosxom does a decent job of figuring out what the base URL for your blog should be--this is the case most of the time. Used only if you wish to override what Blosxom automagically figures out is the base URL for your weblog (e.g. $url = "http://www.raelity.org/").

$depth: It's best to leave this setting as it is until you've read and had some time to fiddle with categorization and sharing a Blosxom blog. This setting specifies whether Blosxom should stick only to the data directory or travel down any hierarchy it may find inside, looking for blog posts.

$num_entries: The number of entries Blosxom should display on your weblog's home page. This is a balance between letting older posts scroll off the bottom at some reasonable clip versus posts dropping off too soon (if you're a prolific blogger).

$file_extension: While Blosxom's default is to look for files in the $datadir ending in .txt, you can override this by altering $file_extension. E.g. (my $file_extension = "blosxom"; would have Blosxom look for files like welcome.blosxom and what_i_ate_for_breakfast.blosxom.

$default_flavour: This setting decides what default flavour is presented to the browser if the visitor doesn't specify one in particular.

$show_future_entries: This setting decides what whether post-dated blog entries show up ($show_future_entries = 1) or remain hidden until their time is come ($show_future_entries = 0), the latter being the default. Post-dating entries requires a little command-line tomfoolery using the touch command; to learn more about it, consult the "man pages" (built-in Unix manual) by typing man touch on a Terminal window.

The rest of the configuration options concern themselves with plug-ins and static rendering, both subjects you should delve into when you're good and ready to.

click here to write a test blog post...

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blosxom :: the zen of blogging :: documentation/users/configure