## Overview
BiaWeb2 is a static site generator written in C++, that takes a directory tree
-of documents (in Markdown format - more on that later) and outputs a website
-with the same tree structure, based on a set of templates.
+of documents (in Markdown format - more on that later) and outputs a complete website
+with the same tree structure and proper navigation, based on a set of templates.
BiaWeb2 supports infinite nesting level of source sub-directories, with
each directory representing a "category". Thus, a website can have (say)
scons
If successful, you should get an executable file `biaweb2` in the same directory
-If not, check whether you have installed all the requirements.
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+If not, check whether you have installed all the requirements.
+
+## Usage
+
+### Getting started
+
+Once you have successfully compiled BiaWeb2, you will want to create your website.
+
+
+
+1. First create a base directory for your entire website project (including sources,
+ templates, static resources like images etc.) Replace `~/path/to/mywebsite` with
+ your own path.
+
+ ````
+ mkdir ~/path/to/mywebsite
+ cd ~/path/to/mywebsite
+ ````
+
+2. Copy the default template from the BiaWeb2 source directory to your website path
+
+ ````
+ cp -r /path/to/biaweb2/templates ~/path/to/mywebsite/
+ ````
+3. Create a source directory that will hold your website contents. Name this directory
+ as "Home" or similar (this name will be used as the base name of your website)
+
+ ````
+ mkdir ~/path/to/mywebsite/Home
+ ````
+
+4. Now you can add all the categories within this folder. Let's say you want a section
+ for blogs. Create a directory called _Blog_ within the _Home_ folder
+
+ ````
+ mkdir ~/path/to/mywesbite/Home/Blog
+ ````
+
+5. Under each category you can create the regular content as text files, with the following
+ simple format (title, description, keywords, creation date/time followed by
+ the markdown text. Each of title, description, keywords and creation date/time lives
+ in its own line):
+
+ ````
+ Title of the article
+ some description of the article
+ keywords,keyword 1,keyword2
+ 2020-05-20 18:00 UTC
+ markdown contents of the document
+ ...
+ ````
+ Here, the first line is the title, followed by description on the second line, keywords on
+ the third line and date/time of creation of the article (in YYYY-MM-DD HH:II Z format). If
+ the format of date/time differs, BiaWeb2 will issue a warning when generating the website
+ and you will have a wrong date/time stamp on the article in the generated page. All four
+ (title, description, keywords and creation date/time are mandatory).
+
+6. Using the above format, add as many documents as you want within the created categories.
+ There is no special file extension required as BiaWeb2 will read all the files in the
+ source directories. However, you can conventionally use the `.md` extension to allow your
+ favourite text editor to recognize the file as markdown and provide syntax highlighting
+ and/or completion etc. You can keep adding more categories and articles as you wish.
+ Note that, symbolic links will not get followed by BiaWeb2 and hence keep all the files
+ as regular text files.
+
+7. You can optionally have a special named `index.md` or `index` file in every folder (case
+ sensitive though the file extension does not matter) to describe the index page
+ generated by BiaWeb2. The content of this file is pure Markdown and will be
+ shown as a summary on the __index.html__ page generated by BiaWeb2 under each folder
+ (category). Apart from the content of the `index` file, the generated __index.html__ file
+ will also automatically create links to the articles under the category and the links
+ to the sub-categories. For example, under the _Home_ folder we can create and index.md
+ file with the following content:
+
+ ````
+ # Hello and Welcome to my website
+
+ Hello and welcome to my website. Here you can find my writings on various topics.
+ Please explore the various categories more information
+ ````
+
+ The above will be used as a "summary" to describe the category.
+
+### Setting up the templates
+
+The _templates_ folder have the following files:
+
+* doclistitem.tpl.html
+* doclist.tpl.html
+* genericlinklistitem.tpl.html
+* genericlistitem.tpl.html
+* __main.tpl.html__
+* navigationbit.tpl.html
+* __rssitem.tpl.xml__
+* __rss.tpl.xml__
+* sidebar.tpl.html
+* stringbits.txt
+* style.tpl.css
+
+The minimum required files to be edited to get your website working are __main.tpl.html__,
+__rssitem.tpl.xml__ and __rss.tpl.xml__ as those files need your website URL in
+the right places to work properly. The __style.tpl.css__ file is also of interest if you
+want to modify the default look and feel of your site.
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projects / biaweb2.git / blobdiff