A simple content management system for Django

This is the repository for py-monocle-cms, the content management system I use for my homepage, monoclecat.de. py-monocle-cms is meant for small blogs with one user-account being the maintainer, having superuser rights.

Features

Easy image upload and automatic thumbnail generation

Upload, tag and add images to your posts in no time using py_monocle_cms's intergalactic time-bending image management system. It's as easy as counting to 3! The image upload page also integrates a gallery, allowing you to sort images by tag, upload date and unique ID.

Nicely styled newsfeed on the landing page

The pages you write are directly added to the newsfeed on the front page of your site. Of course there is a checkbox you can click if you don't a page to experience the limelight.

No html coding required

Write the content of your pages in nice-and-tidy markdown, which gives you plenty of styling options. Integrating images is easier than you might think! Instead of you needing to enter the filepath, you just need to enter the image's unique ID (in the example it is 4), shown on the image upload page & gallery. Along with that you can set the size (small, medium or large).

Example: ![Text that's shown when the image can't be loaded](4 small "Here's a cat!")

Gives you something like this, just with the image and text centered in the page:

Here's a cat!

Multiple images in a row

If you want to display multiple images in a row, do not leave a blank line between the image includes like so:

![Text](ID SIZE "Description")
![Text](ID SIZE "Description")
![Text](ID SIZE "Description")

Please note that none of the descriptions will be displayed

If you want the images to stand for themselves and each have their descriptions below them, add a blank line between the image includes.

All modifiable

In the source I added comments and explanations to some of the more sophisticated functions. I encourage you to adapt the code to your needs, modify the templates and report any bugs you find to: contact@monoclecat.de

Installation

This short guide covers the installation from scratch. If you want to embed the app into your existing project, I believe you are knowledgeable enough to leave out the steps aimed at configuring newly created projects.

Note: I use Python 3 for installation of the cms and beyond. You will encounter strange errors if you begin a command line with "python" instead of "python3". In the Django tutorial and in other places you might find a command beginning with "python". To execute the command in Python3, just make it a "python3".

1. If you haven't done so yet, create a new django project, as described in Django Tutorial 01. To save you the click: Switch to your desired root directory in a terminal and create a project with the command django-admin startproject mysite. Enter the newly created directory and run python3 manage.py migrate to initialize the project.

2. Download the py_monocle_cms app like so: git clone https://github.com/monoclecat/py_monocle_cms.git.

3. Next, open mysite/settings.py. Add the following to the list of INSTALLED_APPS:

   Note: You might get an error saying that the packages mentioned below are missing. In this case you must install them first: pip3 install APPNAME.

   'py_monocle_cms.apps.PyMonocleCmsConfig',
   'bootstrap3',
   'markdown',
   'crispy_forms',
   

   In TEMPLATES, change 'DIRS': [], to 'DIRS': [os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'templates')], and add 'django.template.context_processors.media' to the context_processors element of OPTIONS.

   Append the following lines to settings.py:

   STATICFILES_DIRS = ["py_monocle_cms/static",]
   STATIC_ROOT = 'static'
   MEDIA_ROOT = 'py_monocle_cms/media'
   MEDIA_URL = '/py_monocle_cms/media/'
   CRISPY_TEMPLATE_PACK = 'bootstrap3'
   

4. Run python3 manage.py migrate once more.

5. In mysite/urls.py, change

   from django.conf.urls import url
   from django.contrib import admin
   
   urlpatterns = [
       url(r'^admin/', admin.site.urls),
   ]
   

   to

   from django.conf.urls import url, include
   from django.contrib import admin
   
   urlpatterns = [
       url(r'^admin/', admin.site.urls),
       url(r'^', include('py_monocle_cms.urls')),
   ]
   

In your terminal, change to the root directory of your Django project and run python3 managy.py runserver. The app should run as desired and when visiting the address 127.0.0.1:8000 in your browser, you should see the an empty webpage. If this is the case, congratulations! You are almost ready to fill your site with content.

The last step is to create a super-user, will you will use to log in to your site and modify it. To create a super-user, execute the command python3 manage.py createsuperuser. Enter username, email and password and you're ready to go. Now you can not only log into the admin part of your webpage under http://127.0.0.1:8000/login/, you can also access the database tables and users under http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/. It is very important that you keep these login credentials secret!