flask_writer

✍ A simple CMS for authors of web serials and blogs.

This project is designed to be used as an author website for a writer of web serials, blogs, and/or novels.

Setup

Install Requirements

To use it first install all packages in /requirements.txt:

# pip install -r requirements.txt

Create Folders

Add the following folders to the root directory of the project.

• /uploads
• /products

Set Up Database

Refer to your database's manual for this. Create a blank DB with a user that has full access to it.

Set Environment Variables

Next set the following environment variables, replacing the bracketed sections with data for your setup:

FLASK_APP=flask_writer.py
FLASK_ENV=[development or production]
MAIL_USERNAME=[]
MAIL_PASSWORD=[]
MAIL_DEFAULT_SENDER=[]
DATABASE_URI=[]
BASE_URL=[]
SITE_NAME=[]

See /config.py for a list of variables used.

Add Starter Objects

Before the website will be accessible, you will need to create a few starter objects. To do this, run the following commands:

$ flask shell
>>> install()
>>> exit()

install() is a function found in /flask_writer.py that creates a user account with the username: admin and the password: password. It also creates all of the Special Pages listed later in this guide.

Customization

The following files can be added to allow site-specific customization of the website. The first two files will need to be added in order to run the website. You can find example versions of the html files in /app/templates/examples/. Copy these into their correct directories to use the example files.

• /app/templates/logo.html - Required. Used for placing your logo in the navbar.
• /app/templates/footer.html - Required. Can be used for copyright or other information at the bottom of the page.
• /app/templates/email/base-top.html - Optional. Makes up the top half of the base of all emails.
• /app/templates/email/base-bottom.html - Optional. Makes up the bottom half of the base of all emails.
• /app/static/css/custom.css - Optional. For custom site-wide styling
• /app/static/js/custom.js - Optional. For custom site-wide javascript

Run the App

Then run the app and access it at localhost:5000/:

flask run

Special Pages

Some pages with special functions need to also be created as Pages to work properly. The install() command earlier should have already created all of these pages, but you can change them to style them and change their content.

For these pages to work properly, they must have the specified slug as well as the page template. These pages should not be published, as that would make them show up in the site's navigation incorrectly. Below is a list of the required slugs and the ways you can affect each page's appearance.

• admin - You can change the Title, Banner, and Summary when editing this page.
• search - You can change the Title, Banner, and Summary.
• shop - You can change the Title Banner, and Summary. If you add a body, it will appear at the top of the page. This is the only special page that will need to be published to use. This allows you to also edit the sort order to determine where it falls in the navigation.
• subscriber-welcome - Used for emails. The title will be used as the subject and the body will be used as the text in the email. The banner also gets used as a background image for HTML emails. This email gets sent when someone subscribes to your site.
• purchase-thank-you - Used for emails in the same way as the subscriber-welcome page. This email is sent when someone purchases a downloadable product from your website.