Configuration tutorial

How to create a custom config for your BlockPress site.

So you've downloaded blockpress and installed the files in a web directory. You have the default site welcome message displaying. You will of course want to customise this.

First make a copy of the config.json and rename it local_config.json. Whilst you could just edit the default config.json, any changes would be overwritten on upgrade, whereas changes in your local_config.json will always be preserved.

Editing the file...

So a first look at the file might be daunting, especially if you aren't familiar with JSON format. If you are there are some fields that are easy to edit, such as "sitetitle" and "tagline", but others are less obvious:

{
  "sitetitle": "Blockpress.me",
  "tagline":"The CMS with blockchains for its database...",
  "palette": "chocorange",
  "theme": "metaverse",

  "themeoptions": {
    "banner_image": "",
	"site_image": ""
  },

  "modules": ["static","steem"],

  "firstpage": {"type": "static", "args": ["content/default/welcome_to_blockpress.html"]},

  "menu": [
    {"label": "Home", "type": "static", "args": "content/default/welcome_to_blockpress.html"},
	{"label": "Anton's Posts", "type": "steem", "args": {"show":"posts", "user":"antonchanning", "tag":"blockpress", "count":10}},
	{"label": "Dana's Posts", "type": "steem", "args": {"show":"posts", "user":"dana-varahi", "tag":"blockpress", "count":10}}
  ],

  "socialmenu": {
	"steemit": "https://steemit.com/trending/blockpress",
	"github": "https://github.com/blockpress/blockpress.me",
	"linkedin": "",
	"twitter": "",
	"facebook": "",
	"gplus": "",
	"stackoverflow": "",
	"link_url": "https://blockpress.me",
	"email": ""
  },

  "dateformat": {"locale": "en-US", "options":{ "weekday": "long", "year": "numeric", "month": "long", "day": "numeric" }}
}

The fields

Site title and tagline

Let us go through all the fields. sitetitle and tagline are for the name of the site, plus an optional slogan or phrase. If you don't want a tagline, give it a blank value like this:

  "sitetitle": "Your site title",
  "tagline":"",

Theme and palette

Next we come across the theme and palette options. Theme controls the layout, and whilst you can create your own custom themes, BlockPress also comes with four built in themes to get you started. These are metaverse, trollfell, fluxstate and amber. Our naming convention for official themes is fictional and mythological places. Our first four come from 'Snow Crash', 'Troll Fell', 'Shadowrun' and 'The Chronicles of Amber'. We should note that fluxstate and amber are still under active development and are subject to change.

So far two of our themes, metaverse and trollfell also support palettes, which is to say the same layout can combine with a range of colour combinations. Whilst you can also create your own palettes, BlockPress comes with four predefined palettes that you can use with these themes. The names of the predefined palettes are cherrypie, chocorange, pumpkinpie and vanilla. Our naming convention for official palettes is themed on desserts and sweets.

If you chose a theme that supports palettes:

  "palette": "vanilla",
  "theme": "trollfell",

If you chose a theme that has a built in palette:

  "palette": "",
  "theme": "fluxstate",

Theme options

Some themes will display a banner image and/or a site image if you provide a valid url for the images you want to use.

  "themeoptions": {
    "banner_image": "https://steemit-production-imageproxy-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/DQmUgGiwvvq39ig4UbY1GXYNboTjQtS4QiRiy5kEPanu4KZ",
    "site_image": "https://anton.blockpress.me/theme/anton/img/anton.jpg"
  },

Modules

Any modules you use on your site should be listed in this array. This includes custom modules that you create yourself. If you do not intend to use a module, it is best not to list it here as all modules listed will be loaded.

  "modules": ["static","steem"],

If you want to load some static content as one of your pages you will need the static module. If you plan to pull content from the steem blockchain, you will need the steem module. BlockPress also comes with a third built in module, link. You will need to add this one if you want one of your menu items to take you outside of your blockpress site.

First page and menus

BlockPress will not load any content when the page first loads unless you instruct it to. You do that by providing a content object value to the firstpage property.

  "firstpage": {"type": "static", "args": ["content/default/welcome_to_blockpress.html"]},

These same content objects appear in the menu array, only with the addition of a label:

  "menu": [
    {"label": "Home", "type": "static", "args": "content/default/welcome_to_blockpress.html"},
    {"label": "Anton's Posts", "type": "steem", "args": {"show":"posts", "user":"antonchanning", "tag":"blockpress", "count":10}},
    {"label": "Dana's Posts", "type": "steem", "args": {"show":"posts", "user":"dana-varahi", "tag":"blockpress", "count":10}}
  ],

Anatomy of a content object:

• label Used as the word that appears on the menu button.
• type Name of the module that returns the content.
• args An object containing the arguments that you will pass to the module. Can be a string if the module accepts a single argument.

The static module accepts a single argument, a string with the relative path to the content file you want it to load. Whilst this will likely be a html file, it will in fact not be a complete html file, as it will only define those tags that are to appear inside the <div id="contentArea"></div>(see contentArea reference).

The steem module is a bit more complex and has its own properties:

• show Type of steem content you want to display. Valid values include profile, post and posts.
• username This is the steem username related to the content you wish to display. For now only a single username is supported and it is required. In future the posts value for show will allow no username and multiple usernames. For a show type of profile these are the only two arguments you need.
• tag Only used with a show type of posts. Can be blank. If defined will limit the post listing to only those that match the specified tag.
• count Only used with a show type of posts. Will limit the number of posts displayed in one listing to the number defined.
• permlink Only used with a show type of post. Basically the post id you wish to load.

Social menu

Most of the themes support the concept of a social menu. Define relevant links to profiles, groups and pages on various social media platforms related to the content of your site, and they will appear in the social menu part of the theme you used. Often in the footer or side bar.

Date format

Defines how dates are displayed on your site.